Nikola Pashinyan Visits the Ministry of Defense and Introduces Newly Appointed Minister V. Harutyunyan to Senior Military Officials

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the Ministry of Defense and introduced the newly appointed minister, Vagharshak Harutyunyan, to the senior military officials. Pashinyan expressed gratitude to the former minister, David Tonoyan, for his work and wished Harutyunyan success in his future endeavors.

“We need to seriously analyze what has happened, understand where we made mistakes, why we made those mistakes, and what we should do to learn from them. It is evident that we are faced with the necessity of reforming the army and armed forces. The question is how these reforms should be approached, what timeline they should follow, and which issues they should address. It is very important that we are able to build a new logic, new tactics, and new strategy within our army and armed forces, without damaging the healthy and competitive traditions that exist in our army, which will lead to success for our military forces. Because the guarantor of our country's security is indeed the armed forces, it is the army itself,” said the Prime Minister.

Former Minister of Defense David Tonoyan, in his remarks, stated: “Dear Mr. Prime Minister, dear Mr. Minister, I have already had the opportunity to express my opinion and approaches in my public statement. Once again, I thank the personnel with whom we spent these difficult days. We have challenges that require prompt solutions.” Tonoyan expressed his willingness to continue sharing his experience with the newly appointed minister to overcome all challenges during this very difficult and defining period.

Newly appointed Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan, for his part, thanked the Prime Minister for his trust and noted that appropriate measures need to be taken in the current geopolitical situation. “The situation is related to Turkey’s activities in the region, the peacekeeping mission of the Russian Federation, and the situation that has arisen after the war. I am confident that together with the military personnel, preserving the positive aspects we had in the army, we will quickly prepare and assess the results, both subjective and objective reasons, and prepare a new reform package, which we will report to you,” he added.

At the end of the meeting, Nikol Pashinyan once again wished everyone success.