What changes has the Ministry of Defense initiated? local defense forces instead of the militia

The Ministry of Defense presented a set of draft laws for public discussion, according to which the system of territorial defense is introduced, the goals and objectives of territorial defense are defined, the forces involved, the establishment, management of territorial defense troops and local defense forces, training and employment of persons included in local defense forces. related relationships.

As a result of the presented amendments, Clause 9.1 of the "Defense" Law, which defines what the militia is, will be invalidated.

It should be noted that changes were made to the Law "On Defense" during the days of the 44-day war, in October 2020. According to the changes made, militia contingents, brigades and battalions were created, the heads (commanders) of which would be the deputies of the governor, the head of the local self-government body (Mayor of Yerevan) and the heads of the administrative districts, respectively. At the same time, these bodies were also entrusted with the process of providing the contingent militia units with the addition of citizens on a voluntary basis.

However, as stated in the justification of the package of draft laws, the process of its practical application showed that the established system is almost non-functional, militia units are formed mainly by regional military commissariats, and the bodies established by law have not had anything to do with their management until now.
At the same time, the lack of strategic depth of the territory of the Republic of Armenia, the analysis of the security environment show that it is necessary to have military units formed on the territorial principle and local defense forces formed on the principle of the militia, which, according to specific directions, will be able to support the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia and face primary resistance these threats, as well as their formation, will be placed exclusively on the defense system. For this purpose, it is proposed to introduce a territorial defense system, which will include territorial defense troops and their command, as well as local defense units, which will be formed according to the military units of the given region and will be coordinated by army corps.

Arman Poghosyan, director of "Instigate" company, noticed in the conversation with "Detq" that the militia was operating as such in very few communities. "As you know, the head of the militia was the deputy head of the given community, and that position was often occupied by the close relatives of the head of the community, who had no idea about military affairs. I think it has come to the point that they did not find a solution to the problem and decided to remove that provision from the law. But there is another question here. For 2 years now, there have been legislative provisions regarding these territorial defense forces, this issue has been included in various laws, there is no separate law in this regard. According to me, the law on territorial defense is a necessary step, although its adoption does not mean whether it will be applied well or badly, we will see that later," said our interlocutor.

Referring to the question that the territorial defense will be in units, Poghosyan mentioned that this is what they have presented their projects on, to work towards the development of the law. "The next direction is the local defense forces, which, it seems, will be the replacement of the militia. In other words, the local defense forces will be made up of people who are not attached to military commissions: female representatives, old people, people who have not served, etc. Territorial defense units will perform their actions together with local defense forces, which I consider positive. But, I say again, this is still the law, maybe they won't do anything for a few years. Law does not yet mean action."

The director of the "Instigate" company emphasizes that there has been no reform of the training of the entire reserve forces, and what is currently being done is a partial solution to the existing problems. On the other hand, he sees problems in the ideas of the representatives of our armed forces regarding territorial defense. "Territory defense is not line defense like frontal defense. It performs different functions during a crisis or war, therefore the work should be much more coordinated with local government bodies, MES, etc. In other words, this whole must be managed in some way. All those changes should be started days in advance. It's been 3 years, the Department of Territorial Defense was opened in 2021, and only now they initiated legislative changes, and until now they were doing what the army was doing."

Arman Poghosyan notes that the active part of society, which realizes that it is necessary to deal with security issues, has gathered around the same military sports organizations in Armenia. "Our state institutions have a serious problem: they simply do not work with society. They always involve individuals and there is no work with organizations. Let's say if a fire broke out and it needs to be extinguished, you cannot say which of the individuals will come and volunteer, it is not effective, and when you work with organizations, strengthening these organizations strengthens the whole state. But currently there is no mutual trust."

Today, we see examples in the world when powerful states, such as, say, Great Britain or China, talk about creating a military force. To our question whether these are merely legislative changes in Armenia or whether this process has an ideological basis, A. Poghosyan answered. "In our country, this movement is going from the bottom up. The top-down movement still doesn't work, although statements say that comprehensive protection is being discussed, considered, but there is no set of actions, the work with the public is very incomplete. Our state institutions are not ready to introduce this process from top to bottom. But on the other hand, in Armenia, based on the situation, the bottom-up processes are more active, and unlike those states where the people have not seen a fight for a long time, it is more difficult to start the bottom-up process there, which is present in us. In other words, in this sense, we have both our disadvantages and our advantages."