YEREVAN. - Armenia’s Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan visited one of the frontier military units formed during Karabakh war on Tuesday.

The minister stressed the soldiers and officers serving in the military units should feel pride, as it was formed due to voluntary corps, protecting north-eastern borders of the motherland.

“These military units passed a path of glory, many officers and soldiers displayed high morale. After the military unit was formed, it became a model not only in military terms, but also in terms of social and domestic affairs. The military service on the border ensures Armenian people’s security. Over the past few years the enemy has committed acts of sabotage and intelligence activities, but the Armenian forces gave a retaliatory fire and ensured the safety of the people on border points,” Ohanyan underlined.

According to him, significant engineering work has been done recently, new roads and observation stations were constructed. Ohanyan stressed Armenian celebrates the 20th anniversary of independence this year. Moreover, it will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the formation of the Armenian army next year. He considered formation of Armenian regular army with joint efforts as the greatest achievement.

“However, the main thing is personal relationship between officers and soldiers. The officers’ personal example is a guarantee to patriotism and fighting spirit,” Ohanyan emphasized, adding reforms are being implemented in the Armenian army and measures are taken to improve discipline.

The minister stressed the Armenian armed forces perform two important tasks. First, they develop national security guarantees in the form of the army’s combat readiness and qualitative superiority over the enemy. Secondly, they develop international security guarantees.

“Armenia is trying to contribute to international security. Armenian peacekeepers carry out a mission in Kosovo and Afghanistan and took part in the mission in Iraq,” Ohanyan concluded.