April 6, 2026
Official deputy Hayk Sargsyan blames various government circles, including Defense Minister Suren Papikyan, for not creating proper conditions in the army. Today in the National Assembly, after his project “getting rid of the army with money” was not accepted by the committee, Sargsyan had a rather sharp briefing with journalists.
“For two years, I have been asking the Minister of Defense, saying: in the army, the troops bathe once a week, let’s create an opportunity, let them bathe every day. What caused the problem in 2024? during our closed meeting, one of the deputies asked the minister a question, because we had a death from pneumonia in the army, maybe he had bathed in cold water, the minister said that it is not only in our army that they bathe once a week, it is like that in many armies. I have studied the experience of dozens of armies, soldiers in many countries bathe every day, in Armenia, in several African countries and in such underdeveloped countries, they bathe once a week,” said Sargsyan.
According to him, although there have been improvements in some places, bathing once a week has been maintained. He suggested the army chief to bathe once a week to be on equal terms. He said that this is the first time he is saying this publicly, because he doesn’t know what to do anymore.
Deputy Minister of Defense Arman Sargsyan, for his part, stated during the briefing that he does not deal with the issue of bathing soldiers in his official capacity.
“There are areas of coordination in the Ministry of Defense, and I don’t know which soldier takes a bath when. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I think we don’t have any unwashed soldiers.
Turning to the journalist’s question, how correct is it to publish information about the number of the army and its internal life, when it becomes available to the enemy as well, Hayk Sargsyan noted that all this has not been a secret for a long time.
“2019 when I said that the number of troops has increased from 44 to 25, the General Staff, the Ministry of Defense, they said, “Wow, the enemy will know, our number has decreased”, I said, “We have a problem, we need to speak up to solve it.” After a few months, 2020 took place. the disastrous war, and after that the former Minister of Defense said that the enemy followed the entire movement 24/7, not only knew absolute numbers, but also nominally knew the locations of commanders, army leadership, important units and made target shootings,” said Sargsyan.
He announced that the locations of our troops, the supply routes, the positions, etc., have all been observed, are being observed, and will be observed. He added that the issue that the enemy knew everything was discussed at the session of the investigating commission of the 44-day war.
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