The Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly recently organized a discussion titled “Green Paper on Armed Forces Reform.” One of the participants in the discussion, Deputy Chairman of the For the Republic party and political scientist Ruben Mehrabyan expressed, “We must realize that what we are talking about, from the situation in which we are, to which we want to go, is the transition from the Russian matrix to NATO standards. There are no other standards. We are a democratic state, so our entire power bloc must be in accordance with NATO standards. No matter how many conventions are violated, there are taboos or some unwritten rules, but nevertheless, it is only possible for that to happen.”
He also added, “Saying that foreign policy service is needed, military-technical cooperation should come from that, which will bring us what we are talking about. If we bring Volod once a week, take Matvienko, bring Patrush next week, sit down, of course, meaningless, we are satisfied that you are satisfied․․․ The poor state will not have time to deal with this. We do not have time, all this must be made a reality quickly.”
Nelly BABAYAN
