Shortly after the change of government in 2018, Nikol Pashinyan, in a meeting with representatives of the Polish company Lubawa SA, which produces armor for the Armed Forces, accused the company of cooperating with the previous government, after which Lubawa decided to leave Armenia, Poland's former ambassador to Armenia, Jerzy Nowakowski, told NEWS.am about the liquidation of an Armenian company.
The first Armenian-Polish joint military-industrial enterprise, founded in October 2014 on the basis of the Charentsavan Machine-Tool Plant, according to the former ambassador, could not work as planned due to various factors, and after a meeting with Pashinyan a final decision was made to leave Armenia.
"The Armenian revolution of 2018 inspired hope for the activation of Lubawa and the strengthening of business cooperation. Lubawa decided to leave Armenia after a meeting with Pashinyan, during which he accused the company of collaborating with the previous government and said that the company could not expect the trust of a new 'revolutionary' team," said Jerzy Novakowski.
It was envisaged that Lubawa -Armenia would be engaged in the modernization and repair of production facilities, as well as in the production of modern multifunctional camouflage technologies - false targets, other technical tents, helmets, body armor, camouflage nets.
According to the former Polish ambassador to Armenia, the decision of the Polish company to invest in Armenia received great support from the then Polish government, especially by Minister Bogdan Klich (now a senator). It was the agreement reached between him and the then Minister of Defense of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan that laid the foundation for the investment program.
"It was conditioned by the support provided by Poland to Armenia in its efforts to achieve rapprochement with the European Union and the West as a whole that the Polish government had decided to support the investment program. We decided that by setting up a defense plant, which was the first such investment in the CSTO, we would give a clear signal of confidence to Armenia. It was also a gesture in the hope that Yerevan, using the tools of the Eastern Partnership, will quickly move closer to the West," said Jerzy Novakowski, who was appointed ambassador to Armenia a few months after the founding of Lubawa-Armenia.
The former ambassador said that in the following years, however, the hope that Yerevan, using the tools of the Eastern Partnership, would quickly get closer to the West, has diminished. According to the former ambassador, the reason is that on the one hand the Armenian authorities (personally President Serzh Sargsyan) have repeatedly referred to the example of Lubawa as proof of their ties with the West, but on the other hand the company did not receive orders, gave small quantities of products.
"It seemed that Lubawa's products - armor and camouflage equipment (including excellent tank models) and medical equipment - fully met Armenia's needs. And, frankly, I do not know whether the relatively high prices of Lubawa's products were the reason for the failure of this project or the political factors," said the former ambassador, noting that the political atmosphere had also deteriorated during that time. "Since 2016, the Polish governments have been focusing on deepening cooperation with Turkey and Azerbaijan, considering Armenia as a close ally of Russia."
Jerzy Nowakowski said that in those conditions the political relations between Poland and Armenia had weakened, and the private company Lubawa, not feeling the support of the Polish government and not having the opportunity to make a profit from the Armenian joint venture, began to consider liquidating the investments.
"I confess that several times I had to persuade the owners of Lubawa not to leave Armenia," the former ambassador said.
According to Jerzy Novakowski, then-Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan also promised orders from the army at a meeting with the company's management, but it did not happen. The Ambassador completed his diplomatic work in Armenia in the summer of 2017. According to him, the events of 2018 and the change of government gave the company hope for the activation of Lubawa, which, however, did not happen. The company decided to leave Armenia after the meeting of the leadership with Nikol Pashinyan.
Back in 2019, 168.am news agency sent a request to the Ministry of High-Tech Industry, asking to explain why Lubawa -Armenia left, in response to which the ministry said that the decision was conditioned exclusively by economic circumstances.
The topic of Lubawa -Armenia leaving Armenia became active especially after the war, when it became known that there were not enough armors for the servicemen. Nikol Pashinyan announced in June last year that after the start of the war he learned that there was a problem with the body armor and helmet in the army.
