President of the Republic of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan on April 12 was present at combat exercises of some subunits of Army of Defense conducted in the eastern part.
President mentioned the importance of such functions and said that this maintains the high level of armed forces’ fighting capacity.
The Head of the Republic presented a group of servicemen with valuable presents for their worthy conduct of tasks during the exercises. The RA MoD delegation headed by Seyran Ohanayn was present on the exercises.

On April 15 Parliament hearings on strengthening army-society interrelations were conducted in the National Assembly initiated by the Permanent commission on defense, national security and internal relations. NA members, state management various bodies’, international and Armenian NGO representatives, Armenian and foreign experts, journalists were present.
On the first meeting institutional approach and priority reforms were presented, on the second meeting – civil society’s point of view.

The first characteristics of the call-up assessment is execution, i.e. recruits’ number and implementation of recruitment plan. The next is the difference between the number of recruits-university graduates or those who are 18 years old. How much is this difference less, that much the call-up was successful. The third is the efficiency of activities to excluding entrance of ill recruits to the army. The next – legality of delay from service. The recruitment plan was fulfilled on 100,07%. 67,5% of university graduates and 18 year-old boys were recruited. Such a high characteristics we didn’t have for the last years.

Head of Troops Service & Service Security Support Department Colonel Arthur Stepanyan, who participated in the discussions of sergeants’ duties definition commission, told:
“When we were studying the experience of sergeants’ service in Great Britain and USA it became clear that their sergeants have more powers than the sergeant of the Armenian army. The tasks which are implemented here by commanders-officers, in their case 60-80% is done by a professional sergeant”.
In the RA Armed Forces there are sub-units where contract-sergeants serve.

Today our Military-Aviation Institute is equipped with essential material-technical base, educational-methodical materials which make possible to prepare full-fledged specialists and bring up highly educated young officers. Our students have the possibility to strengthen their theoretical knowledge during practical trainings which are conducted in special laboratories or on professional simulators”.

According to some data, Talishes are 3 mln, and 1,5-2 mln live in the southern zone of Azerbaijan Republic. Our programs are broadcasted from Shoushi and cover the southern and northern territories of Talishstan. Our waves are also aimed at living in Azerbaijan Talishes where their culture and language are violated, and they are now in front of the threat of disappearance. Our programs are on northern and central Talish dialects as well as on Azeri language since some part of Talish people have forgotten their language bur still preserve their national identity.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of double hero of the Soviet Union, Guards Lt.Colonel Nelson Stepanyan a solemn ceremony was held on March 29th in the RA Defense Ministry. Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian embassies’ and 102nd military base representatives were present.
Aviation Department Head Major General Avetiq Mouradyan, writer Zoriy Balayan, Nelson Stepanyan’s granddaughter etc. presented their speeches.
Minister Ohanyan emphasized that N.Stepanyan was a live legend.