Armenia Security Council urges Sarkisyan to dismiss General Staff chief

Armenia's Security Council strongly condemns all attempts to involve the Armed Forces in the political process, urging Armenian President Armen Sarkisyan to dismiss Chief of the General Staff of Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan, the council said in a statement.

"The RA Constitution clearly defines the inadmissibility of the Armed Forces to be involved in political processes, the fact of being under civilian oversight. According to the law, the discretion of the head of government is on the basis of the proposal to appoint and dismiss the Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces," the statement reads.

"The RA President, being the most important institution monitoring the observance of the Constitution, is obliged to unequivocally show a corresponding approach," News.am cited the statement as saying.

"Based on the above-mentioned, the Security Council calls on the President of the Republic to grant the RA Prime Minister’s petition to dismiss the [serving] Chief of the General Staff and sign a corresponding decree," the statement added.