Tigran Abrahamyan, a lawmaker from the opposition Pativ Unem bloc, took to Facebook on Tuesday to deplore the authorities’ plans to merge the Armenian army’s General Staff with the Defense Ministry.

The General Staff chief will also serve as Armenia’s first deputy defense minister as part of the “reforms”, as a result of which the armed forces will be engaged in the defense of the country and combat training, Abrahamyan said.

“The defense minister is still unaware that prior to the "reforms” announced by him, it was the General Staff that was in charge of combat training and combat efficiency,” he wrote.

“The authorities believe that making the General Staff chief subordinate to the defense minister will prevent any disobedience, as it happened during former Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan’s tenure,” the MP said.

Abrahamyan stated that the General Staff and the Defense Ministry have divisions which perform the same functions and should be restructured.

“However, it makes no sense at all to make the General Staff chief also the first deputy defense minister. Moreover, it will cause more problems instead of solving the pending issues,” he said.

“They say that the General Staff should deal exclusively with combat training of the military, but it is subordinated to the ministry, thus mixing everything up,” Abrahamyan added.