Serge Sargsian expressed his responsibility during discussion
of NS strategy draft in the NA.
Poverty, corruption, emigration, public distrust towards the authorities etc. are mentioned in the 8 th point of the NS strategy draft as external threats. Victor Dallakian named this yesterday as “self-admission of the current authorities” and gave a question to Serge Sargsian: “You are the member of the government for about 10 years; do you responsible for these evil deeds or don’t?” In answer to his question, Serge Sargsian said, “the challenges noted in the document don’t mean yet that nowadays situation is like it, though those negative processes have already existed.” Then he added: “You aren’t right, I’m the member of the government of Armenia for more than 13 years, and of course, I’m responsible for all those evil deeds, a partial responsibility which exist in our society. But I’m responsible for the whole security system of Armenia, for the Armenian army, which is respected by foreigners, and 82% of our people trust in it. Show me a structure, which is trusted like the army is. When you show, then we’ll share both the responsibility and success.”
The parliamentarians noted that one of the subsections of the project is titled: “Relations with the Republic of Azerbaijan, NK conflict”. To Hmayak Hovhannisian’s question whether it wouldn’t be better to produce the relations with NKR conflict in a separate section, Defense Minister answered: “I don’t think, it is better”.
The position of Armenia in the NK conflict is also presented in the above-mentioned subsection. In particularly it is mentioned about the impossibility of vertical relations between NK and Azerbaijan. Shavarsh Kocharian considered it as an old item. And proposed to recognize not the right of NK self-determination but just the independence and to think about NK integration into international structures. Shavarsh Kocharian also noted that it would be better to include in the document an item about the intention of Armenia of Euro integration. Serge Sargsian answered that it would be wrong as Armenia was connected with other structures, too.
Karine Danielian proposed to pay more attention on the problems ecological security. She noted that the threat of running out of natural resources wasn’t included in the threats, and it was important for Armenia.
Armen Haroutiunian, the Defender of Human Rights, also mentioned some omissions. In his opinion, speaking of the principles of national security the idea of superiority of right and alternative way of thinking must be attached.
Victor Dallakian may be considered the main opponent of this project. He mentioned in particularly that “trivial truths” are mentioned in the project: such as “NK conflict is in the ground of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and their further developments” or “ The number of Armenian Diaspora is more than the number of population in Armenia”. As the answer Serge Sargsian said very modestly: “I think that 70% of thoughts of talented people are trivial truths”.