He is the grandson of Hovhannes Hakobov, a veteran of the Red Army who took part in the Second World War.

[5] In late August 2020, Tonoyan proposed the creation of a national militia in light of the July 2020 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes, in order to prepare the society to threats of military nature.

[6] The Ministry of Defence under his leadership introduced a draft law into the National Assembly[7] creating the militia, which would be open to both men and women and people up to the age of 70, as well as would be organized under local governments, potentially including up to 100,000 members.

After the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement was signed, he denied rumors he sold arms to pro-Turkish militants in Syria via a private company, allegations of which appeared in the Armenian media.

[15] On 30 September 2021, Tonoyan was arrested by the National Security Service of Armenia and accused of fraud and embezzlement causing nearly 2.3 billion Armenian drams ($4.7 million) worth of damage to the state together with arms dealer Davit Galstyan.