Ex-president accuses Armenian authorities of inability to manage army

Armenia used only 50 per cent of its army personnel in the 44-day war of 2020, and it is unclear why the other half was not used.

The country’s former president (third) Serzh Sargsyan made the comments speaking to journalists on March 7, according to Sputnik Armenia.

Having been defence minister and then president for many years, Sargsyan believes that, contrary to accusations by the incumbent leadership, Armenia had a "good-quality" army, capable of fulfilling its tasks.

"The current rulers like to compare everything to cars. If we talk in these categories, there is no doubt that the Armenian army was not and could not have been a ‘Mercedes’, if only because of the decades-long history of the ‘Mercedes’. But our army can be compared to a good, normal car that performed its functions," Sargsyan said.

According to the ex-president, in the language of metaphors, the "machine" - the army - is run by people who not only do not have a "driving licence", but do not know how to drive: “The car in such a case will inevitably roll into the gorge, and has rolled down.”

"The authorities brag about high defence spending [this year's spending is planned at $1.2 billion], forgetting that the dollar in 2023 is not the same as it was in 1994, 2004 or 2014. In fact, Armenia has not received any military and technical support since 2018," said the former head of state.

During his presidency, i.e. until 2018, a huge amount of arms and military equipment was purchased. These weapons were enough to make the outcome of the war different, the former president believes.

"You see that now Russia is using all the same nomenclature that we had as well during the hostilities with Ukraine. You see, you have to know how to use weapons," he said.

The ex-president reiterated that in the 44-day war, Armenia didn’t use the most powerful weapons systems. If they had been used in time, the situation would have been different.