Shameless Lie: Serzh Sargsyan Responds to Pashinyan's Claims on Armenian Military Equipment

The third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, responded to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's assertion that the current government acquired more weapons during 2018-2020 than were obtained in the preceding ten years, during a conversation with reporters.

This claim, as highlighted by Sargsyan, is a shameless lie that epitomizes the behavior and essence of the current rulers. “The strongest trait of Armenia’s current rulers is their lack of shame; they can look others in the eye and lie without the slightest embarrassment,” said Sargsyan.

Sargsyan pointed out that the current government has only made two true statements, both of which resulted in catastrophic consequences. “In my opinion, they have said only two truths, or rather, made two statements they have adhered to. The first was that they would 'make fools' of themselves and disregard the Madrid Principles, using coarse language, which they indeed did. The second was their statement on the first day of the war that they would not consider themselves defeated, regardless of the outcome. And you have seen what calamities these two declarations brought upon our country,” Sargsyan emphasized.

The former president also detailed the military equipment acquired by Armenia in the past. “Regarding armaments, without revealing too much, let me say this: during the period he (Pashinyan) mentioned, we likely used more ammunition for combat readiness than they acquired during those two years. I want to remind those who are either unaware or have memory loss that during that timeframe, we were the only ones in the region to have S-300 divisions, we had long-range missiles, we acquired over 100 heavy armored vehicles, and hundreds of modern air defense systems, we secured tens of thousands of large-caliber munitions, and we procured over a hundred million in small arms ammunition, not to mention the Iskander and other powerful weapons,” Sargsyan stated.

According to him, the current government has only acquired airplanes, which did not yield any benefits, as well as several dozen old and devalued munitions. “Instead of babbling abstract things, they can calmly state how much they have acquired over these 10 or 20 years, and we can say how much we have acquired,” Sargsyan added.

He noted that a knowledgeable person who understands military affairs knows how to compare armaments and munitions effectively. “The truth is that during those 2018-2020 years, significantly more money was allocated to defense, but were those allocations used purposefully, or were they squandered? We had much fewer opportunities for acquisitions, but we also had significant opportunities, and we used them to the fullest for obtaining military-technical support,” he concluded.