YEREVAN. – This war showed that military industry should have been the sector that could have ensured the rear for the army—in terms of important ammunition. Robert Kocharyan, the second President and leader of the “Armenia” bloc—which will run in the snap parliamentary elections on June 20—, stated this during a meeting with the residents and this bloc’s active members at three administrative districts of the capital Yerevan, in connection with the reasons for the defeat of the Armenian side in the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war last fall.

"We saw that we were surrounded by countries even the use of airspace of which was quite problematic for us. We have had a serious import problem for three weeks.

This was a very difficult lesson for Armenia. But if we do not learn something from here, if we do not considerably change our policy on military industry, we will be left in the same former miserable condition. Yes, we have to do [that]!

It is clear that a small country [like Armenia] cannot deal with all types of weapons; but we are able to do it with several key, modernized types. There are countries of our size that have brilliant results in the military industrial sector. We must have a major military-industrial complex," said the second President.