A REGULAR MEETING OF WORKING GROUP DEALING WITH THE ISSUES RAISED BY FREEDOM FIGHTERS TOOK PLACE

On September 11, the regular session of departmental working group set up by the order of the Minister of Defence, to deal with the issues raised by freedom fighters, was held at the administrative building of the Ministry of Defence. Representatives of the Freedom Fighters Council were also present at the session.

During the session, instructions with their implementation process of the previous session of August 20th have been discussed in addition to the issues raised by the freedom fighters who were present at the session. The discussion were followed by the clarifications and the analysis of given issues by the group members according to their presented fields. In particular, the concepts of “freedom fighter” and “volunteer land defender” with their identifications were touched upon, in terms of providing legal and social safeguards. According to the freedom fighters, the problem has derived after the passage of the ARM law “On the status of the Volunteer Land Defenders”, within the context of misreading and public perception. A focal point of the discussion was the proper reward to the volunteers for their contribution in defence of the homeland, in particular for showing a differentiated approach towards the demand of the freedom fighters due to the nature of hostilities with their involvement.

Clear instructions were given to the members by First Deputy Defence Minister David Tonoyan – the Head of departmental working group, to submit justifying proposal for Defence Minister`s approval within a short timeframe, in order to act with an initiative of making changes in legislative field. In concluding remarks, D. Tonoyan once more assured that the questions concerning freedom fighters have always been under the constant consideration of the Ministry`s leadership, hence the departmental working group will continue operating as scheduled in order to be aware and to demonstrate a quick response and solutions to the issues raised by freedom fighters. Furthermore, if need be, the working group will organize sessions and will jointly discuss the daily pressing issues proposed by freedom fighters.