"For Us, the Path is One": Ohanyan

The current government has dismantled the army, lowered its combat readiness, and there are serious shortcomings, especially in the management system. Seyran Ohanyan, the former Minister of Defense and head of the Armenia parliamentary group, stated this in an interview with News.am at Yerablur.

It should be noted that today marks the 7th anniversary of the April War, and members of the Armenia parliamentary group visited Yerablur.

"The current government's program states that the circumstances of the 44-day war should be examined, but two years have passed, and what have they done? Nothing, while they only blame the army. There needs to be an assessment of what the legislative and executive bodies did regarding state and military management during the war. We must understand what the judicial bodies accomplished," he said.

Ohanyan assured that, for instance, during his tenure, they imported 1,500 shipments of weapons and military equipment, mainly from Russia. According to him, representatives of the current government, when talking about the army's armaments, should conduct an analysis.

Regarding the border situation, Ohanyan stated that it has been tense and will always remain tense. The situation has changed after the 44-day war, and the adversary is continually increasing pressure on Armenia and Artsakh.

He noted that the current geopolitical situation is such that regional developments could also be influenced by global events, which our adversaries are taking advantage of: "The adversary is currently working not only on the depopulation of Artsakh but is also tightening the noose around the Republic of Armenia to achieve what they are fighting for—to occupy better positions in the line of boundary delineation and to secure a corridor. For us, the path is one: serious work must be done on the formation of a security system, and for that, there need to be national and international guarantees."

According to him, national guarantees include our army, economy, unity, and law enforcement agencies, while international guarantees involve a comprehensive foreign policy with serious negotiation processes.