2017 performance summed up at Board meeting

26 January, 2018 11:02
A meeting of MOD Board held on January 26 at the Ministry of Defence summed up the 2017 performance and outlined the main tasks for the current year. Under the cooperation between the armed forces of the two Armenian republics, representatives of the Defence Army command also took part in the meeting.

Chief of General Staff Col. Gen. Movses Hakobyan made the keynote report on the combat and mobilization readiness in the 2017 academic year, the results of the combat duty and the forthcoming tasks. He noted that in the past academic year, as planned, works were carried out to improve the training of the troops, strengthening of the military discipline standards, the efficiency of combat tasks, the conditions of carrying out combat duties and reinforcement of defence structures.

Deputy defence ministers also made reports, presenting the measures implemented in 2017 and the future directions, accordingly.

Summing up the year 2017, Defence Minister Vigen Sargsyan underscored that the Armenian Armed Forces performed their tasks honourably, with a number of new and unique projects being implemented. He emphasized that 2017 was a particularly important year as the defence sector legislation was fully revised and new key provisions on the status of military service and servicemen were introduced.

Referring to social programs, Sargsyan attached great importance to the continuity of the Servicemen Insurance Fund, which operates on the principle of absolute transparency. The Foundation provides financial assistance to the families of servicemen killed on the line of duty. The issue of the homeless families of those with the first class of disability was also solved.

Sargsyan also spoke about a new social program to be launched in the near future: to give servicemen an option of buying apartments under unprecedented mortgage terms. The project will soon be submitted to the Armenian government.

He also said that the year was marked by military education reforms that began with the transfer of the Monte Melkonian Military School to a new and up-to-date educational complex. Vazgen Sargsyan Military University will be reconstructed and put into operation soon.

Sargsyan also informed the participants of the meeting that the seven-day modernization program of the army is ready and will soon be submitted to the head of the country. It envisages bringing the armed forces to a new and exclusive level.

At the end of the board meeting, Sargsyan handed awards to the commanders of the best military units and subdivisions. A number of distinguished officers were also honoured with medals and symbolic gifts.