On the first Republic Day of Armenia, May 28, Nikol Pashinyan will direct the attention of the citizens of Armenia to Republic Square. a weapons show-report will be organized.

On May 11, in a briefing with journalists within the framework of the campaign, he stated that all citizens should be in the Republic Square on May 28 and see with their own eyes the weapons purchased in recent years and record the army of new logic created by their government. We have written more than once about what this implies in terms of content, so we will not touch on it this time.

Of course, any acquisition of armaments that can contribute to the increase of the combat capability of the army is gratifying, but another question is whether any purchase is the result of complex calculations. In other words, are the assessments made from the point of view of the capabilities to face the expected threats and challenges in the long term, or from the exclusion of war?

The other day, during one of the pre-election meetings, RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan spoke to journalists about the issue of considering the non-classical military parade to be held on May 28 as a mere pre-election event.

“But if it’s all about the work we do, and if it helps any pre-election process, should we give up the work we do?” Of course, we will not refuse. We will show the extent to which we have done work in recent years, because it is a report. We will show all the weapons and military equipment that we have never shown before. The funds acquired during the administration of Prime Minister Pashinyan, which we did not have the opportunity to show to the public. But the main, significant volume refers to the years 2022-2025,” said the head of the defense department.

Does this mean that weapons purchased before 2022 will also be on display on May 28, or will Russian weapons be on display in addition to Indian and French weapons? TOR-M2KM systems, the structure headed by Papikyan did not consider the information requested by us subject to publication. But it is not excluded that the same information, for example, will be known through Nikol Pashinyan on the day of the military parade, let’s say, the relevant footage or information from the rehearsals will be published according to political expediency. Suffering has experience.

Yesterday, Nikol Pashinyan published a short episode of the weapons magazine experiment, where the Armenian-made “DEV-3” reconnaissance strike aircraft are presented, and Suren Papikyan published the footage of the French-made CAESAR self-propelled artillery systems from the military parade.

It should be noted that at the moment, Suren Papikyan and the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia have no intention of ensuring the participation of journalists in the rehearsals of the military parade. Moreover, before the start of the official campaign, a closed meeting was not organized with the Minister of Defense, when there are many professional questions that should be asked to Suren Papikyan, including those related to the purchase of weapons and the military parade.

Therefore, it is natural that only political and internal political conversations are circulating about military issues, and the main author of this is the authorities, Nikol Pashinyan. It is possible that they do not need narrow professional observations during the pre-election period, but only the evaluations of close experts and the admiring expressions of ordinary citizens far from military affairs.

Moreover, there are also good purchases in the armaments to be shown, but it does not change anything in the work of the defense department with the media.

And taking into account that the hero of the May 28 event will not be the army or even the defense minister, but the person of Nikol Pashinyan, is it possible that Pashinyan will decide this? How right or wrong we are in this matter will become clear on May 28, from the level of ensuring the presence of journalists accredited by the Ministry of Defense at the military parade.

For the sake of justice, we can still mention that a closed exhibition of locally produced and acquired weapons samples was properly organized for the media months ago by order of Suren Papikyan, but there was a ban on writing about what was seen.

Later, however, within the framework of the visit of the chief of defense staff of the Indian armed forces to Armenia, Suren Papikyan decided to publicize the samples of weapons produced by Armenia and India.

Specifically, General Anil Chauhan were presented Samples of Indian weapons acquired by Armenia, including the Akash-1S anti-aircraft missile system, the Pinaka rocket launcher, the MArG 155-BR/39 155mm/39 self-propelled howitzer on a 4×4 vehicle chassis, as well as Trajan 155mm towed howitzers manufactured by the Indian L

By the way, immediately after this, the Israeli magazine Globes «Armenia unveils suicide drone resembling IAI’s Harop» with the text article: published, where it is noted that Armenia presented the equivalent of the “Harop” kamikaze ATS developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which caused dissatisfaction in Azerbaijan.

At the same time, Globes, referring to an Israeli defense industry official, hypothesizes that the drone production technology reached Armenia from India, especially when in the context of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” policy, the country requires foreign companies to transfer production lines and technological experience to them.

And since we are talking about Dragonfly‑3 produced by “DAVARO” company drone-kamikaze about, the company responded to the Israeli claims.

Later, the Azerbaijani side only joined the discussions that lasted for several days, and rather cautiously. After a while, the topic was closed.

Now, what about the accountability regarding the military achievements of Pashinyan’s government, which we have been constantly hearing about in recent months. In particular, during one of the pre-election meetings, Suren Papikyan stated again that compared to 2018, the defense expenses in 2025 were 1.1 billion dollars more, that they increased the expenses of the defense sector to 1 billion 700 million dollars instead of 640 million dollars.

“Only in the last 3 years, 5.4 times more was spent on armaments than in 20 years, 1998-2018,” he emphasized.

Earlier, Nikol Pashinyan too had said that $8 billion foreign debt increased because they bought weapons.

But when we tried to find out from the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia by means of written inquiries, how much the state debt increased just for the purchase of weapons, or how much money was spent on the purchase of new and modern weapons after 2022, Suren Papikyan refused to provide the requested information, although Pashinyan stated on one occasion that the opposition could be shown the newly purchased weapons along with the price tags.

“Did we buy weapons on debt? Yes, we bought weapons on debt. Why, because we needed a lot and all at once… Don’t you believe that you have the right? I say, let’s take it, show it, we can also stick price tags on it, which one is worth.” Pashinyan addressed the opposition MPs last fall.

In other words, the citizen does not have the right to know how much the government borrowed for armaments, which it is closing and will close. What accountability? And the RA Ministry of Defense to us? refused also provide data on which countries, apart from Russia, Armenia acquired weapons and military equipment before the 2018 revolution, and what exactly, etc.

P.S. Let’s add that a few days before the elections, on June 3-4, the RISE exhibition will be held at the Sports Concert Complex named after Karen Demirchyan, where mainly the samples of domestically produced weapons of recent years will be presented.

—