14:45, 1 August 2023

YEREVAN, AUGUST 1, ARMENPRESS. Former Minister of Defense Davit Tonoyan has claimed that when he took office in 2018 the Armenian military was capable of withstanding a significantly superior enemy force.

Tonoyan made the remarks in parliament during a session of the 2020 war commission when asked to comment on the state of the military at the time he took office as Defense Minister. He told lawmakers that the Armenian Armed Forces were fit to engage in defensive battles and were capable of withstanding an attack by a twice or three times more superior enemy force, taking into consideration the degree of combat readiness, the geography and positions.

“Why am I saying twice or three times more superior? I mean that in terms of engaging in a defensive battle the readiness degree of the armed forces was satisfactory. This isn’t my assessment, this is a calculated and substantiated information,” Tonoyan said.

Vahagn Alexanyan, an MP representing the Civil Contract party, asked Tonoyan to specify whether the Armenian military was outnumber two or three times in terms of equipment of the Azeri forces when the 2020 war began. Tonoyan clarified that his response was to a question about the state of readiness of the military and not about the ratio of the forces when the war began.