Stepan Galstyan appointed acting chief of Armenian armed forces' staff

Armenia's Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan appointed March 10 Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Stepan Galstyan as acting head of the General Staff, the press service of the Ministry of Defense reported.

It explained this decision by the need to ensure the regular activity of the structure due to the temporary vacancy of the post of the head of the general staff, ARKA reported.

On March 10 Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a Facebook post that his decision to dismiss the chief of staff of the armed forces Onik Gasparyan has come into force. Pashinyan ordered the dismissal of Gasparyan after the latter and more than 40 other top ranking army generals demanded his resignation in a statement on February 25.

On March 10 Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan petitioned President Armen Parisian to approve the appointment of Artak Davtyan as chief of the staff.