Armenia marks 34th Army Day
On 28 January, Armenia marks Army Day. The armed forces of independent Armenia were established 34 years ago.
In a message marking the holiday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that “there is no more reliable guarantee of security than peace” between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
He stressed that Armenia “is not preparing for war, because there will be no war”. At the same time, he said the country would continue to strengthen the army’s defence capabilities.
“It is extremely important to have a strong, combat-ready army capable of countering potential future threats. This is essential in cases where diplomacy fails. A country without a strong army is vulnerable and can become an attractive target for aggression. Armenia must never be such a country,” Pashinyan said.
In his address, he outlined steps the government is taking to boost the army’s capabilities. He also referred to the procurement of modern weapons. According to Pashinyan, the army is acquiring equipment “of a quality and specification” never before seen in Armenia’s arsenal.
Former presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan have criticised the current authorities. They accuse the government of “weakening the most combat-ready army in the region”.
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“The army’s defensive strength is growing day by day”
According to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s armed forces have gone through a difficult period of transformation and have overcome serious challenges.
“Today we can say that our army is changing, and its defensive potential is growing day by day. In recent years, we have invested enormous resources and carried out reforms in our army,” he said.
From the work carried out, Pashinyan described the following measures as the most important:
- Voluntary certification of servicemen, on the basis of which salaries increase. “Our army has many rank-and-file soldiers earning 700,000 drams [$1,856]. Officers’ salaries can exceed 1 million, 1.5 million or even 2 million drams [$2,652, $3,978, $5,305].”
- The ‘Defender of the Motherland’ programme. “Under this programme, many 19-year-old servicemen now receive a monthly salary of 500,000 to 600,000 drams [$1,326–$1,590].”
- A reduction in the length of compulsory military service. From 1 January 2026, conscripts will serve 18 months instead of 24.
- Large-scale fortification works along the border.
- The acquisition of modern weapons and military equipment. “Significant financial resources were spent on this, because we purchased expensive equipment in large quantities.”
“What has been implemented in the army in recent years forms the cornerstone of the resilience, independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of our state,” he added.
“We overcame an existential threat by freezing our CSTO membership”
Speaking about arms procurement, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that until 2022 many international partners had “politely refused to sell weapons to Armenia”. He outlined two main reasons:
- “they were not confident that the weapons would not be deployed outside Armenia’s internationally recognised territory,
- they were not confident that the classified parameters of this weapons would not become accessible to the CSTO, whose membership also acted as an obstacle to concluding such deals”.
According to Pashinyan, Armenia’s allies within the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation failed to fulfil their treaty obligations. Under the organisation’s charter, they were supposed to guarantee Armenia’s security and territorial integrity. They took no necessary steps when Azerbaijani forces entered Armenia’s sovereign territory in September 2022. They also refused to deliver weapons worth hundreds of millions of dollars that Armenia had already paid for.
“This was an existential threat to Armenia. It was clear that a decision had been taken to destroy our statehood and sovereignty,” he said.
Pashinyan believes the country overcame this threat thanks to two key developments:
- the four-party Prague statement of 6 October 2022, which included mutual recognition of territorial integrity by Armenia and Azerbaijan;
- the freezing of Armenia’s membership in the CSTO.
He said the country would continue on this course. The army will carry out no tasks other than defending Armenia’s territory. The issue of territories occupied by Azerbaijan, he added, will be resolved through the border delimitation process.
Former presidents say the authorities have weakened the army
According to former president Robert Kocharyan, during Pashinyan’s time in office “everything was done to weaken, dismantle and break our army, the most combat-ready in the region”.
He also said that the political leadership’s “obsession with shifting the blame for its own mistakes onto the army did not come without consequences”.
Kocharyan argues that a strong army guarantees real, long-term and dignified peace for all states, and that Armenia cannot be an exception. He said he hopes it will be possible “to quickly change the situation, restore the army’s strength and spirit, and ensure lasting peace”.
The administration of another former president, Serzh Sargsyan, published a selection of his statements made after the change of power in 2018. These comments date from the period after the “Velvet Revolution”, when Pashinyan and his team came to power. In them, Sargsyan argues, among other things, that the army underpins the existence of any state.
“The enemy saw the victorious spirit of the Armenian army. It saw and was shaken by the unimaginable feats of Armenian soldiers, when worthy leaders commanded the army.
Those who describe the once-powerful army that brought the enemy to its knees as a myth deliberately desecrate the memory of thousands of brave soldiers. They consciously plunge the people into despair.”
Sargsyan also questions the reforms in the armed forces.
“Armenia’s leaders have now launched a strange process they call the ‘transformation’ of the army. In reality, they are trying to remake it in their own image, as an act of the army’s final destruction.”
Armenia marks 34th Army Day
Armenia marks 34th Army Day