YEREVAN. – The conclusions have been made and submitted to the President, in terms of increasing our  capacity. 

The Minister of Emergency Situations of Armenia, Davit Tonoyan, on Thursday told about the aforementioned to reporters, as he reflected on the firefighting efforts at the forests nearby Artavan village and at Khosrov Forest State Reserve national park.

He recalled that they were working on two “theater stages,” as parallel work was carried out for two days at these two wildfire areas. 

“But the strong wind and the [difficult] terrain were obstructing,” Tonoyan added. 

When asked why Armenian officials asked for Russia’s help solely after several days since these fires had started, the minister responded: “The calculations were made in terms of time, and we immediately petitioned to the Russian side for help. The initial assessment [of the fires] did not allow to ask for such an [firefighting waterbomber] aircraft [from Russia]. Once the forest—not the grass cover—started burning, we immediately petitioned.”