THREAT AGAINST NATIONAL SECURITY
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir.am
03 July 06

Fluctuations in the rhythm of settlement of the Karabakh conflict
cause a feeling of insecurity in the society that the war may start.

And it is not important whether the danger is real or invented. In
such a situation the society is mostly interested to what degree
the country is defended, which is quite natural. It is also natural,
when officials who are in charge of defense of the country react to
the expectations of the society.

The reaction of the minister of defense came soon, and on June 30
Serge Sargsyan delivered diplomas to the graduate officers of the
Military Institute and made several important statements about the
effectiveness of the Armed Forces of Armenia and further enhancement.

He also stated that recent activity in the settlement of the conflict
is not a reason to think that the war will start again. However, not
all the statements of Serge Sargsyan arouse a feeling of confidence
in the society that their security is guaranteed. Moreover, certain
statements of the defense minister cause worries about the country’s
security and reliability of the system of defense generally. It is
not just a matter of effectiveness of the army.

No doubt, the Armenian army is not weaker than our neighbors’, it
may even be stronger. The problem is quite different. The ministry
of defense is building a new administrative compound. Serge Sargsyan
announced that it will be ready by the fall of 2007. The compound
costs several millions of dollars, even several tens of millions. The
minister of defense announced June 30 that the compound is not funded
from the state budget. In other words, the taxpayers do not cover
the expenses. This is strangely accepted positively in Armenia. In
case of immense expenditures the government announces consciously or
subconsciously that the budget money was not spent. In other words,
the money of taxpayers was not spent. In fact, it would be quite
logical if the money of taxpayers was spent for the country, because
it is said that the one who pays orders music. Consequently, the
expenditures of the government that are not covered by taxpayers are
not for the state or will be controlled by the source, which gave the
money. If the government does something, which is not for the state,
who is it for? And if it is for the state, on what conditions does
the government borrow the money and how is the state going to repay?

This fact appears more important for such a sphere as defense. In
fact, the building of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia is not
built by our taxpayers. So it is interesting to know who builds and
if there is a guarantee that the Ministry of Defense of Armenia
will first defend the interest of the builder, then the citizens
of Armenia if necessity arises. Logically, the citizens must feed
the system of defense with the taxes they pay, including buildings,
weapon, etc., for the ministry of defense to be accountable before
the citizens. There is no other mechanism of accountability between
the government and the citizens. If a citizen refuses to sustain this
government, naturally it cannot demand accountability. Most probably,
this is the reason why our public officials make a statement that the
money of taxpayers was not spend, which is illogical on the one hand,
but quite logical on the other hand. Hence, the public officials
avoid coming up before citizens, and in this case it is unimportant
who they are responsible before. For we have already a direct threat
against our national security.