Interview by Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
Members of the NATO Military Committee visited Georgia in February and studied the progress of military reforms. The visit will bring the Georgian Army closer to standards of the Alliance. Irakly Aladashvili, Editor-in-Chief of the Arsenal analytical magazine, told Vestnik Kavkaza about the Georgian military reform.
- Irakly, what are the basic milestones of the Georgian military reform?
- I have been had different occupations at the Defense Ministry for a long time and the military reform was unfolding right in my eyes. Every minister in charge assured that his mission was to realize the reform. In this aspect, 2004 was illustrative when four defense ministers and the same number of chiefs of the General Staff were replaced. In other words, everyone was talking about a reform, but in their understanding, the “reform” started and ended with the reshuffle, appointment of their people.
In 2007, the General Staff of the Armed Forces was transformed into the Joint Staff. It was even put in the Constitution. The idea was to adopt the American system with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But there was a mistake in the name of the constitutional organ. It was called “the staff,” not “joint staffs.” Of course, nothing succeeded, just as many things that did not succeed. After the 2008 war, the Air Forces were disbanded as a separate combat arm, then the Naval Forces. This is to say, the idea of “joint staffs” itself was lost. What kind of “joint staffs” are they if there is only the staff of the Ground Forces left?
I believe that the main step in reforming defenses in order to adopt NATO standards is to separate functions of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff. The Defense Ministry. The defense minister should not interfere in concrete decisions of the military. He needs to be a politician, not a military man. Nonetheless, all “civil ministers” have been interfering in military affairs. Moreover, it has been done quite rudely. Apart from that, the reform concerned compatibility with NATO. This is the purpose for development of various programs. Regarding the organizational structure, brigades replaced divisions and armies. Brigades were merged into corps. They are now trying to form two lines for the Ground Forces: the eastern and the western. There will no longer be the staff of the Ground Forces, there will be staffs of the western and eastern line.
- How realizable are the programs for “compatibility” with NATO without compatibility of weapon systems? The Georgian military are still armed with Soviet-Russian weapons.
- Compatibility is a secondary issue. NATO does not demand its members or candidate-states to take its arms immediately. East European member-states of NATO are still armed with Soviet weapons. So it would be wrong to necessarily buy M4s and throw away AKs. In reality, compatibility means first of all civil control over the Army. The idea was killed during presidency of Saakashvili. The ex-president used the Army for political purposes. Not only on the election day.
Today, luckily, there are signs of depoliticization of the Army. Above all, it is a deed of new Minister Irakly Alasania and his team.
