YEREVAN. – First and foremost, a combat-ready army is indispensable for ensuring peace and security, Armenia’s Chief Military Inspector Mikayel Harutyunyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am, in response to the query as to what Army Day and the anniversary of the formation of Armenia’s Armed Forces mean for him.

“The army and the Armed Forces are everything for me; they are our children,” Harutyunyan stressed, and added that the Armed Forces are the more fully-formed structure of independent Armenia.

“Our army, which was created 21 years ago, is the guarantee for the security of the state and the nation, and now it is the strongest in the region,” the Chief Military Inspector noted.

In his view, it is very important that not solely the military, but also the entire nation partake in development of the army, so that military and patriotic upbringing may start from elementary school and continue at the institutions of higher education.

“I wish for our army to always be combat-ready but not to use its acquired knowledge at the battlefield; this is a simple truth, if a combat-ready army is needed for peace,” Mikayel Harutyunyan concluded.