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ARMENIA POSITIVE ABOUT MILITARY REFORM
By Ara Tadevosian
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Aug 7 2008
UK
Hopes that new defence minister will deliver on much-delayed plans.
Armenia is about to launch a programme that will strengthen civilian
control over its armed forces, a move which experts say as a positive
sign of new defence minister Seiran Ohanian's commitment to military
reform.
The Armenia defence ministry is following the example of Georgia
in carrying out a strategic defence review that will look at all
aspects of the armed forces. This is a key component of the country's
Individual Partnership Plan, IPAP, with NATO.
International experts attended a seminar on the defence review held
in Yerevan at the end of July.
Although the Armenian government has no ambitions to join NATO and the
country remains part of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation,
a defence grouping within the Commonwealth of Independent States, it
says it wants the military to be more convergent with NATO standards in
terms of transparency and ability to cooperate with other armed forces.
A law on "special civilian service" was adopted on January 1 this
year under which decisions should be taken in the next month about
which posts in the defence ministry can be held by civilians rather
than serving military personnel.
There has been talk of military reform in Armenia since the spring
of 2005, when the then deputy defence minister Artur Agabekian -
now head of the parliamentary commission on military affairs and
security - said it was a priority for the ministry.
Agabekian said that by 2015 Armenia should create an army "meeting
the demands of the 21st century, able to withstand new challenges
and comprehensively guaranteeing the military security of the state".
However, little progress was made subsequently, especially after the
then defence minister Serzh Sarkisian became prime minister in spring
2007. Sarkisian is now Armenian president.
"It is hard to say what exactly caused this [lack of progress],"
said David Alaverdian, deputy director of the Armenian Centre for
Transatlantic Initiatives. "It was either that Mikael Harutiunian,
who replaced Serzh Sarkisian as defence minister, was unprepared
to embark on real change, or that the political decision to begin
reforms had not been taken at the highest level.
"In any case, for many months NATO representatives were extremely
sceptical about the capacity of the Armenian military leadership to
push forward defence reforms successfully."
However, the new minister Ohanian has made a different impression.
In a speech to the defence ministry on May 30 this year, he said,
"extremely responsible and difficult work lies ahead of us". He
announced that a new commission, led by the chief of the general staff,
would begin work on military reform, a new directorate for strategic
planning would be set up, and a new law on defence would be adopted
this autumn.
>From this autumn, many of the military personnel now at the defence
ministry will be employed as civilians.
"This calls for an extremely careful and thorough approach so that the
rights of military personnel are not ignored," Ohanian said, stressing
that it would be a major psychological change for the Armenian army.
Psychologist David Atarbekian described the kind of culture change the
Armenian defence establishment will have to go if the reforms are to
be successful. He said it was important for the defence ministry to
recognise the need to change current ways of thinking, and to accept
that there would be some resistance to this.
He noted that the military still enjoyed a unique position in
Armenian society. "In present-day Armenia, the army is the only state
institution which basically has the unconditional support of society,
irrespective of their political sympathies," he said.
Atarbekian said that during the state of emergency imposed in Armenia
from March 1 to 20 because of the violence that followed the disputed
presidential election, there were no recorded cases of clashes between
soldiers and civilians.
He noted that until now, belonging to the army has meant membership
of a privileged caste, and losing this by giving up a military uniform
would be a profound shock for many officers.
Ohanian is a key figure in these changes. A career officer in the
Soviet military, he became an Armenian hero in the Nagorny Karabakh
war and was wounded in the fighting, losing a leg.
His appointment and actions have been widely welcomed.
"In my view, the Armenian army will not weaken, but on the contrary
become stronger because people's level of trust in their armed forces
will increase," said Tevan Poghosian, executive director of the
Armenian Atlantic Association. "More regulated and precise planning
of defence spending, as foreseen by our IPAP, will ensure that our
army can be optimised."
No one opposes military reforms as such in Armenia, but some
politicians are worried that the process will bring the armed forces
too close to NATO and too far away from Moscow.
Russia and Armenia signed a military cooperation treaty in 1995, and
the Russians maintain a military base at Gyumri, Armenia's second city.
Former defence minister Vagarshak Harutiunian, now an opposition
politician, said a close relationship with Russia and membership
of the CSTO was important not just militarily but economically as
well, because it allows the country to buy weaponry at discounted
prices. This is an important factor for Armenia, when its entire
national budget is less than neighbouring Azerbaijan's defence budget
of more than 1.2 billion US dollars a year.
Harutiunian noted that most Armenian officers still train at Russian
military academies.
"Russia's military presence in Armenia is fully justified in terms
of guaranteeing the security of our republic," said Harutiunian.
Ara Tadevosian is director of the Mediamax news agency in Yerevan.
By Ara Tadevosian
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Aug 7 2008
UK
Hopes that new defence minister will deliver on much-delayed plans.
Armenia is about to launch a programme that will strengthen civilian
control over its armed forces, a move which experts say as a positive
sign of new defence minister Seiran Ohanian's commitment to military
reform.
The Armenia defence ministry is following the example of Georgia
in carrying out a strategic defence review that will look at all
aspects of the armed forces. This is a key component of the country's
Individual Partnership Plan, IPAP, with NATO.
International experts attended a seminar on the defence review held
in Yerevan at the end of July.
Although the Armenian government has no ambitions to join NATO and the
country remains part of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation,
a defence grouping within the Commonwealth of Independent States, it
says it wants the military to be more convergent with NATO standards in
terms of transparency and ability to cooperate with other armed forces.
A law on "special civilian service" was adopted on January 1 this
year under which decisions should be taken in the next month about
which posts in the defence ministry can be held by civilians rather
than serving military personnel.
There has been talk of military reform in Armenia since the spring
of 2005, when the then deputy defence minister Artur Agabekian -
now head of the parliamentary commission on military affairs and
security - said it was a priority for the ministry.
Agabekian said that by 2015 Armenia should create an army "meeting
the demands of the 21st century, able to withstand new challenges
and comprehensively guaranteeing the military security of the state".
However, little progress was made subsequently, especially after the
then defence minister Serzh Sarkisian became prime minister in spring
2007. Sarkisian is now Armenian president.
"It is hard to say what exactly caused this [lack of progress],"
said David Alaverdian, deputy director of the Armenian Centre for
Transatlantic Initiatives. "It was either that Mikael Harutiunian,
who replaced Serzh Sarkisian as defence minister, was unprepared
to embark on real change, or that the political decision to begin
reforms had not been taken at the highest level.
"In any case, for many months NATO representatives were extremely
sceptical about the capacity of the Armenian military leadership to
push forward defence reforms successfully."
However, the new minister Ohanian has made a different impression.
In a speech to the defence ministry on May 30 this year, he said,
"extremely responsible and difficult work lies ahead of us". He
announced that a new commission, led by the chief of the general staff,
would begin work on military reform, a new directorate for strategic
planning would be set up, and a new law on defence would be adopted
this autumn.
>From this autumn, many of the military personnel now at the defence
ministry will be employed as civilians.
"This calls for an extremely careful and thorough approach so that the
rights of military personnel are not ignored," Ohanian said, stressing
that it would be a major psychological change for the Armenian army.
Psychologist David Atarbekian described the kind of culture change the
Armenian defence establishment will have to go if the reforms are to
be successful. He said it was important for the defence ministry to
recognise the need to change current ways of thinking, and to accept
that there would be some resistance to this.
He noted that the military still enjoyed a unique position in
Armenian society. "In present-day Armenia, the army is the only state
institution which basically has the unconditional support of society,
irrespective of their political sympathies," he said.
Atarbekian said that during the state of emergency imposed in Armenia
from March 1 to 20 because of the violence that followed the disputed
presidential election, there were no recorded cases of clashes between
soldiers and civilians.
He noted that until now, belonging to the army has meant membership
of a privileged caste, and losing this by giving up a military uniform
would be a profound shock for many officers.
Ohanian is a key figure in these changes. A career officer in the
Soviet military, he became an Armenian hero in the Nagorny Karabakh
war and was wounded in the fighting, losing a leg.
His appointment and actions have been widely welcomed.
"In my view, the Armenian army will not weaken, but on the contrary
become stronger because people's level of trust in their armed forces
will increase," said Tevan Poghosian, executive director of the
Armenian Atlantic Association. "More regulated and precise planning
of defence spending, as foreseen by our IPAP, will ensure that our
army can be optimised."
No one opposes military reforms as such in Armenia, but some
politicians are worried that the process will bring the armed forces
too close to NATO and too far away from Moscow.
Russia and Armenia signed a military cooperation treaty in 1995, and
the Russians maintain a military base at Gyumri, Armenia's second city.
Former defence minister Vagarshak Harutiunian, now an opposition
politician, said a close relationship with Russia and membership
of the CSTO was important not just militarily but economically as
well, because it allows the country to buy weaponry at discounted
prices. This is an important factor for Armenia, when its entire
national budget is less than neighbouring Azerbaijan's defence budget
of more than 1.2 billion US dollars a year.
Harutiunian noted that most Armenian officers still train at Russian
military academies.
"Russia's military presence in Armenia is fully justified in terms
of guaranteeing the security of our republic," said Harutiunian.
Ara Tadevosian is director of the Mediamax news agency in Yerevan.