{"id":29435,"date":"2021-08-09T06:23:45","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T06:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/?p=29435"},"modified":"2021-09-09T10:32:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T10:32:21","slug":"established-and-failed-reforms-in-the-armed-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/verified\/2021\/08\/09\/29435\/","title":{"rendered":"Established And Failed Reforms In The Armed Forces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Days after the 44-day war, the Armenian authorities announced the need to modernize the armed forces. While <\/span>announcing<\/span><\/a> the 6-month program of reforms, Nikol Pashinyan promised to develop a report on the implementation of the road map in June 2021. More than a month has passed since the deadline, but no report has been submitted.<\/span><\/p>\n

The current and former authorities used various mechanisms to carry out reforms in the Armed Forces, to make the army more accountable and transparent. Despite those efforts, Pashinyan, later talking about the army, had to <\/span>admit<\/span><\/a>, “We were under the impression that there is an established institution, it turns out that even that does not exist.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s try to understand what reform programs have been announced in the Armed Forces, to what extent they have been implemented, and what the press reaction has been to those processes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The number of casualties is an official secret<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Until 2010, it was difficult to get an answer to any kind of inquiry from the Ministry of Defense, especially when it came to the number, names and addresses of killed servicemen. The Ministry of Defense did not provide the requested information referring to it as an official secret. The wagon moved off the tracks 2011-2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly filed an application with the Constitutional Court in 2011 to declare some articles of the law on state and official secrecy unconstitutional. The court partially <\/span>upheld<\/span><\/a> the application: The provision of the seventh part of Article 12 of the law was declared invalid. After this decision, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Defense started providing information about the killed servicemen. Moreover, a tradition was formed to publish the final number of the dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem, however, is that official sources and civil society data often differ. Tert.am, for example, <\/span>wrote<\/span><\/a> that the Ministry of Defense and the Defense Army did not report the death of 4 servicemen in 2019. To check this information, the news outlet had applied to the ministry with a question. The Ministry of Defense responded that those 4 deaths were in circumstances unrelated to their service: 2 – due to illness, 2 – to a car accident. Former Minister Davit Tonoyan also <\/span>denied<\/span><\/a> the rumors of hiding the deaths, without giving a clear explanation as to why the deaths of 4 servicemen were not announced.<\/span><\/p>\n

The final data published by the civil society and the prosecutor’s office differed. Adviser to the Prosecutor General Gor Abrahamyan, for example, <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> the death of 49 servicemen in 2019 in the RA Armed Forces and the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh. However, <\/span>according to<\/span><\/a> the HCA Vanadzor office, the total number of victims is 50. One case of death was registered from a car accident, which, in fact, the other structures did not register.<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

Thus, <\/span>according to<\/span><\/a> the HCA Vanadzor office, in 2010-2020, 743 servicemen were killed during the year. The victims of the 44-day war are not included here, as that data is not complete yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reforms under Seyran Ohanyan<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> of the “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” states that according to the survey conducted in 2013, 47% of RA citizens considered the military sphere corrupt. Seyran Ohanyan headed the Armed Forces during this period. It was also during his time that in April 2013 parliamentary hearings <\/span>were organized<\/span><\/a> with the participation of civil society. This was one of the exceptional cases when the Ministry of Defense entered into a direct dialogue with civil society.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the important initiatives of this stage was the RA <\/span>Law<\/span><\/a> on the Disciplinary Code of the RA Armed Forces adopted in 2012. It assumed that if a soldier was injured as a result of a violation of the regulations, the responsibility was also extended to the officers.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> of the Prosecutor’s Office for the next year, 2013, we read that compared to 2012, cases of war crimes have decreased by 93, in other words, by 10.8%.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In any case, the death toll of the soldiers did not change much. On the contrary, after 2013, the number of deaths increased consistently until 2017. And according to the <\/span>survey results<\/span><\/a> published by the HCA Vanadzor office in 2013, many of the demobilized people consider the lack of professional qualities of the officers to be the main problem of the army.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2013, another important decision came into force: By the order of the Minister of Defense, the principle of choosing the place of military service by lot was introduced. This, in fact, should have reduced the risks of corruption and leveled the deployment of soldiers on a fair basis. However, the <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> of the Human Rights Defender of the same year states that the procedure for selecting a place by lot was introduced with shortcomings. Its principles were not available to the public, and it is not clear how the rights of conscripts with privileges were secured in the event of such a draw. Despite the omissions, this was an important step on the way to making the army more transparent.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you come, you will be pardoned<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

During the government session on April 8, 2021, Nikol Pashinyan <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> that there would be deep and substantive reforms in the army. On the same day, a bill was approved to <\/span>declare<\/span><\/a> pardon for persons who had avoided military service and had reached the age of 27. Thus, <\/span>5,131<\/span><\/a> people who escaped from military service and <\/span>124<\/span><\/a> convicts can benefit from the pardon.<\/span><\/p>\n

The law on citizens who have not served in the military has been amended 12 times since its adoption (<\/span>2003<\/span><\/a>) until 2019. The validity of this law has been periodically extended. A person who previously avoided conscription could pay a state fee, be released from criminal prosecution and enter Armenia without hindrance. The previous parliamentary majority, the Republican Party, <\/span>raised<\/span><\/a> the rate in 2017, assuring that this would be the last change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The issue has not been finally resolved yet. In 2020, it was decided not to extend the term of the law: Those who escaped from the service in January would be prosecuted, even the state fine would not save them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the 44-day war, all the proposals to settle the issue were rejected in the National Assembly. Moreover, many of them were described as anti-Armenian in the press and social networks.<\/span><\/p>\n