Pashinyan Does Not Assess Measures Against Potential Large-Scale War as Sufficient

During the 44-day war, shortcomings were not fully studied. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this in the National Assembly while responding to the inquiry of Civil Contract faction member Hovik Azaryan regarding whether the shortcomings during the war and mistakes in certain areas were studied at the necessary level, and whether the country is sufficiently prepared for a potential large-scale war.

“Of course, we have not studied everything in full,” said the Prime Minister. Pashinyan mentioned that when the peaceful Velvet Revolution occurred in 2018, their political team had the approach of not appointing anyone from their political team to positions in the army. “The Minister was a member of the previous government, previously the first deputy minister, and at the time of the revolution, the Minister of Emergency Situations (David Tonoyan - Ed.) We did not appoint anyone from our political team to the Ministry of Defense or the army because we thought that the army is, after all, another family, and we should not interfere too much in the internal issues of that family, understanding that there is a danger and that escalation could occur at any moment, and with this awareness, we did not do it,” said the Prime Minister.

He declared that only a few days after the 44-day war, he learned that there was an issue with helmets and bulletproof vests in the army. “Well, we were giving hundreds of millions of dollars, buying weapons, was it difficult to procure a helmet or a bulletproof vest? These are all systemic failures, and I believe we need to go to the end and clarify what is what,” emphasized the Prime Minister.

Pashinyan stated that he does not assess the actions being taken to confront potential large-scale manifestations as sufficient. “Our army is in the most difficult phase because the phase of transformation is always the hardest. What we need to do and the reforms we need to implement are a very difficult road, but we also need to understand that there are certain objective limitations there and we must do everything to overcome those limitations. This is why I decided that the Minister of Defense should be a representative of the political team, and I now regret in retrospect that I did not make that decision sooner. But I am not sure that it should have been done from the very beginning,” said Prime Minister Pashinyan.