Armenia was not removed from Defender-23 list hours after the Putin-Pashinyan conversation, but a day before: The false claim of the 5TV Channel guest speaker

Vigen Hakobyan, who introduced himself as a political technologist at the 5TV Channel “Interview” program, claimed that the name of Armenia was removed from the list of countries participating in the US-initiated Defender-23 military exercises after the phone call between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“…That is the reason… It was announced and posted on the Pentagon website that they will participate in the Defender-23 exercises. It is clearly mentioned there and, all of a sudden, after an hour or two, after the current leader of Armenia speaks, for example, with the same Vladimir Putin, the Pentagon website deletes that thing, that news item, not the news item, but Armenia’s name,” the guest claimed.

In the press release published by the Pentagon on April 5, the name of Armenia appeared in the list of more than 20 countries participating in the Defender-23 exercises.

However, the next day, on April 6, it became known that the aforementioned press release of the US Department of Defense had been edited. The name of Armenia had been removed from the list of countries participating in the military exercises. And on April 7, in response to the inquiry of the Armenian service of “Voice of America”, the Pentagon noted that the inclusion of the name of Armenia in the list of countries participating in military exercises was “a mistake made by the internal team”.

On April 7, Armenian Ministry of Defense Press Secretary Aram Torosyan told Radio Liberty Armenian Service that Armenia plans to participate in two other military exercises organized by the US Ground Forces Command in Europe – KFOR (the Kosovo Force) and Saber Junction exercises.

When did the Pashinyan-Putin phone call take place? 

On April 7, the official website of the Prime Minister of Armenia published the official press release on the phone call between Pashinyan and Putin. On the same day, at 12:45 Moscow time, the official website of the Kremlin published a press release about the telephone call.

Meanwhile, it became known from the Pentagon website that the name of Armenia was removed from the list of countries participating in the Defender-23 exercise on April 6, one day before the Putin-Pashinyan telephone conversation, and not “one or two hours after” that telephone call, as claimed by the guest of 5TV Channel.

Thus, the claim that the name of Armenia was removed from the list of countries participating in Defender-23 military exercises from the Pentagon’s website hours after the Putin-Pashinyan phone call is false. Armenia’s name was removed at least a day before that phone call.

Nane Manasyan