22:00, 10 January 2009

Armenian army to be reformed in 2009

This year, the Ministry of Defence of Armenia plans to reform the national army by changing its structure.

In particular, functions of the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff of Armed Forces will be strictly differentiated: the Commander of the General Staff will subordinate to the Minister of Defence. The structure of the central machinery of the Ministry of Defence will undergo changes.

The Armenian army was created in January 1992 and has episodic problems with non-manual relations. To decrease the incidence of such facts, they plan to hold a self-training course of commanders entitled "Education of Educators", as the RIA "Novosti" reports with reference to Seiran Oganyan, Minister of Defence of Armenia.

According to the Minister, in 2009 militaries will have a ten-percent increase in their salaries, the process of providing them with apartments will continue. Also in 2009, the Armenian army will change its field uniform; new national symbols will be added to it.