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The Statements That Armenia Allegedly Cannot Afford Contract Soldier

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  • The Statements That Armenia Allegedly Cannot Afford Contract Soldier

    THE STATEMENTS THAT ARMENIA ALLEGEDLY CANNOT AFFORD CONTRACT SOLDIERS ARE JUST A MYTH
    David Stepanyan

    ArmInfo
    2010-09-22 14:59:00

    Interview of Greta Mirzoyan, member of the Defense Minister's Public
    Council, Chairwoman of "Zinvori Mayr" ('Soldier's Mother') public
    organization, with ArmInfo news agency

    Mrs. Mirzoyan, why have the cases of Armenian contract servicemen's
    deaths recently become more frequent?

    First of all, all these recent deaths of Armenian soldiers have quite
    different reasons. We have studied all these incidents separately and
    revealed that they had quite different nature. What is taking place in
    our armed forces now has one reason - discouragement of officers. This
    is the first reason. The second reason is overfamiliarity of relations
    between the command and soldiers that are developing especially
    intensively at present. This breaks the subordination that cannot
    but lead to negative consequences. I think that negligence of the
    officers of arms, back-slapping and high level of corruption in the
    army are the main reasons of death of our soldiers. I consider that
    an officer should be like an elder brother or a father or grandfather
    or a teacher to a soldier. If an officer does not see himself in one
    of these roles, he should simply leave the army, as he cannot be a
    half-brother or half-teacher. Undoubtedly, there are such officers in
    the Armenian army and I personally know them. But unfortunately, few
    officers of the new generation, which get education in the Military
    Institute after Vazgen Sarkisyan, play one of these roles. We have
    recently managed to save the life of a soldier Varuzhan Davtyan,
    who refused to give 30 thsd drams to an officer and was beaten by the
    latter. I think that our defense minister is very kind as he has taken
    responsibility for the recent murder and suicide cases in the army.

    But besides the minister, we also have General Headquarters, which
    should share the responsibility for our boys' lives.

    Why?

    To understand this problem, we should consider reason thoroughly. We
    attend every final and entrance examination at the Institute after
    Vazgen Sarkisyan. A question arises: who enters there? Those who fail
    to enter the state higher educational establishments, those who cannot
    get through one subject, as well as orphaned children, who are weakly
    trained, enter the Institute after Vazgen Sarkisyan. What shall the
    management of this military Institute do in order to assure drafting
    anyway? I think such a contingent is unable to become a skilled
    officer staff. That is, it is first of all necessary to clear up
    why the best of the best don't enter the military higher educational
    establishment of Armenia. Why is the officer's status so low-grade,
    why is he in need?

    As compared with the civil servicemen's salaries, the officers'
    salaries are not so low, and even exceed the civil servicemen's
    salaries thrice...

    Let's consider the back side. Such an officer, who gets a salary
    thrice as much, is often absent from home, that also affects his
    financial state. One should also take into account that low salaries
    are available in the civil society as well; therefore, one should
    compare not the salary of an officer with that of a civil servant,
    but his salary with his life. It's heavy going "making a war" every day
    with unwashed, uneducated and ill-mannered soldiers. There are even no
    normal sanitary conditions, no water in some permanent posts, and an
    officer faces this every day. What does the Armenian army start from?

    Of course, it starts from a draft call and, first of all, it is
    necessary to consider the quality of the contingent being called to
    the country's armed forces.

    Today the boys who really have serious health problems are called up
    for military service. Big sums are demanded from them, which they
    cannot pay and are directed to the army. After finding themselves
    in a military point these really sick conscripts are either taken to
    hospital or die. What is the sense of such conscription, and why does
    the conscription commission ensure quantity and not quality?

    We have always touched on this problem, which is really priority. The
    whole generation of the 90-s has health problems. But nobody asks
    who is blamed for having such a weak generation. Why had Armenia no
    electric power, gas, heating in the 90-s? Who pocketed the people's
    money? This impunity based on illegality has led us to what we have
    today: sick backbone or kidneys. The conscription medical commission
    is well aware of the cases when a conscript is not physically
    qualified. However, the relevant legislation in Armenia is still loose
    and has many loopholes for physicians. For instance, diseases have the
    categories of the ill-defined or severe and doctors can easily send
    a certainly not physically qualified conscript to army registering
    his disease as ill-defined. Physicians just wait for the parents
    of the physically not qualified conscript to offer an envelop with
    bribe to replace the word "ill-defined with severe" in the diagnosis
    of their son. But this happens quite rarely because conscription in
    Armenia mostly applies to peasants and ordinary citizens having no
    big incomes. Physicians who violate the military ethics afford all
    this lawlessness because they share bribes with upper instances. In
    addition, no one can demand an absolutely healthy conscription from
    military committees considering the big number of unhealthy persons
    at the age of conscription at present. We just have no necessary
    number of healthy conscripts. A question arises. Why aren't the
    conscripts healthy? Parents often do not care for they children and
    health properly. Some people get to know about severe diseases of
    their sons just at the conscription committees. I have witnessed
    such situations personally and, unfortunately, there are many such
    cases. We have nothing to do but hope for improvement of the situation
    in future starting with the conscription of the youth born in 1998.

    Has the Defense Ministry come to certain conclusions after all these
    cases, and is it going to take any measures at least?

    There will certainly be some changes. We expect that part of
    the officer staff will leave their positions because of their
    unsatisfactory work. Of course, this cannot resolve the problem,
    but in the Defense Ministry they are going to examine the level of
    education and upbringing. I think it will lead to certain results,
    as from the viewpoint of losses the current year has become the
    hardest for us since 1995. It is impossible to continue this way. To
    be honest, all the defects of the civil society directly reflect
    the situation in the army, and not only the army should bring up
    the growing generations. The army should give military education to
    a soldier but it cannot bring him up and compensate good breeding,
    which he failed to get in his own family.

    Do you think at least partial transition of the Armenian Armed Forces
    to contract service is a way out of the current situation?

    Yes, I do. It's a shame for our authorities to speak of impossibility
    of the transition to contract service. Money in Armenia is invested in
    luxurious mansions, expensive leisure of our rich men in Hawaii. It is
    high time for our thieves and the corrupted men to share part of their
    thefts with the army. However, everything is quite on the contrary
    in Armenia. The richer a man is, the less taxes he pays. Sometimes,
    the rich pay no taxes at all. The statements that Armenia allegedly
    cannot afford contract soldiers are just a myth. It is quite easy
    and affordable to hire contract soldiers in Armenia. There are many
    people who want to serve on a contract basis.

    Don't you think the Defense Ministry's reluctance to transit to the
    contract basis may be conditioned by the reluctance to reduce the
    corruption risks, at least at the military enlistment offices and
    conscription medical committees?

    It is quite natural, however, full transition to the contract service
    in Armenia is not possible as long as the Karabakh conflict remains
    unresolved. We do not know if there will be war or not. However,
    partial transition to the contract service is possible. This will
    improve the quality of the army and conscripts and there will be no
    need for conscription of unhealthy soldiers.




    From: A. Papazian
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