Officers are the most unprotected?
Officers are the most unprotected among the servants of the Armenian army and it is that lack of protection that has created a troubling situation," announced MP, former deputy defense minister Artur Aghabekyan. As a person who is well aware of the sphere, Aghabekyan is certain that it is necessary to set as many restrictions as possible in the disciplinary code of the Armenian armed forces.
Aghabekyan assured that soldiers are still attacking officials, but the ministry always keeps silent in order to not discredit officers.
Today the National Assembly held a quite heated discussion on the changes proposed in the "Disciplinary Code of the RA Armed Forces".
One of the disputed changes presented in the rules is that a disciplinary battalion needs to be created as a replacement of cells in military units. "A cell can't be viewed as a limit of a soldier's freedom. We removed cells from military units in 1997 and moved them to the level of the military police," said Artur Aghabekyan, who is against the creation of disciplinary groups.
Lawyer Artur Sakunts also shared this view with certain reservations. "The disciplinary battalions should not be under the control of the military police, but should be in the military units."
According to Sakunts, the law doesn't clearly state the mechanisms for an objective investigation in case of violations.
One of the OSCE experts attending the discussion Aris Toman mentioned that the draft law should also specify the cases when a soldier should be persecuted. The expert also said soldiers with titles should be deprived of those titles in case of violations.
The ARF faction MPs were especially interested in what happens to a soldier when he doesn't comply with an authority's commands.
Deputy Head of the Legal Department at the RA Ministry of Defense Sasun Simonyan called on everyone to submit all comments and suggestions connected to the draft law in written form. The draft law is still on the National Assembly's agenda.
