In January 2023 CivilNetin the context of the fire at the Azat shelter and the death of 15 soldiers, member of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly, MP Vilen Gabrielyan stated in an interview with

“If I were in the opposition, I would demand the resignation of the Minister of Defense. But I am not an oppositionist, I am Suren Papikyan’s teammate. therefore, I support him in solving the problems in the army.”

In this interview he gave 3 years ago, he stated that the RA armed forces need a serious transformation, because the system does not work in line with the existing challenges.

“When you come to a system and you don’t make drastic changes there, apparently, over time, the risk is very high that you will become part of that system. And in RA, the systems were created based on wrong principles and content. It’s not enough that we created it on the wrong principle and content, later the very purpose of the system was undermined due to the criminal-oligarchic regime.” Gabrielyan continued, remembering the former.

But at that time, Vilen Gabrielyan, a member of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security Affairs, and today a candidate for the chairman of the same committee, also hinted that it is not clear to him what kind of army Suren Papikyan wants to get, so to speak.

“It is not clear to me personally during these 2 years, especially since Papikyan became the Minister of Defense. We have had discussions several times, for me it is a problem that when we say professional army, but what does that imply, secondly, what steps do we take to achieve that professional army?

The modular housing they talk about is good, but it’s a piecemeal change. The Minister of Defense came to the commission, and we told him there that the model of the army we want to have is not clear for us, and that it is not clear what steps we want to take to achieve a professional army. It is not clear to the entire committee.

According to my information, during this period the Ministry of Defense had a vision that the Minister did not approve. I see that there are problems and contradictions within the system, and apparently the contradictions are holding us back and preventing us from moving forward. A year ago, the minister announced that we should have that concept, but until now, there is none.” he continued.

Let us remind that in 2022 During the NA-Government question-and-answer session in February, RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan announced that the road map for the implementation of reforms in the Defense Department was approved in 2021, in the logic of which a new concept related to defense was developed, ready for circulation, but it was not completely acceptable to him in terms of content.

“You need clarity, concise content. The work is quite good, but I, as the head of the department, am not satisfied with the work and sent it back for re-editing. The results of the work will be summarized in the near future, it is not confidential, it is possible to participate in discussions, our department is openPapikyan said.

Maybe today everything is simpler for Vilen Gabrielyan, he already has an army concept, weapons are being bought from different countries, they are trying to “adapt” the army to a western model, the “monopoly” of being the primary security factor has been “taken” from the armed forces, the term “combat army” is no longer relevant, now the acceptable wording is “defensive army”.

It is a different question, to what extent it can be considered a professional army today or has really followed its path, but all this is, in fact, a consequence of state policy. In other words, Nikol Pashinyan is the one who decides globally, is having a combat-ready army part of his plans?

Given to the National Radio yesterday in the interview Gabrielyan was talking about the Swiss and Finnish models of the army.

For example, experts consider that Finland is the country with the most powerful and largest artillery arsenal in Western Europe. Does the Republic of Armenia have a problem of having a comparatively powerful army? In general, what is the problem facing the RA armed forces, soldiers, officers, whose territories are being taken step by step?

By the way, Vilen Gabrielyan announced about two years ago.

“I generally consider that maintaining a combat base in the 21st century is one of the signs of backwardness from a military point of view. If you ask me, it is better not to have combat bases, not to keep manpower, but any person who illegally violates the border, as soon as he violates your border by a millimeter, you solve the problem on the spot. The Minister of Defense will soon come with new projects, and we will finally be able to form a territorial defense system, create territorial defense forces that should be based on the potential of local residents as well. It means that the person where he lives must be involved in a certain unit that will ensure the protection of the given area. Our security system and defense capabilities must be enhanced.”

First of all, Pashinyan’s teammate should know very well that the Azerbaijani military is in the territory of the Republic of Armenia and is unlikely to leave, the problem is not so much the combat base as the prohibition to solve the issues of the border violator on the spot. Today there are already formed territorial defense forces.

Naturally, it is necessary to move forward, to switch to the use of the automated system and other modern methods, but the main problem is the political will of the country’s leadership. For example, Vilen Gabrielyan would probably like to continue speaking out about the rights of refugees from Baku, to oppose some of Aliyev’s statements, which he did and which he has been forbidden to do for about 1 year.

However, ironically, it has been decided that Vilen Gabrielyan can be the chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee, whose areas of activity are: protection, national security, police, emergency situations, military-industrial complex, in the armed forces, service in national security, police and other paramilitary bodies and laws regulating these areas.

In other words, Vilen Gabrielyan can lead a commission that has the right to control the structure headed by Suren Papikyan, moreover, any law related to the army passes under the “hands” of this commission.

Time will show how much Vilen Gabrielyan will support his teammate Suren Papikyan in solving the problems in the army.

If Vilen Gabrielyan decides to “verify” the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia on the instructions of Nikol Pashinyan… What is it about?

About two years ago, Vilen Gabrielyan on his Facebook page wrote.

«2021 On Sunday, November 14, at 10:00, an emergency meeting of the “Civil Agreement” party board was held to discuss the situation surrounding the Sotk-Khoznavar events. during which all the positive and negative aspects, in the context of the available official information, had to be discussed.

During the session, taking into account the fact that I served in the 2nd Army Corps, the Prime Minister asked to try to describe the situation as accurately as possible from the first hand with my personal connections. I left the room, after a short while I came back and described the situation where, to our surprise, we discovered the reading of official and unofficial information – obviously soft to say the least.

I would also like to specifically point out that there were/are criminal proceedings related to the above-mentioned Sotk-Khoznavar cases, by which people were detained, including those released from service, with which I had a problem and have, including because of the fact that among the detainees or from the position two of those released were the ones who gave me almost 100% truthful information during the above events. But the problem is not that I was presented with almost accurate information, but that in fact, during the Sotk-Khoznavar events, there were officers with a rare will.”

Here, in fact, Vilen Gabrielyan says that Nikol Pashinyan, one of the experienced officers who provided accurate information about the military situation and showed exceptional will in those days, was dismissed. It should be noted that in the case of the November battles of 2021 passes The former commander of the 2nd Corps, Vahram Grigoryan.

On the other hand, Gabrielyan “discloses” that he received a task from Pashinyan to verify the information of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Defense, because perhaps at that moment Pashinyan did not trust his own Minister of Defense, although he could also get clarifications from the leadership of the Ministry of Defense.

It is also a problem that Vilen Gabrielyan seems to have considered entering into such a “game” as normal, which does not speak of a very good thing, even if he considers that Pashinyan’s most wrong personnel appointments in the army was appointing Arshak Karapetyan and Vagharshak Harutyunyan as Minister of Defense, for which Pashinyan had his reasons, which he talked about.

By the way, even during the days of the 44-day war, Nikol Pashinyan considered the information provided by the former Artsakh president Arayik Harutyunyan more reliable than the information provided by the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, and it does not matter that by his decision, Artsrun Hovhannisyan was appointed as the representative of the RA Ministry of Defense, whose war information was contradicted by reality. Moreover, the briefings were hosted by people whose 44-day combat biography raises many questions, it is possible that there are such people in Gabrielyan’s circle as well. Has he tried to check with his “channels”?

Time will tell what kind of official and unofficial interaction and contacts there will be between the Defense Commission headed by Vilen Gabrielyan and the structure headed by Suren Papikyan, and themselves.

Let us add that “Regulations of the National Assembly” are constitutional of the law according to which the Standing Committee on Defense and Security has the authority to:

■ Parliamentary control over the implementation of laws is carried out,

■ request information on the progress of the Government’s program,

■ in relation to the clarification of issues related to the subject of parliamentary control, the committee may, by its decision, invite competent officials to the committee, who are obliged to appear at the committee session and answer the questions,

■ information containing state, official, commercial or other secrets protected by law are provided to the commission at its request, and the members of the commission can familiarize themselves with such information in accordance with the law. The members of the commission may get acquainted with the materials or documents related to the requested information at the request of the commission also at their location.

■ As a result of parliamentary control, the competent standing committee can adopt a written conclusion and send it to other bodies of the National Assembly, as well as competent bodies and officials, etc.

It should be noted that despite our written requests, we have not been able to find out what is the share of arms acquisitions in the increase of foreign debt of 8 billion dollars.

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