Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the Defense Ministry and presented the newly appointed Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan to the senior officers of the army. Introducing him, Pashinyan said: “I realize that there is no need to present Davit Tonoyan to the Defense Ministry, since he has worked and served, in the Defense Ministry for many years, and I am sure that all of you know him better than I can introduce. I would like to emphasize that this appointment reflects the policy we are going to pursue in the field of military development. It was important for us the government change process to be organic for the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense, and the armed forces not to be impacted by the so-called political shock”.
Pashinyan said that the problems of the Armed Forces will be absolute priority for the government because we all understand that it is for security of the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia, and we have to make every effort to ensure that the security level of the Republic of Armenia and the Artsakh Republic steadily increases.
The continuous increase of the military readiness of the army was mentioned as the first and most important issue by the Prime Minister. He said that today Armenia’s international reputation is high and continues to rise. This means that Armenia’s positions in international relations, as well as in the negotiation processes, are strengthened and should continue to be strengthened, and also the Armed Forces should be a strong support for the Armenian diplomacy and for the negotiation process. He said the next issue is the depoliticization of the army and Davit Tonoyan’s candidacy is most suitable for solving this problem.
Pashinyan said that during the recent internal political crisis, the Armed Forces succeeded not to become part of the political process, which was in accordance with the Constitution: “This shows the high level of institutional establishment of our Armed Forces. We must continue this process in political processes, and the army should not be involved as a part of the electoral processes”.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
