ARMENIA’S MILITARY DOCTRINE TO BE READY BY LATE 2008, GENERAL SAYS
Mediamax news agency
29 May 07
Yerevan, 29 May: An inter-agency commission tasked with working out a
draft of the republic’s military doctrine, Maj-Gen Mikayel Melkonyan,
the head of the Defence Ministry’s department for international
military cooperation and defence programmes, has said.
He made the remarks today [29 May] when speaking at a news conference
dedicated to international Peacekeepers’ Day, marked on 29 May,
at the NATO Information Centre in Yerevan.
Melkonyan said that according to the Individual Partnership Actions
Plan (IPAP) between Armenia and NATO, the doctrine should be adopted
by the end of 2008.
"However, we are ahead of the schedule in several IPAP components,
and I think that the military doctrine will be adopted in late 2007,"
he said.
He said that Armenia’s National Security Strategy too was adopted ahead
of the schedule: under the IPAP, this document was to be adopted only
in the end of this year.
Melkonyan said that the IPAP is being implemented "very
successfully". He said that the success is due to the fact that "this
is exactly the programme needed for reforming and modernizing our army,
there is nothing artificial or imposed in it".
He said that the issue of establishing the institute of ombudsman in
the Armenian Armed Forces is almost settled.
"We have decided to choose the best option and establish a post of
deputy Armenian ombudsman for the armed forces. The government has
already allotted necessary funding, and very soon a person will be
appointed to that position," he said.