Armenian Army stronger today than during Karabakh war

PanARMENIAN.Net -
Considering the current armistice regime, the Armenian army should be always ready for war, says Hrayr Karapetyan, Head of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs.



“Over the recent years, Armenia’s Parliament has passed several legal acts on enhancing army conscription procedures etc. But certain problems still remain unresolved,” he told today a news conference in Yerevan.



At that, he stressed the importance of contract service, considering the sharp decrease in Armenia’s population in the early 1990s. “The age qualification requirements have now changed. Healthy men below the age 50 are eligible for contract service,” he said.



According to him, the committee collaborates with Defense Ministry to prepare a package of changes aimed at prevention of illegal conduct in army.



“We certainly have much to do. It is necessary to create legal bases in the sphere, enhancing the legislation, healing the moral-psychological atmosphere in army, improving the competences of soldiers and creating a professional army,” Committee Chairman said, adding that Armenia army is stronger today than during Karabakh war.



The Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia represents the Army, Air Force, Air Defense, and Border Guard.



The Commander-in-Chief of the military is the President of Armenia, currently Serzh Sargsyan. The Ministry of Defense is in charge of political leadership, currently headed by Seyran Ohanian, while military command remains in the hands of the General Staff, headed by the Chief of Staff, who is currently Lieutenant-General Yuri Khatchaturov. Armenia established a Ministry of Defense on January 28, 1992.



Since 1992, Armenia has been a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which acts as another deterrent to Azeri military intervention over Nagorno-Karabakh. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was ratified by the Armenian parliament in July 1992. It establishes comprehensive limits on key categories of military equipment, such as tanks, artillery, armored combat vehicles, combat aircraft, and combat helicopters, and provides for the destruction of weaponry in excess of those limits.



The State Committee on Defense (under the Council of Ministers) was created by a Government Decision in 1991.