I believed that we would win; if I believed that we would win, it does not mean that I deceived someone. Artsrun Hovhannisyan, a representative of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, stated this in an interview Monday, when asked why he was deceiving the people that the Armenian side would win the recent Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war.

He added that until the day of the fall of Shushi, Artsakh, he believed that the Armenian side would win. "I have believed [in that] throughout the whole war. The whole nation is confident that the regular army, the average officer staff, the regular troops fought gloriously; and I presented that (…). I based myself on them," Hovhannisyan said.

To the question as to how it was possible for the Azerbaijanis to enter "unassailable" Shushi through the winding roads leading to this city, he responded as follows: "I do not know; there are things I, too, do not understand. I would advise let’s look at the situation in a clear-headed manner. (…) I try to study the war every day (…). I, too, cannot understand some things, including about Shushi. (…). On November 8, (…), there was information from the same Ministry of Defense that we were virtually 'cleaning up' the city. We were expecting to 'have clean up,' be finished in the morning of the 9th [of November]; but on the 9th, what happened happened."

Also, Artsrun Hovhannisyan denied the reports that he had met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's wife, Anna Hakobyan, during the war.