ArmInfo.The key function to defend the country belongs to the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, not the Ministry of Defense, Artsakh war hero, Major- General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (a.k.a. Kommandos) has told ArmInfo, when commenting on the appointment of Vigen Sargsyan as the minister of defense.
He thinks that the political figure of the new defense minister will make it possible to maintain close cooperation between the General Staff and the Head of State and to ensure proper military and technical equipment of the Armenian army.
"I think the new minister of defense will perfectly cope with his role of ensuring military and political cooperation. As regards possible reduction of the army's defensive capacity, I can say that Chief of the General Staff Movses Hakobyan is a man of old military school and will be able to ensure proper defense of our borders," Kommandos says.
Meanwhile, political expert Manvel Sargsyan thinks the appointment of the new defense minister is politically charged. "By means of such appointment, Serzh Sargsyan wanted to secure himself against possible manipulations by the new defense minister, because the new Constitution considerably expands the powers and functions of the defense minister and gives him a full right to use the armed forces at his own discretion. Serzh Sargsyan needed a loyal figure in order to keep the field under his full control," the expert said.
To note, Head of the Armenian President's Staff Vigen Sargsyan has been appointed new defense minister of Armenia. When introducing the new defense minister to the highest officer corps, Serzh Sargsyan said: "The Constitution stipulates clearly that the number one military serviceman or senior serviceman should be the Chief of Staff. With time the military and political diplomacy will be acquiring greater importance, with time a comprehensive supplies for the Armed Forces will become more important, also the procurement as within the country as well as abroad. We have to deal directly with the military and patriotic education. We have to invigorate works aimed at the improvement of the social conditions of the military personnel also keeping in mind that we always are responsible for the people who ever served in our armed forces. Many of them are not with us today or have become handicapped persons. I've just mentioned a few of the existing issues but the Minister of Defense will allocate the lion's share of his time to the resolution of these and similar problems. The Minister of Defense will deal very little with the daily activities of the armed forces."