YEREVAN. - Defense Minister of Armenia Vigen Sargsyan on Tuesday urged the National Assembly (NA) deputies to vote in favor of the bill on compensating for the harm caused to the life and health of the servicemen when defending the Republic of Armenia.

“Please, vote in favor. I assure that the foundation will work in such a way that everyone will be proud of having voted in favor. I put my political biography and the future on the scales of properly implementing this law,” he said.

Referring to the speeches of the opposition MPs regarding the 1000 AMD bill, he noted that dissidence is also the opposition’s aptitude for being attentive to the solutions given by the authorities.

“Politics must spark hot debates. If no conflict of opinions rises and if the authorities have no aspiration to fully defend it, the opposition not striving for opposing till the end and showing any good policy from an opposite side, then the policy doesn’t change anything in life. From this viewpoint it very much resembles a work of art: if no intense disagreement and argument rises, then the work is a failed one.

I think these days we enjoyed the real price of our liberty and democracy and realized its value. Dissidence is not merely the freedom to express dissatisfaction with the authorities.    Dissidence is when you allow yourself to think that there can be another correct and true opinion besides yours,” he said.

The Minister advised the MPs to be careful when making accusations and voicing issues.

“A proposal is made by an economy doctor-professor to establish a salary for contract servicemen. I think he should also realize that the price of the proposed issue is the same as the total state budget during the years of his governance.  If he can make such a proposal today, this is the assessment of our country’s progress over these years. If we are speaking only about the victims, we should—as former officials—juxtapose the capacity of the budget formed by us currently with fixing the salary for an officer and increasing it. Everything is much better in the army than some people want to present, and we must try to ourselves reveal the issues which we have. We constantly speak about the April victims. As a Defense Minister, I ask not to speak about the April victims, but about the April heroes. A hero should not be turned into a victim,” he said.