Presiding over a Security Council session earlier on Monday, Pashinian said that he had decided to dismiss Arshak Karapetian as defense minister after analyzing what he described as Azerbaijan’s latest incursions into Armenia’s sovereign territory in one of the sections of the eastern border.
Speaking in the presence of both Karapetian and Papikian at the Ministry of Defense hours after that, Pashinian said: “Our country is facing serious strategic challenges. We simply have no right not to manage these challenges in the interests of the Republic of Armenia, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.) and the Armenian people.”
Pashinian stressed that the country’s leadership “has a clear idea of what steps are needed to successfully bring the country out of the crossroads of these strategic challenges, to pave the way for lasting and sustainable development.”
“We will take that way,” the Armenian leader added.
Pashinian emphasized the political nature of his decision to replace the defense minister. He thanked Papikian for agreeing to take “a politically more vulnerable” post.
At the same time, the prime minister vowed continued efforts of his cabinet to solve any problems facing the military.
“The Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces are the largest state body in our country, and that body must be healthy, functionally efficient, and decisions [there] must be profound, substantiated, based on our military and strategic needs. In this regard, I want to emphasize this nuance, around which we must continue to work,” Pashinian concluded.