Defense Ministry Refuses to Provide Accurate Figures on Occupied Territories in Armenia

The Armenian Ministry of Defense has declined to provide specific data regarding the size of territories occupied by Azerbaijani armed forces, despite conflicting statements from government officials. This was reported by Sputnik Armenia.

Specifically, the head of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Edward Asryan, announced in October 2022 that the Azerbaijani side, by various estimates, had occupied around 130 square kilometers of Armenian territory.

By the end of November 2022, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Azerbaijan had occupied approximately 140 square kilometers of sovereign Armenian territory following three attacks.

Additionally, Armenian National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan claimed in March 2023 that Azerbaijan had illegally occupied around 150 square kilometers of Armenian territory. The same figure was reiterated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, on March 23.

Considering these discrepancies, we inquired with the Ministry of Defense of Armenia to specify the actual and accurate area of the occupied territories.

In response to our inquiry, the Ministry stated, 'We inform you that your request of October 4, 2022, regarding the same matter was answered by a letter from the Ministry of Defense dated October 19, 2022,' signed by Chief Secretary Hamlet Batikyan.

Meanwhile, in October 2022, the Ministry of Defense had refused to answer our inquiry, citing Article 17 of the Law on State and Service Secrets, as well as Title 1, Subpoint 1 of Article 8 of the Law on Freedom of Information (the data contains state or service secrets), and requirements established by decision No. 173 of the Government from 1998 (the data pertains to the strategic deployment of the armed forces, their number, composition, as well as military-political and operational information).

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