Experts` opinions differ on reasons of Vigen Sargsyan`s appointment  as defense minister of Armenia      

ArmInfo.The key function to defend the country belongs to the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, not the Ministry of Defense, Artsakh war hero, Major- General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (a.k.a. Kommandos) has told ArmInfo, when commenting on the appointment of Vigen Sargsyan as the minister of  defense.    

He thinks that the political figure of the new defense minister will  make it possible to maintain close cooperation between the General  Staff and the Head of State and to ensure proper military and  technical equipment of the Armenian army.       

"I think the new minister of defense will perfectly cope with his  role of ensuring military and political cooperation. As regards  possible reduction of the army's defensive capacity, I can say that  Chief of the General Staff Movses Hakobyan is a man of old military  school and will be able to ensure proper defense of our borders,"  Kommandos says.      

Meanwhile, political expert Manvel Sargsyan thinks the appointment of  the new defense minister is politically charged. "By means of such  appointment, Serzh Sargsyan wanted to secure himself against possible  manipulations by the new defense minister, because the new  Constitution considerably expands the powers and functions of the  defense minister and gives him a full right to use the armed forces  at his own discretion. Serzh Sargsyan needed a loyal figure in order  to keep the field under his full control," the expert said. 

To note, Head of the Armenian President's Staff Vigen Sargsyan has  been appointed new defense minister of Armenia. When introducing the  new defense minister to the highest officer corps, Serzh Sargsyan  said:  "The Constitution stipulates clearly that the number one  military serviceman or senior serviceman should be the Chief of  Staff. With time the military and political diplomacy will be  acquiring greater importance, with time a comprehensive supplies for  the Armed Forces will become more important, also the procurement as  within the country as well as abroad. We have to deal directly with  the military and patriotic education. We have to invigorate works  aimed at the improvement of the social conditions of the military  personnel also keeping in mind that we always are responsible for the  people who ever served in our armed forces. Many of them are not with  us today or have become handicapped persons. I've just mentioned a  few of the existing issues but the Minister of Defense will allocate  the lion's share of his time to the resolution of these and similar  problems. The Minister of Defense will deal very little with the  daily activities of the armed forces."