Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan stresses military reforms following Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Following the hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday, November 21 stressed the need to reform the country's military. As per reports, Pashinyan noted the necessity to learn from the failed military confrontation against Azerbaijan while speaking at the presentation of the newly appointed Defence Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan to the ministry's staff.

'We must seriously analyse what happened'

"We must seriously analyse what happened, understand where and why we made mistakes, what we need to learn from these mistakes. And in general, it is obvious that we are facing the need to reform the army and the armed forces," Pashinyan said, as quoted by the government's press office.

The Armenian prime minister said that he expects the ministry to draw up a reform plan and present it on his desk swiftly. Pashinyan also said that it is very important to construct new tactics, logic, and strategies without disrupting the healthy traditions of the army and armed forces.

Vagharshak Harutyunyan has been appointed as the Armenian Defence Minister in place of David Tonoyan who resigned of his own accord along with a slew of ministers. Harutyunyan previously headed the defence ministry between 1999 and 2000. 

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Azerbaijan Troops Enter Aghdam

Meanwhile, on Friday Azerbaijani forces entered the recently gained Aghdam district after Armenian troops left the territory a day earlier. Azerbaijan has started retaking territories that Armenia conceded after the month-long war that ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal, as per reports. Armenia lost most of the controlled territories in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and is preparing to hand them over to Azerbaijan as part of the deal. 

Since September, Azerbaijan and Armenia were involved in an all-out war after clashes between both sides turned hostile. The fighting persisted for over a month before a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement came into force on November 10. 

Furthermore, the Russian peacekeepers have been deployed along the Nagorno-Karabakh region to uphold the ceasefire and the warring sides will also exchange prisoners of war, detainees, and dead bodies as part of the deal, according to Kremlin.

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(With ANI inputs)