We did not want to talk about this topic before; why do we want to talk about it now? Because now peace has been established; we can talk. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during his concluding speech at the National Assembly debates on the 2026 state budget draft of Armenia on Wednesday—and regarding military expenditures.

“The entire increase in [Armenia’s] public debt from 2018 to 2024 or 2025 has been connected with the defense sector; there have been 4.4 billion [US] dollars in capital expenditures in that sector. Haven’t they seen that number? How could they not have seen it?

The next direction in which the [public] debt [of Armenia] increased is related to expenses for Karabakh refugees and unplanned functions connected with Karabakh. There is no other story behind this and simply does not exist,” the Armenian premier added.