ArmInfo.The foundations of the Armenian army were laid in 1988 with the beginning of the Artsakh movement. The ex-minister of defense of Armenia, Lieutenant-General Vagharshak Harutyunyan expressed similar opinion to journalists.
"Of course, the official foundation day of our army is January 1, 1992. It was on this day that Vazgen Sargsyan signed decree number one, however, the process of army construction began in Armenia with the formation of self-defense troops on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and directly in Artsakh. The Defense Committee, formed in 1991, headed by Vazgen Sargsyan, was formed, and in September a special regiment was formed, which became a kind of foundation for the future Armed Forces, "he said.
Harutyunyan recalled that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a decision was made to transfer weapons to the newly independent states on a territorial basis. Thus, Azerbaijan received much more than Armenia. For example, according to him, Azerbaijan received 60 helicopters, and Armenia 2, Azerbaijan left 400 tanks in the Soviet legacy, and only 100 for Azerbaijan. In armored vehicles in general, in 1992 Armenia surpassed Armenia 5-6 times. In the human resource, the enemy outnumbered the Armenian side threefold.
"I'm not talking about the economic potential, here Azerbaijan surpassed Armenia four times, I think that the key to our success was the earlier start of the process of army construction, the right strategic decisions and all this against the backdrop of the illiterate use of weapons by the enemy." The main precondition was the Armenian people for centuries, the demand for victory, "- summed up Harutyunyan.