Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, Pashinian said the event will take place in Yerevan’s main Republic Square on May 28, which is marked as Republic Day in Armenia.
He said the Armenian government has been consulting international partners to ensure the display is not perceived as a shift away from Armenia’s peace agenda.
“A military parade is a very delicate phenomenon and can also create the impression of deviation from and abandonment of the peace agenda,” Pashinian said, referring to Armenia’s recent agreements with Azerbaijan aimed at ending more than three decades of conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We are working and will continue to work with our partners in the international community, including the countries of the region, so that they do not perceive it in any way as an abandonment of the peace agenda,” he added.
Armenia last held a parade featuring military hardware in the capital’s Republic Square in 2016, marking the 25th anniversary of independence.
Armenia relied mostly on Russia-supplied weapons before and shortly after the 2020 war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh in which Armenian forces suffered a defeat.
After effectively suspending its membership in the Russia-led defense alliance of several former Soviet countries, Armenia has shifted to purchasing arms from other countries, primarily India and France.
Since 2022, Armenia has reportedly acquired a range of modern military equipment from those countries, including air defense missile systems, radars, rocket launchers, howitzers, anti-tank rockets, armored personnel carriers, as well as anti-drone and night-vision systems.
Defense Minister Suren Papikian told parliament on Wednesday that Armenia has significantly increased its spending on military purchases in recent years. He said that between 2022 and 2025, the country spent more than five times as much on weapons procurement as it did during the 20-year period from 1998 to 2018. He did not provide specific figures.
Local media reported weeks earlier that the authorities were planning a military parade on May 28, which falls 10 days before parliamentary elections scheduled for June 7. In those elections, Pashinian and his Civil Contract party are seeking reelection. Opposition groups have dismissed the planned event as a pre-election show by the government.
At the press briefing, Pashinian sought to downplay the timing, recalling his earlier promise to demonstrate the newly acquired weaponry to small groups of citizens. He said, however, that the number of requests was overwhelming, making such an approach impractical, while also raising concerns about information being disseminated in a “partly distorted” form.
“That’s why it is better to show it [in a parade],” he said. “I believe it will be quite an impressive spectacle for the citizens of the Republic of Armenia.”