Yesterday, another tragic incident in Armenia’s Armed Forces came to light. The body of a serviceman was found with a gunshot wound. A day before the latest tragedy, the Ministry of Defense announced that Defense Minister Suren Papikyan had held a meeting on the organization of psychological services in the army.
The announcement about Papikyan’s meeting came just days after another report in the media said that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had had a tough conversation with Papikyan over the alarming situation in the Armed Forces. Naturally, Papikyan’s meeting may have been a response not only to that report, but also to the negative public sentiment stemming from tragedies and numerous other problems in the army. And then, one day after the meeting, another tragedy.
That sequence of events is a starkly symbolic illustration of a simple reality. When there is insufficient competence to solve problems and improve the effectiveness of military management, the search begins for convenient information and propaganda tactics. Yet the real problem with the psychological state of the armed forces is that the Armenian military has undergone an ideological dismantling. The key prerequisite for shaping the psychology, mindset and worldview of an army is the ideology of the state it serves — and, even more importantly, the ideological foundation of its armed forces.
This is particularly important given the distinctive nature of the military institution and its relatively closed, systemic character. The ideological foundation of Armenia’s Armed Forces was the victory in Artsakh, together with the Armenian statehood that was built alongside it. That foundation has not merely been declared null and void at the state level; it has effectively been declared an enemy of Armenian statehood itself. If we consider this within the specific nature of the armed forces, the result is that Armenia’s military, by virtue of its own very recent past, has essentially been declared the enemy of its own present and future.
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In such circumstances, it is those who have brought the situation to this point who need a psychologist.
Hakob BADALYAN
