Pashinyan to Sargsyan: The air defense you left was "scrap metal"

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in a series of posts on his social media pages, has responded to the recent statements by the third President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, addressing criticisms voiced regarding the 44-day war, the army's combat readiness, air defense systems, and the negotiation process. The Prime Minister not only refuted the accusations against him but also made counter-accusations against the former authorities, promising to publish key documents of the negotiation process by the end of the year.

"The Air Defense System You Left Was Scrap Metal"

Responding to Serzh Sargsyan's observation that it was incomprehensible how half of the air defense assets could be lost in the very first hours of the 44-day war, Nikol Pashinyan stated that the air defense system inherited in 2018 was "scrap metal." "What is there not to understand? The air defense system you left, not the individual assets, but the air defense system as a whole was scrap metal. Literally scrap metal," he wrote. According to the Prime Minister, the allies responded to Armenia's requests to modernize that system with a "three-finger combination." He claims that the former authorities received the same treatment: "They showed you a three-finger combination too, otherwise, instead of scrap metal, there would have been something else in 2018." In Pashinyan's assessment, the allies provided only "one or two symbolic things," which constituted 0.1 percent of what was needed, just to have the opportunity to point to it later.

He also noted that non-allied countries also refused to provide weapons, pointing to two main circumstances:

1. Armenia's membership in the CSTO.

2. The fear that the provided assets could be deployed in places that are not the sovereign territory of Armenia.

The Prime Minister concluded this topic by stating that his government tried to acquire what was possible, guided by the advice of high-ranking military officials appointed by the previous authorities. He also extended an invitation to Serzh Sargsyan for a live debate.

Negotiation Process Documents Will Be Published

In response to Serzh Sargsyan's statements about the negotiation documents, Nikol Pashinyan promised to publish the key documents of the negotiation history, including those from 2019, by the end of the year. "Don't you worry at all. I have arranged the key papers of the negotiation history (including 2019), we are now scanning them and I will publish them by the end of the year," he noted. Pashinyan added that among the documents will be a letter written by Serzh Sargsyan.

The Real State of the Army in 2018: Pashinyan cites Sargsyan himself

Pashinyan also addressed the impression that his government had "dismantled the army" between 2018 and 2020. As a counter-argument, he quoted Serzh Sargsyan's speech in the National Assembly on April 17, 2018, when the latter, as a candidate for prime minister, spoke about the need for army reforms.

Serzh Sargsyan's speech, as quoted by Pashinyan, is as follows: "The next lesson is that for a very long time we must pay the greatest attention to the reform of our armed forces, the acquisition of new armaments, the production of our own armaments..." Pashinyan emphasizes that if the state of the army were really good, then in 2018 Sargsyan should have spoken not in the future tense, but in the past tense, mentioning the work already done. "Well, if even a small part of what you said about the army after 2020 was true, you should have said something else in 2018," he notes. The Prime Minister's conclusion is that this quote proves that Serzh Sargsyan was well aware of the very serious problems in the army. "So why didn't you say so? Because you knew that instead of an army, you had a system for siphoning gasoline and diesel from tanks with a hose as of 2018, and not an army," Nikol Pashinyan concluded.