Davit Tonoyan, who served as Armenia’s Defense Minister during the 2020 Artsakh war, says he still wants to testify before a parliamentary fact-finding committee investigating the Armenian military defeat.

Tonoyan, who once boasted that Armenia would capture more Azerbaijani territory in any new war, was fired as defense minister imediately after the war. He was arrested in September 2021 as part of a criminal probe regarding the supply of defective ammunition to the country’s military and remains in detention.

Tonoyan, in a public statement issued today, claims the committee rejected his petition to hold an open-door session in which he and Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan would jointly appear.

Pashinyan recently testified before the committee. On June 20, Pashinyan claimed he agreed to start talks to end hostilities three days before the November 9 ceasefire but only if Baku agreed to exchange the region of Hadrut with Askeran. Pashinyan said he was compelled to sign the November 9 ceasefire because Azerbaijani troops had occupied the town of Shushi and threatened the Karabakh capital of Stepanakert, a few kilometers away.

Tonoyan says despite his reservations about the committee’s objectivity and non-partisan disposition, he wants to set the record straight on several issues.

The former defense minister argues the public has the right to hear from all officials serving at the time.  

Armenia’s opposition parliamentary factions have boycotted the work of the fact-finding commission whose mandate is soon to expire.