Pashinyan 'must be held accountable' for his lies, former defense minister says

In an interview with Tert.am, former Minitster of Defense Seyran Ohanyan criticized the prime minister’s recent remark questioning the combat efficiency of the Iskander missiles purchased from the Russian Federation.

He called for holding Nikol Pashinyan "accountable" for the controversial statement voiced in an interview with 1in.am. According to Ohanyan, the incumbent premier “is too far from permitting himself to speak about Iskander”. Instead, he recommended turning to specialists for detailed evaluations. 

Mr. Ohanyan, Nikol Pashinyan said in his remarks - while commenting on third President Serzh Sargsyan’s statement expressing surprise that ‘Iskander wasn’t used on the third or fourth day of the war’ - that it would perhaps be more correct to respond to the question why the used Iskander didn’t explode or exploded only by 10 %. What would you say on the kind of statement? What does “exploding by 10%” mean?

Let me say, first of all, that Pashinyan isn’t the specialist to give an evauation to the technical capacities and military applicability of Iskander. The corresponding professionals at the Armed Forces’ Rocket-Artillery Division are specializing in that. They are the professionals who went to Russia in the initial phase of the process of purchasing Iskander to test it in all aspects, checking the technical state of both the system and the missiles. I also think that the Ministry of Defense and the division developed a plan, over the past years, for the maintenance of Iskander both technically and in terms of combat efficiency testing, i.e. – through different coaching activities and military exercises. Iskander was in a normal state upon acceptance – as attested by the corresponding specialists at the Ministry of Defense and the General Headquarters.

Iskander, as seen in plan developed by the Armed Forces, is designed to strike key objects under the adversary’s control.

As regards the “10% explosion”, I don’t know what it means … All I can say is Nikol Pashinyan is the person who is too far from giving an evaluation to the general [technical] state of Iskander.

Mr. Ohanyan, are the Defense Ministry and the General Headquarters required to issue a clarifying statement?

The Ministry of Defense is in a non-convenient or oppressed state after the defeat [in the Nagorno-Karabakh war] – also due to the border situation, as well as the problems in terms of re-establishing the Armed Forces’ combat efficiency and getting it on the regular track. Secondly, they are under the subordination of feeble and ‘unhealthy’ authorities, and this is actually why they are silent. But it is better for specialists to give their comments.