Armenia’s armed forces must remain under civilian oversight, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a parliamentary question-and-answer session with government members. He was responding to a question from ruling Civil Contract party lawmaker Sarik Minasyan, who proposed introducing administrative or criminal liability for “attacks” on the army.
The ruling party lawmaker raised the proposal following critical statements by opposition MPs directed at the army and border guard service in connection with an Azerbaijani soldier’s illegal crossing of the Armenian border and entry into the village of Shaki, according to Sputnik Armenia.
“We must recognize that it is important for the armed forces to be under civilian oversight. In our country, there was a time when people said, ‘Let’s not talk about the army; we must not talk about the army.’ But in the end, we saw what that led to. We created a smokescreen, while something entirely different was happening behind it,” Pashinyan said.
He stressed that, in general, the country must avoid an attitude suggesting that nothing at all can be said about the military.
