“If it’s not the beginning and simply a step to calm down public anger, neither the authorities, nor the society will benefit from this”
As already known, Alik Mirzabekyan, Deputy Defense Minister, has been dismissed today by Serzh Sargsyan, RA president, together with other high-ranking military officers. Criticism addressed to the Defense Ministry authorities, followed by their dismissing—does this mean that discontent of the society reached to the authorities, and they shared the opinion, that shortcomings have been recorded? We tried to get answer to this question from Styopa Safaryan, founder and head of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA).
Safaryan told 168.am that positions of the officials are directly linked to the criticism and unanswered questions,
“Why wasn’t the army unaware of the wide-scale attack and why did issues of armaments supply and etc. emerge on the frontline? I consider, explanation fits in this very context. I share opinion of the many, that this is a minimal step, and by this we won’t reach elimination of issues or corruption, and I also consider that the these issues, however, should be introduced to the society, which have been noticed by the authorities themselves, as presently we just make suppositions, and there is no any ground—why exactly now and why these people?”
In his conviction, in order that people hoped, that positive tendencies—army recovery and governance—are observed, the authorities should give explanation, “I think, there are other people as well, which were responsible for the immense number of casualties throughout the four-day war.”
S.Safaryan also stated that reforms are tardy,
“It should have occurred long ago, I can’t even tell the date, how many years ago: it should have been implemented juts from the very first day of establishment of the army and the state. However, I want to especially focus on number one point: Serzh Sargsyan launched consultations in the Defence Ministry in autumn of 2012, and particularly, corruption in the army, religious mechanism and etc. have been touched upon. Of course, in that very period issues of buffalo meat and others have been raised as well, however, if Serzh Sargsyan provided more proper solutions to those issues even in 2012, we’d currently face another situation, and surely, we wouldn’t regret that the April war was somewhat unexpected, and to some extent—unready.”
To the observation, that it means the issue is not in the fact, that they fought by the 80s armaments, but that of unreadiness of officials, responsible for that, he replied,
“Governance system is of crucial importance. If those people were in their places and properly implemented their functions, we’d face quite a different situation.”
The expert mentioned he wanted to believe, it’s just the beginning,
“If this is not the beginning, and simply a step to soothe public anger, then, the authorities themselves won’t gain anything from this, as we not only appeared too close to the red line with the whole nation, during the four-day war, but the authorities as well; another more inglorious exit, and the authorities not only will lose what they currently possess, but would be recorded in history as a traitor power. Accordingly, in this regard, if Serzh Sargsyan considers, that interests of power maintenance are in line with army combat readiness, then he’s obliged to implement reforms.”
To our question whether the authorities by this show lessons learned, he said,
“I think, yes. By this step the authorities show—certain lessons are learned. It’s difficult to say though, which forthcoming signs will be recorded, however, for the time being, these signs show exactly this.”
By Razmik Martirosyan
