We Did Not Arm the Army with Strawberries: Secretary of the Security Council.

After the government meeting, we clarified yesterday with the Secretary of the National Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, whether he shares all the ideas expressed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in his political statements from the podium. In response, Grigoryan said that Nikol Pashinyan is his leader, and he is guided by his statements.

We then asked whether he agrees with Pashinyan's statement from the National Assembly podium where he referred to Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, saying, "You are the traitors, you are the land sellers, you are the capitulators." Grigoryan replied shortly: "Absolutely." When we inquired if he could provide evidence that Kocharyan and Sargsyan had betrayed the country, signed a capitulation document, or given away land, the Secretary of the Security Council was unable to substantiate his claims, repeating the worn-out thesis that the former leaders did not arm the army.

"I can provide evidence that led to this. The Prime Minister has mentioned this; you know that Nagorno-Karabakh has been removed from the negotiation process, Serzh Sargsyan wanted to sign in Kazan in 2011, but of course, Azerbaijan did not sign. Since then, Armenia has rejected its demands, and they, failing to fulfill their collective responsibility, have brought the country to a situation where Azerbaijan continued to increase its military budget, while Armenia did not make any steps in that direction," he said.

- But during that time, you were 'arming' the army with strawberries.
- Wait a minute, we did not arm with strawberries; we will soon publish what our government did from 2018 to 2020 compared to 2016-2018. We increased supplies in almost all directions.

- So why did we lose?
- We lost because the same pace of work was not carried out in the past 10-20 years.

- You have no blame, in fact, during these three years?
- In 2017, the military budget was about 207 billion; the first year we adopted a budget was for 2019, and we made that budget 309 billion, and this has been reflected in almost all areas of armaments. We have acquired modern weaponry. Let me put it this way: if, during Serzh Sargsyan’s administration from 2016-2018, any type of weapon was acquired, let’s say 50 units, we definitely acquired more than 300.

- If we had such a powerful arsenal, why did we lose? Why did you give up Artsakh, despite all that?
- No response was heard," the newspaper writes.