On July 25 armtimes. com website published an article “Special equipment of the Police, National Security Service and Ministry of Defense- the ‘ИМР’[1]s- are brought into the area of the police patrol”. (only Armenian version). The article informed the vehicles with the license plates of the Ministry of Defense were bringing special military equipment to the area of the Police Patrol.
Responding to a reporter’s question, Press Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan said “there are some special military equipment that are for common use of the RA armed forces (all security agencies)”.
It should be noted that “Peace Dialogue” NGO had previously requested the Ministry of Defense to provide information regarding this.
Specifically:
- The list of special military technical means within the jurisdiction of the MoD, which are for common use for all law enforcement agencies;
- Indicate the legal act that regulates the use of certain special military equipment by all law enforcement agencies and provide the copy of this legal act;
- Based on what legal act the movement of the so-called “equipment for the use of all law enforcement agencies” into the Police Patrol area was carried out?
- Inform which state agency is authorized to make the decision and issue an order for the movement of such equipment intended for general use, in case the movement of such equipment is needed?
Finally, Peace Dialogue NGO stated that if the asked-for information contains classified data, then the organization is requesting the information the disclosure of which is not restricted by law.
On August 11, 2016, in response to the Peace Dialogue’s letter, the Chief of Staff of the RA MoD, stated: “According to Article 9 and Article 12 of the RA law on State and Official Secrets, as well as the decision N 173 made on March 13, 1998 and decision number 665 made on October 29, 1998, the questions and legal acts, requested by the organization, contain state and official secrets.
Based on the aforementioned, no answer can be given to any of the questions requested by the organization and no legal acts can be provided that justify the actions of Ministry of Defense.”
According to the longstanding official policy, adopted by the Armenian authorities, any action, legitimacy of which could be questioned, immediately becomes supported by a law or a legal act. And that modus operandi is being used in any and all spheres of life: in negotiations with external and/or internal actors; in embezzlement of state and budget funds; in using military for political aims; in using army against unarmed civilian protesters.
In all those cases the authorities act without even thinking of public transparency and deny the citizens’ legitimate requests for information under the excuse of the classified status or the state security nature of the requested information.
[1] ИМР- an engineering armored vehicle, designed on the base of the tank «T-55». It is used usually to demolish a barrier or a wall.
