The Armenian army is unable to protect Armenia’s borders and ensure the country’s security on its own, second President Robert Kocharyan told a press conference on Thursday, referring to the country’s security problems.
According to him, almost nothing has been done after the war to restore the efficiency of the army and the ammunition.
“The incidents of last November in Sisian are a vivid proof of that. The recent exposure of spies who received $400-$500 indicates the moral and psychological state in the military,” Kocharyan noted.
He believes the budgetary funds allocated to the armed forces do not inspire hope for any change.
“The government does not pay due attention to the problem. It seems that the current authorities do not need an efficient army,” he stated, calling for efforts to encourage army officers.
Kocharyan called the Armenian troops, the CSTO and bilateral relations with Russia as three components of Armenia’s security.
Speaking about the CSTO, he said all CSTO countries, except for Russia, have much broader and warmer relations in all spheres with Turkey and Azerbaijan. In addition, the leaders of the CSTO countries have personal contacts with the Azerbaijani president.
“Accordingly, it would be naive to think that the CSTO could somehow react to the attacks on us. It is simply ruled out. It is not that the CSTO is a dead organization and does not work. It works very well only when everyone’s interests coincide, like it happened in case of Kazakhstan,” he said.
In the meantime, Kocharyan believes Armenia should stay as a CSTO member.
“First, there is no other structure that could replace the CSTO. Second, there are numerous treaties within the organization, which regulate Armenia’s cooperation with Russia in the military-technical sphere,” he noted.
Kocharyan says relations with Russia are the only valid circumstance in the security sphere, but the 44-day war has revealed some problems.
“The absence of border with Russia has shown some limitations in its assistance. There is still no answer as to why Georgia’s airspace was closed for the transportation of military cargoes. Did the Armenian authorities calculate this or was it a surprise for them as well? There is still no answer as to why Iranian airspace was closed during the first two weeks of the war. This factor greatly affected the outcome of the war,” Kocharyan said.