Armenia to establish Interior Ministry

The project of major structural reform of the national police service on the establishment of Armenian Interior Ministry was approved, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday, Report informs, citing Rusamrinfo.

According to him, the civil part will be separated from the military part: "Armenian Police will be included in the Interior Ministry. This is one of the important issues of our reform."

Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan said that the reforms aim to establish a governmental body, which will develop a policy in internal affairs.

Under the reform project of the Justice Ministry, the Interior Ministry will be formed in 2020-2022.

Some powers of the Interior Ministry were executed by Armenian Police. This body is still a military force.

Armenia had an interior ministry until former President Robert Kocharyan abolished it and turned the Police into a separate structure subordinate to him nearly two decades ago. The Police became accountable to the prime minister after Kocharian’s successor, Serzh Sargsyan, engineered the country’s transition to a parliamentary system of government.