ENVISAGED AMENDMENTS IN RA LAW O DEFENCE AIM TO MAKE ARMY CONTROLLABE
BY SOCIETY
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The aim of the amendments to be made
in the RA Law on Defence is to make the army controllable by civil
society, the chairman of the RA National Assembly Standing Committee on
Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs Arthur Aghabekian
stated at the October 14 press conference. According to him, the
amendments envisage that a civilian shall hold the post of the minister
of defence, while the highest military post will be that of the head of
the General Staff of the Armed Forces. On the whole, the law envisages
increasing the number of civilian positions in the army. A. Aghabekian
said that in the defence sphere, the number of those saying "Yes!"
should decline, whereas the number of those who have their own opinion
should grow.
The former deputy minister of defence Vahan Shirkhanian expressed an
opinion that by this amendment in the law, an attempt is made to
replace the Russian model of controlling the army with the Western one.
In his words, Armenia is facing serious challenges, and a change in the
army control system may cause considerable problems.
Speaking about the envisaged amendments in the RA Law on Military
Service, A. Aghabekian opposed the idea that all young men who reached
18 must be conscripted into the military service. He said that at the
time he was also against the idea of breaking up the military
sub-faculties at higher educational institutions. In his opinion, the
problems of the army (due to the declining population) can be solved in
another way.
In the words of V. Shirkhanian, out of 11 thousand young men who
entered the Armenian higher educational institutions this year, 5,400
ones receive paid education, and only 2 thousand of them may join the
ranks of servicemen for a fixed period, which cannot be a solution to
the problem.