Armenian opposition MP questions absence of Iskander missiles from Yerevan military parade

Armenian opposition lawmaker Tigran Abrahamyan has questioned why the country’s Russian-made Iskander ballistic missile systems were absent from the Republic Day military parade held in Yerevan on May 28, arguing that no comparable weapons system was showcased during the event.

In a social media post on Friday, Abrahamyan, a member of the Pativ Unem faction, described the Iskander operational-tactical missile system as one of Armenia’s most significant strategic assets, capable — depending on the variant — of striking targets at ranges of up to 500 kilometers while evading air defenses through high-altitude flight paths and evasive maneuvering near targets.

“There was no equivalent or even remotely comparable system presented at the parade,” he wrote.

Abrahamyan suggested there were two main reasons the systems were not displayed.

First, he accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government of discrediting the Iskander systems following controversial remarks made after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war about their combat performance.

Second, he said the acquisition of the missile systems in 2016 under former President Serzh Sargsyan marked one of Armenia’s most consequential military procurements, giving the country an important strategic deterrent at the time.

Abrahamyan also noted that relatively few countries possess the Russian-made systems and said their acquisition was closely tied to Sargsyan’s “personal efforts and persistence.”