‘I will do everything for new defense minister to succeed’, says Vigen Sargsyan

Any person, who has dedicated some part of his life to the country’s defense organization, must be at least inadequate of not dreaming of his next being more effective, Vigen Sargsyan, who announced stepping down from the post of acting defense minister of Armenia on May 8, told reporters at a press conference in the defense ministry, in response to the question what will be the fate of the programs they have launched, and whether there are agreements with the new government to continue them.

“Now together with the staff of the defense ministry we are doing an exercise which has not been done before. We are going to hold a 10-hour briefing for the new minister and his team according to directions, issues and programs. We know the existing legal regulations and actions of each program, the financial sources and their further right use directions, we understand quite well the leadership needed for implementing the programs and will do everything for the new team, the new minister to succeed as it will be our common victory”, Vigen Sargsyan said.

According to him, any person, who dedicated perhaps a day, a week, a month or a year to the country’s defense organization, must be at least inadequate of not dreaming of his next being more effective. “It’s absolutely not a matter of personal ambition, it’s a matter of the security of our society, country, state, as well as that of my family, children and etc. I will do everything regardless of political views for the next minister to definitely succeed. I don’t know to what extent my advice will be needed, but will always be ready to give that advice to all future ministers for not that I know the Army better than they will know while heading the structure a year later, but for the fact that it’s always accumulative information which we need to share”, he said.

Vigen Sargsyan expressed hope that the programs initiated by them will continue. “They are important programs. They are not a result of demonstration of our party or political views, they are programs introduced by more creative approach to have a big army in the small country. I didn’t speak about them during the pre-election programs for a reason, in order not to manipulate them. I have announced about these programs in April, 2017, during the Nation-Army conference after the elections, and this has been done for a reason since I considered them as non-party programs. I have discussed the programs in-detail with all parliamentary factions since I don’t think that the country’s defense must be the parliamentary function of only one party or the majority. And I was expecting a non-partisan approach on this matter, but I didn’t always receive support in the Parliament over which I publicly expressed my opinion and remain in the same opinion – there must be issues in the country at war where society has a consensus aimed at reaching a positive result, rather than searching for a problem”, Sargsyan said.