“We know quite well the problems existing in the army”

Assures Seyran Ohanyan, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia

– During your vacation there were a set of developments that were commented on in the mass media, there were rumors about a split in the army and the rivalry between deputy ministers David Tonoyan and Vladimir Gasparyan. What is the real situation in the army command?
– Unfortunately, during my two-week vacation there were a few emergency situations in the armed forces, which arouse public protest. There were also protests, the organizers of which were received by David Tonoyan, the First Deputy Minister. During the meeting he gave importance to the healthy public initiatives that aim at jointly overcoming the problems in the army, talked also about the NGO grant projects, highly appreciating the projects that aim at supporting the army-building with expertise. If there are people who take illegal actions against the army with their grants, those are unhealthy initiatives and cannot be tolerated by the army command. As for the TV statements of lieutenant-general Vladimir Gasparyan, the Deputy Minister of Defense, I must say that Vladimir Gasparyan is a deputy minister who coordinates the legal framework and it is quite natural that he spoke of possible consequences of illegal actions in his speeches. In this case, finding contradictions in the deputy ministers’ actions is a result of subjective perception, and attempts to cause a division among the army command are doomed to fail. I don’t treat seriously some people’s speeches about defending one of the deputy defense ministers and not defending the other, since it is strange; who defends whom from whom. Those rumors are also usually related to the Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff, however, we work closely cooperating. Seeking for work controversies in the difference of characters is not justified. There is no split in the army – the hierarchic command chain is in effect, all the links of which understand and perform their functions. The relations among the army command are based on mutual respect, trust and superiority of the supreme human traits.
– The society is rather sensitive about the issues regarding the army for obvious reasons and certainly is more demanding and expects transparency from the Defense Ministry.
– The society’s sensitive reaction to the army problems is quite natural. I wouldn’t like to separate army from the society. The army and the society are organically tied. In case of emergency situations in the army, the public protest and concern is natural. Can you imagine that there was public indifference in the case of emergency situations? It would be a reason for real anxiety. I think that it is obvious for everybody that the army has become very open for the society in the past few years, as a result of defense reforms. We try to become more comprehensible and transparent for our people, maintaining the confidentiality existing in the army. A set of steps aim at increasing the public trust toward the army, among which partnership projects with the NGOs, concerned about the army problems, as well as with the international organizations, in the framework of which the issues concerning, in particular, the recruitment, the procedure of recruits’ medical examination are supervised by them during the year, moreover, constant attention is paid to the issues of the soldiers’ meal and accommodation and securing human rights in the army. There are democratic mechanisms of control over the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia in effect and they are constantly improving, being one of the important areas of defense reforms. At the same time, I am convinced that every reasonable citizen understands that the transparency of the armed forces has its obvious limits. I think no one, concerned about the defense of the country, would like the Defense Ministry to be so transparent that it would be visible for the enemy. The information has gone beyond national borders in the 21st century and any information on the internet can become the property of our enemies. There are elementary methods of analyses that make it possible to make accurate conclusions about different areas of the army through respective information. Here, it is necessary for the public interest to be careful. At the end of the day, it is more preferable to have a few displeased people that demand too much information from the Defense Ministry, than to threaten the security of the state.
– The Defense Ministry often accuses some social groups of profiting from the army problems. Where are the limits of critique and profiting?
– You know, we are unarmed, when the relatives of the soldiers protest, we share their mourning and try to support them. When a man who contributed much to the army-building criticizes the army, we closely listen to him and try to fix the drawbacks. When a concerned citizen who has little to do with the army criticizes us, we try to understand him, appreciating his positive civic attitude. However it is hard for us to understand those who perceive criticizing the army as a custom and means of asserting or financing themselves. Unfortunately, though the critics in the latter group are few, however they make a big stink and try to cause unhealthy public mood. I am under the impression that they are guided by the principle “the worse, the better”. I can close my eyes on what they do just humanly, but I have no right to neglect the developments that can threaten the mutual trust between the society and the army, as the official responsible for the fighting capability of the army. It is an issue of national security and those who will try to interfere in the organic ties between the army and the society will be unavoidably held responsible in the legal framework. The people who rebuke the army every day with or without reason never speak of the army achievements. Our army has travelled a glorious path and is the main guarantor of our state security. Despite the enemy’s superiority in numbers, the army performs its military duties very well and grants peace to our people every day. The glorious path of our army is painted with the blood of thousands of Armenians; the comrades-in-arms of those departed serve in the army today. They also are our army. And it is offensive when there are ideas voiced from time to time that the servicemen who have undergone a war should be dismissed from the military. A part of soldiers who took part in the war did not engage in the regular military for different reasons and resigned from the military service at a certain point of time. However there are some who continue their service today and most of them are more exemplary officers, than many officers who have gotten military education.  Unfortunately, there is a group of people among our society who try to identify the army with certain servicemen accused of a crime or with vicious things. And for some reason those people forget that those vicious things arise from the lack of breeding, education and generally culture of a recruited youth and the persons who use the army problems for their own good try to shift their share of responsibility for the mentioned drawbacks on the army. The duty of the army command is to teach the art of war and for example your duty is that he knows, along with other necessary morals and manners, where he can do his business and where he cannot. And if an argument caused by such a clash of manners leads to an accident, let all of us take our share of responsibility for this. And if some of the relatives of the victim object to the preliminary investigation procedure, the Defense Ministry is ready to pay and pays for the lawyers they hire, in order to reach the full revelation of the crime with joint efforts. Unfortunately, there are cases when some people try to keep the atmosphere tense and often give the relatives of the victim contradicting information. Those actions must also be ruled on in the legal framework. It is impermissible to try to profit from incidents in the army and use the public sentiments for personal, group or political interest. I avoided saying this in the past, but now I must say that those who are unsparingly concerned about the army today under the influence of different grants, had a good opportunity to show their patriotism during the Artsakh war, however for some reason we didn’t see them on the battlefield.
– Nevertheless, there are emergency situations – what measures are taken in the army today to prevent those?
–  The most part of the emergency situations in the armed forces are in the area of interpersonal relationship and take place with violations of statutory relations. The society is informed only about the emergency situations and it is not informed about the prevented incidents, as it is the everyday work and duty of the command officers of the armed forces and the law-enforcement authorities. In reality the majority of incidents are circumstantial crimes that develop very quickly and usually arise from unimportant things. Despite the reasons causing the emergency situation, the army command does not diminish the responsibility, takes all the necessary preventive measures to prevent the cases of killing, injuring or mutilating a serviceman and is determined to rule out the atmosphere of impunity. I think the best way to prevent crimes is to punish the criminal by the full force of the law. By the way, the questions often voiced, such as why the commanding officers of the base are not punished, are groundless. Those officers who are involved in the criminal case, are held accountable and those who are not involved in the crime and are only guilty of service negligence are forced to pay disciplinary fines. During 3 years of my being the Defense Minister 30 high-ranking officers (heads of divisions, regiment and brigade commanders) were transferred to reserve or were appointed to lower ranks. This is our everyday work and if we don’t state publicly about that every time, it doesn’t mean that the high-ranking officers avoid punishment. And if a certain officer is not involved in a criminal case, it is impermissible to condemn an innocent man, even if certain people demand condemning them to imprisonment. By the way, this must also be the focus of the human rights advocates’ attention.
We know quite well the problems existing in the army and work every day on overcoming those. In order to rule out non-statutory relations, complex measures are to be taken, integral part of which is increasing the level of officers’ education and soldiers’ legal conscience and preventing unhealthy social morals from penetrating into the army. We carry out reforms and do everyday methodic work in order to increase officers’ education and soldiers’ legal conscience; the mechanisms of alarming the violations of law are also efficient. Preventing unhealthy social morals from penetrating into the army needs all other social institutes, including the family, school, university etc., to perform their functions properly in terms of forming the system of values of the youth.
As a result of the preventive measures the emergency situations have decreased in the current year – we will inform the public about that at the end of the year. However, on the other hand, the response to the army incidents has increased, as a result of developing and expanding the sources of information.
The rest in tomorrow’s issue.