[b]- Autumn conscription begins in Armenia. It’s needless to mention the key importance of its successful process to the army. Mr. Ohanyan is this conscription peculiar?[/b] Answer: Proper and legitimate conscription process is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Defense and during every conscription there happen to be peculiarities. Preparatory works are quite substantial. We regularly make reforms to keep everything fair and without violations. They are aimed at proper functioning of all points of conscription measures and to the registration, medical examination and distribution of the conscripts. During this conscription we pay much attention to medical problems, and this can be considered one of its peculiarities. It has become a tradition to annually sum up the results of conscription and bring forward issues. On Saturday we summarized the spring conscription and brought forward issues for the current conscription. Every time we rely on the results so as to make progress and we do make progress though with some failures, some cases of bribery are being recorded: along with fastidiousness corruption risks are increasing. Along with Ministry of Defense, serious measures are taken by the Security Service, Police, and Prosecutor’s Office towards these problems. One of the peculiarities of this conscription is the mechanism of the warning and appeal which is on high grounds. By the order of the Defense Minister a committee has been formed under the aegis of the Public Council adjacent to the Defense Minster which discusses all complaints of the citizens, accepts appropriate decisions and presents to the state bodies, besides there is a hot-line 1-88. I would like to mention the importance of human rights in the army; therefore, taking the opportunity, I urge our society, in case of problems, to refer to the Defense Ministry, Chief of General Staff, Deputy Defense Ministers, my staff and me personally. At the same time I would like to inform our people that these issues are at the center of Human Right’s Defender attention. His military advisor may at any time enter a military unit and carry out an inspection. Each call or appeal will help us to perfect the process of conscription. Recently we have found mechanisms of international control, for example OSCE Office in Yerevan and different organizations carry out conscription monitoring with our approval and support. Protection of every citizen’s right is our priority. - Mr. Minister, if we are not of course revealing a military secret then when does a soldier gets in touch with a weapon after the conscription? Answer: After the conscription every soldier, during 35 days of period, should pass the initial training program and study in a general military unit or in the preparatory battalion of the recruit which means that the soldier gets in touch with a weapon from the very first day and gets fully ready throughout the six months of service. - The reason of my asking this question is the incidents happening in the army which raise public anxiety. Sometimes we hear about incidents happening because of soldier’s incompetency while dealing with a weapon. Where does this come from? Whose failure is this? Answer: This generally relates to the first period of soldiers adaptation process and to the least skill ability of the solder’s profession. In this regard I appeal to every soldier to be resilient, law-abiding, to stand up for his rights and be conscientious in doing his duty. I ask the parents who send their sons to the military service to be patient and confident because from the very first days of the army, appropriate conditions are being laid for the training, monitoring and defining of the safety rules. Though it is a completely different issue to how each soldier masters these safety rules and how long he is able to maintain and adhere to these rules. Unfortunately we are having violations of safety rules. There isn’t a single army on the globe which is free of it. So we have to reach a level where soldiers will be mentally ready to master the profession of the soldier during the specific period. During the six-month period we give the least skills of this profession and try to improve his physical, military-educational, and moral qualities but not to insinuate them in him because all of these things should be done before conscription. - We all know that we need morally stable and strong soldier because our geographical position and current situation raise an imperative to have a combat ready army. How do you work towards the solution? Should the shortcomings at first be eliminated in the command staff or in the preparatory works of conscription? Answer: We should show a systemized attitude towards the process. Everyone should seriously work on it. Work should be done before, during and after the military service because they are part of mobilization process. Works during the pre-conscription period are aimed at the military- patriotic education. Currently our schools are attached to military units and universities to the senior staff of the Armed Forces. We regularly carry out various activities with schools and universities regarding pre-military and ideological training. In recent years we have become more consistent with these works because we improve the educational-material base and the preparedness of military officials. The next problem is the strengthening of physical preparedness and health of the serviceman. Unfortunately we have some obstacles here. Today we have people who are being enrolled in the army with physical problems: people who don’t go for sports or do physical exercises regularly. In this case the role of the school is huge. There were cases when conscripts came to the Republican Medical Commission without previous medical examination, whereas it should have been done before. I’d like to note that this problem should receive much attention. In the end physical preparedness and healthy lifestyle are important not only for servicemen but for every citizen. So first of all everyone is, for himself, responsible for his own physical preparedness. By the way, it is written in the handbook of Soldier’s Duty. After military service many people return to their homes with different skills. - Mr. Minister without pointing out specific incidents in the army let’s talk about them in general. In this case a question is raised, why people who directly carry the responsibility of the incident are not punished? Answer: I’d like to mention that first of all it is the leadership of the army who is intolerable towards the incidents and we better manage the situation. We are the first who want to discover the crimes as it strengthens the discipline in the army and creates an atmosphere to better interpersonal relations. Today we can’t hide anything from our society. Parents of the victims contribute to the process. Unfortunately, due to the confidentiality, we can’t make them part of all those discussions, conferences and collegiums which are held on such issues. If only they could take part in those discussions they would see how intolerable we are regarding those incidents. We are open for our society and there isn’t impunity in the army. We file a criminal case on every incident. Those servicemen who are exposed to criminal liability we publicize their names, but those who are not, receive disciplinary penalties after proper investigation. I think we shouldn’t tell every detail of our daily work to the whole world. We pay much attention to good employees too. They are being encouraged. You should rely on good for having results. - The Defense Ministry cooperates with different NGOs who want to receive answers to their questions too. You have recently harshly responded them. Was that a right thing to do? Answer: I have responded in the framework of the law. I have presented our perspective to the public which is our willingness to have a dialogue with the society. We have the experience. Army works along with NGOs from the very beginning. There are many NGOs that are constructive, want to help us and give advice. We definitely accept their advice. There are many people who have written articles about the army and it would be better if they spoke about detailed decisions made by the Minister and sent to the military units. But we are intolerable towards people who try to stigmatize army and diminish our work; especially there are some among them who never even served in the army. In such cases I usually ask a rhetorical question: ‘who are the judges or who are you to judge us’. Only professionals or people molded with us with the work can judge us. Nevertheless we are ready for a dialogue and ready to accept reasonable suggestions. - Mr. Minister our today’s conversation and the anxiety of the whole society simply suggest the following: young people should go to army willfully and with moral qualities and return with the same state, of course, if not with doubled skills. It is simply called combat readiness. Can our citizens sleep and live peacefully knowing that our borders are guarded by combat soldiers? Answer: I think that every army takes the exam of combat readiness during military operations. Today, guided by the principle ‘to insure advantage over the opponent with excellence’, we come to a conclusion that our soldiers properly carry out their duty. We have passed the exam during the Karabagh War too. Today our soldier proves it with his heroic service. As a result of last 17 years of military service we have achieved to a state that keeps away our country and the region from military operations. While solving the Karabagh issue, we have done our best to hold off our opponent from military way of solving the current conflict. I don’t know how long it will last, but one thing is clear that our army is ready to cope with any kind of challenge to defend our country. In this regard, we want to feel the support of our nation, parent, and society at our back.