ArmInfo.Under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, the first meeting of the Interdepartmental Committee on Reforming Armenia's Defense Sector was held, including increasing the effectiveness of the fight against vicious phenomena in the Armed Forces. As ArmInfo was informed in the press service of the head of the RA executive body, Pashinyan in his speech spoke about the reasons for creating this Committee.
"The Army in the Republic of Armenia, the Armed Forces have undeniable authority. And this is quite understandable, but at the same time we have a strange phenomenon when the authority of service in the army and the Armed Forces does not correspond to the authority of the Armed Forces, and we set the task to equalize them," - noted Pashinyan.
Touching on why this Committee was created under the Security Council, the prime minister recalled that today large-scale reforms are held in the army that have a clear vector, strategy and tactics. According to him, these reforms should be continued, but in parallel with this, there is a need to look at this issue from the outside, and for this reason the Committee was created in the Security Council, and not in the departments of the Ministry of Defense.
The head of the executive body stated that deputy heads of several departments were included in the group, and this approach was applied so that discussions were not affected by political conditions and tensions.
At the same time, he emphasized that those decisions and approaches that will be adopted by the group will be recorded, and efforts will be made to coordinate and eliminate contradictions related to those issues that cause disagreements.
At the same time, the head of government positively assessed the achievements in the fight against vicious phenomena in the army and command in 2019. Citing statistics, the prime minister said that in 2019 an unprecedented low number of deaths was recorded in the Armed Forces, while the beginning of this year was marked by an outbreak of violence and, of course, each case has a wide public outcry.
"Not only the public outcry, but above all it receives a great response from the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the government, and we have a task to increase the effectiveness of tools to solve such problems, situations. The recent events have led us to think about the need for, perhaps, a more in-depth and comprehensive consideration of the cause-effect relationships of these cases, their study and presentation of conclusions. During this time, many agencies and institutions involved in this issue came up with various proposals, and it is necessary to classify these proposals and make decisions on them, "the head of the Armenian government stated.
At the same time, he expressed hope that thanks to the activities of this Committee, it will be possible to develop an effective reform program and be sure that the changes will lead to the desired results.
After the prime minister's speech, the event participants began to discuss issues related to the further activities of the Committee.
To recall, by the decision of the Prime Minister of Armenia "The Creation, Composition and Procedure of the Interdepartmental Committee for the Implementation of Reforms in the Defense Sector, including the Effectiveness of the Fight against Vicious Phenomena" was approved.
According to the decision, the Interdepartmental Committee on the implementation of defense reforms, including the effectiveness of the fight against perverse phenomena, is created under the leadership of the Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Armenia. The tasks of the Committee are to identify the existing problems in the defense sector of the Republic of Armenia, establish their causes, prevent consequences, reduce risks and make proposals for the implementation of reforms in the defense sector.
The Secretary of the Security Council is entrusted with the quarterly report on the work of the Interdepartmental Committee to the Prime Minister of Armenia.