Political analyst slams personnel changes in Armenian police, NSC and army "Pashinyan switches from one master to another"

In an interview with Armenian media, political analyst Argishti Kiviryan commented on the recent appointments in the Armenian Defence Ministry and General Staff.

"I don't know these people and I haven't studied their biographies, where they studied and what they graduated in. But the fact that Nikol Pashinyan is trying to get rid of the so-called Russian cadres, i.e. people who have received higher education in Russia, is obvious, and not only in the Ministry of Defence," he said, per Caliber.Az.

"This is the reason for the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Service (FIO). After all, we can say that 99 per cent of the employees of the FIO studied in Russia and graduated from various schools of the Russian KGB. In this context, the Armenian FIO was created and its head was appointed by a lady who had recently returned from London after her studies. All of Pashinyan's nominees graduated from Western schools. So this is a process in which Pashinyan is trying to take the power and security structures out of Moscow's hands and subordinate them to the West. The problem is that they are not trying to create a completely independent structure, which would be desirable. It is just changing owners, changing pimps, and it is not known which is more effective.

Nikol Pashinyan had several problems to deal with. Firstly, he saw a threat to his power in the army. He was afraid that he had no control over this army, as well as many other structures, and what to do in this case? These structures have to be dismantled so that they don't become a tool against him. That is why, after 2018, we are constantly seeing these personnel changes in the police, the NSC and the army," the political analyst said.