Armenian premier would issue orders to Aliyev if he had purchased  $8bln worth arms - Mihran Hakobyan 

ArmInfo. Former National Assembly member and PhD in history Mihran Hakobyan reminds us that public debt, both domestic and foreign, is formed based on clear programs and international agreements. "Nikol (Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan - ed.) is lying when he says he shifted the  $8 billion debt onto the shoulders of the state, that is, the  taxpayers of the Republic of Armenia, for the purchase of weapons,"  he writes on social media.

As a reminder, Armenia's public debt in 2017 was 3.28 trillion drams,  or $6.77 billion (Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan came to power as a  result of the 2018 "velvet revolution" - ed.). In September 2025, it  had risen to 5.43 trillion drams ($14.20 billion). On November 13,  Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan explained the sharp rise in the  country's public debt in parliament by citing weapons purchases and  COVID-19. "And they're blaming us, saying, 'Why has the foreign debt  risen to $8 billion? What did we do with those funds?' I didn't want  to say, but I will - we bought weapons. We bought weapons on credit  because we needed a lot of weapons all at once," Pashinyan said.

"He's lying because the debt structure is publicly available, and  anyone can see the terms and purposes of the debtors' borrowing of $8  billion. Moreover, anyone who wants to can see from public sources  that the debt was taken out primarily so Nikol could pay salaries to  the government apparatus and bonuses for his gang and the cops."

Nikol's lies are horrific because it reveals he lost the debt war and  capitulated. He surrendered Artsakh, and in return saddled taxpayers  with another $8 billion debt. "This isn't a lie; it's theater of the  absurd," Hakobyan notes.

In fact, he continues, if Nikol Pashinyan had bought weapons with  those $8 billion, today "he would be giving orders to Aliyev, not the  other way around." "He bought $8 billion worth of weapons to do what-  lick the Turks' boots," concludes Migran Hakobyan.

According to the draft state budget for 2026, Armenia's public debt  will increase by 695 billion drams ($1.82 billion) by the end of  2025, reaching 5 trillion 820 billion drams, or 52.9% of GDP, and by  the end of 2026, it will reach 6 trillion 569 billion drams  (approximately $17.1 billion, or -382.61 drams), or 55% of GDP. The  share of foreign currency debt will also continue to increase. In  2026, 1 trillion 053 billion drams will be required to repay and  service the public debt, of which 629.8 billion drams will be debt  payments and 423.2 billion drams will be interest payments, compared  to the expected budget estimate of 3 trillion 91 billion drams. That  is, out of every three drams earned, one dram is paid to creditors.  As economists note, the public debt has not only doubled but has also  become the main "breathing apparatus" of the Armenian budget.