Lragir, Armenia
Dec 1 2006

DEFENSE MINISTER’S ANSWER TO DASHNAKTSUTYUN

During the parliamentary debate on the National Security Strategy on
December 1, the defense minister, who presented the draft strategy,
reacted to the opinion of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun that the Council of
Security under the president of Armenia is not effective.

`The reality is that the head of state considers the Council of
Security as an advisory body, and this is the reality, because our
Constitution provides for this,’ said Serge Sargsyan, mentioning that
since the Council of Security is an advisory body, the head of state
decides when and how he takes the advice of this body.

During the parliamentary debate Serge Sargsyan disagreed with another
opinion of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun. Member of Parliament Spartak
Seyranyan, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, said it is wrong to set down in the
National Security Strategy that pursuing the recognition of the
Genocide is the problem of the Diaspora.

`I would like to assure everyone, and first of all Mr. Seyranyan,
that we have never considered, and there is no such statement in the
document that the genocide is the problem of the Diaspora,’ Serge
Sargsyan said. According to him, when we say the struggle for Artsakh
and imply the people of Artsakh in this context, it is very natural
and does not mean that the people of Gyumri, for instance, have
nothing to do in this respect.