Today is the day of the Soviet Army. Member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Supreme Body Armen Rustamyan said about our today’s army during a conversation with Aravot.am that the foundation of the army was robust, because the people had created it, “When the people gain something, it is theirs, once other groups gain something, it will serve them. The same thing applies to power. If you want power to belong to you, you have to come to power, if you want it to belong to the people, the people should come to power. If the main bodies of the state, government are formed by the people’s will and with their participation, it will belong to the new people. Who has come to power now, that group has gained all the opportunities; it’s the reason why the government, the state and the party have become the same. Our army was established by a great movement of volunteers, during the fight for freedom; that’s why the foundation of our army is robust. And the negative things that exist in the army are the result of deviating from it. Killings in the army are those deviations.”
According to Mr. Rustamyan, the civil supervision over the army has diminished and two main destructing factors have entered the army, “One is the underworld, street smarts, which are in prisons, let’s say, sweeping and cleaning become humiliating. So, enforcing law and order becomes humiliating for a soldier. They emphasize who does it is not a man’ he has to struggle to gain that status of a tough guy. If he drops soap, he shouldn’t lean to pick it up, this kind of primitive, kids’ stuff that are in force in the underworld. Unfortunately, it has entered the army. The second problem is that corruption brought about the fact that money entered the army. Trade, bargaining… those are things, which found their manifestations in the army. As a result of that, such sad events happen.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
