Weapons purchased from Russia resold to a third country: ex-ambassador to Vatican Mikayel Minasyan says Armenia engaged in black market of international arms trade

Arshak Karapetyan, former head of the Chief Military Intelligence Department of Armenia’s Armed Forces, incumbent adviser to the RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was secretly sent to Russia on May 23, former ambassador of Armenia to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan said in the 7th part of his “The End of Lie” series on Facebook.

“Nikol Pashinyan directly, together with a Davit Galstyan, are engaged in international arms trade. General Karapetyan left for Moscow to negotiate with the officials of the Russian Ministry of Defense to cover this scandal directly relating to Armenia’s security,” Minasyan said.

He stressed that taking into consideration the country’s security issues, he could not speak fully openly and would be cautious.

“After cigarettes and diamonds, Nikol Pashinyan has engaged Armenia in the black market of international arms trade. Armenia has a right to buy arms from Russia at Russian domestic cost. Armenian and Russian armies may buy from Russian manufacturers the weapons and ammunition with the same price and these prices differ from the international ones up to by 65%. Consequently, as soon as Nikol Pashinyan learnt that the former authorities had managed to negotiate over this delicate issue with his so much disliked and then so much loved Russia, together with his new friend, a Davit Galstyan, the same Patron Davit, they though over and implemented a scheme the basis of which is the following: Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan authorized Davit Galstyan via Defense Ministry and gave him privilege to order on behalf of Armenia, let’s say, 100 units of weapons. Afterwards, Armenia bought from Davit Galstyan’s offshore, let’s say 60 of these 100 types. He paid for these 60 and these 60 came to Armenia. Everything is normal by papers with only one exception the 40, ordered in the very beginning but not paid for, were sent from Russia to third countries with which Davit Galstyan already had an arrangement. For instance, the United Arab Emirates. From a third country the weapons appeared in a forth country. All the specialists know that it is possible to learn the whole history of a weapon by numbers. After the usage of the weapon in the fourth country, Russia learnt that the weapon it sold to Armenia appeared in a fourth country,” Minasyan said.

The ex-ambassador said that for not ruining the relations with Armenia, as Armenia for them is not Nikol Pashinyan, Russia “decided to punish the mafiosies in their way: they declared Davit Galstyan persona non grata and banned his entrance to Russia for ten years, depriving Armenia’s monopolist of an opportunity to buy weapon from the Russian Federation,” Minasyan said.

“Learning that hence he cannot earn money and sell weapon to third countries at Armenia’s expense, Nikol Pashinyan found a new way to continue getting use of the budget of Armenia’s Defense Ministry,” Minasyan noted, stressing that he is speaking about “Osa-AK” type of weapon.

“Do you remember the prime minister saying that the Government of Armenia closed the shameful page of 80s because the weapons they [the incumbent government] purchased is either of 2019 production or not used at all, directly from factory. These super-new and 4th generation weapons were removed from production in 1985. The prime minister of the Republic does not even know what he is saying because they have not purchased Osa-Ak but Osa-AKM, but the labels testifying the real age of these weapons and them being just well restored and painted are removed from all the 35 vehicles. But the Ministry of Defense has not accepted even one for having defects. In Jason authoritative journal the Kingdom of Jordan, from where our heroes purchased Osa, wrote off 51 or 52 air-system vehicles and put on sale but no one purchased them because, according to specialists, this air-system is obsolete as it was produced in early 70s or in better case in early 80s while today’s systems are more contemporary,” Minasyan said.

The former ambassador said Armenia always had Osa-AK and from the very first day the Armed Forces always had and used opportunities to have it free.

“The current authorities do not even know that the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia was offered the same Jordanian Osa-AK but rejected the proposal on the basis of written opinion of experts, because Armenia already had such weapon and had more modern air systems, thus at this phase we do not need them and this sum could have been spent on much more urgent issues,” Minasyan said.

“I am telling what we have. You may visit and see in many specialized websites that very often Greece, Czech Republic and the same Jordan sell this type of weapon as a metal. I am not speaking about the already purchased ones concretely because they may be the functioning ones, but I can state for sure that they do not cost $27 million,” Minasyan said, adding that making not suspicious but disgraceful transaction via an offshore company is just a shame.