STEPANAKERT. - President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who is on  a working visit to Artsakh, on Monday met with a number of demobilized or serving servicemen, who have been awarded for their selflessness and courage. The meeting was attended by Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan, as well as legendary servicemen, including Lieutenant General Norat Ter-Grigoryan and Major General Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan, whose path can serve an example for the current servicemen.

At the meeting, the President proposed to speak on the issues of concern to the servicemen, as well as their ideas about the modernization, reforms, further strengthening and development of the homeland. He also urged them to make proposals. Apart from this, Sargsyan expressed willingness to respond to the issues of interest to the meeting participants and listen to their opinion about the “I have the honor” and “I am” initiatives put forward by the defense minister.

“Right after the first meeting an idea was born to make these meetings periodic in the hope that the consultation held in Dilijan in January will develop and follow the same path. This gives us an opportunity to, on the one hand, use these meetings as an encouragement, since many of you would be unlikely to meet with Komandos,  Norat Ter-Grigoryan, and, on the other hand, this gives us an opportunity to pay attention to the issues and circumstances, which are perhaps not visible to us at first sight, starting form the convenience of your uniform and the completeness of your weaponry to the issues related to combat readiness,” Sargsyan said. 

"Today is a memorable day for all of us, since if not this day 25 years ago, we would not only not have an opportunity to sit here but would perhaps have lost Artsakh, since the liberation of Shushi gave us an opportunity to fully mobilize our forces, turn into a ‘nation-army’ and achieve full liberation of Karabakh and at least insurance of its residents.

Now many are trying to speak about and comment—some from a positive viewpoint, others from negative one, sometimes to some extent ironically— on the idea advanced by the defense minister, I mean the “nation-army.” I would advise those who don’t perceive well the essence of this idea to communicate with the people who have actively taken part in our liberation war—regardless of whether they did this as part of the armed forces or as civilians,” he added. 

Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan, for his part, presented to the president of the republic and meeting participants the subsequent project named “Observation post”, which is being implemented within the framework of the modernization and reforms of the defense sector. According to the minister, the project is called to identify the issues in each military unit with the help of demobilized soldiers, solve them and ensure maximum transparency and accountability in the army.

Sargsyan welcomed and underscored the importance of introducing such a project, instructing to periodically report on the results.