Expert: Efficient army is guarantor of country’s security

Armenia should draw a lesson from the situation in Crimea: an efficient army is a guarantor of the country’s security and existence, Karen Vrtanesian, an IT expert, said at a meeting with reporters today.

Even in the most peaceful and stable region, the situation may change rapidly, he noted.

“For example, if six months ago anyone said that mobilization might be ordered in Ukraine due to a possible war between Russia and Ukraine, that person would be considered mad, but the situation has changed so much in the past few months that general mobilization has been ordered in Ukraine,” Vrtanesian said.

In his opinion, being a relatively peaceful and stable country, Ukraine has failed to pay attention to its army which is not combat-ready at the moment, to put it mildly.

“In August of last year Ukraine announced that it was going to shift to a contract-based army. In Armenia such an army is called professional. The last draft took place in the autumn of 2013. Today the situation has changed so much in the formal sense that some unknown forces invade Crimea, seize military facilities and Ukraine cannot in fact control its territory,” Vrtanesian said.
In his words, several factors have complicated the situation in Ukraine.

“First, commanders of the Ukrainian army cannot understand who they must obey because there is an uncertain situation in the legal sense. Yanukovych seems to be de jure president as the legal procedure of removing him from his post has not been carried out. There is another factor: a large part of the Ukrainian army’s officer personnel are either Russians or pro-Russian so it is doubtful that they are ready to fight against Russia. And thirdly, the impression is that in the past 20 years no one in Ukraine has thought that they would need to defend its territory and borders. In fact, the Ukrainian army is currently unprepared for a war,” the expert explained.

He stressed the need to have a war reserve. “We should make sure once again that an efficient army is the guarantor of the country’s security. “No ‘good uncles’ will come and defend the security of our country,” Karen Vrtanesian stated.