Armenia plans to create foreign intelligence service, Interior Ministry

YEREVAN. July 12 (Interfax) - Armenia's leadership is planning a series of reforms in law enforcement, which will include the creation of a foreign intelligence service and the merger of a number of interior structures into an Interior Ministry, National Security Council secretary Armen Grigoryan said.

"Three areas are now being reformed on a large scale: the police, the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces. In the context of these reforms we plan to create a body of foreign intelligence," Grigoryan told the parliamentary standing committee on defense and security during the hearings, entitled "Creating a ministry of internal affairs, the importance of civil control," on Tuesday.

For her part, Deputy Justice Minister Arpine Sargsyan said that the new ministry would bring together the police, the emergency situations ministry and the migration service.

"The functions of the Interior Ministry will include maintaining public order, preventing and resolving crimes, managing disaster risks and public reserves, and migration and citizenship," Sargsyan said.

Andranik Kocharyan, head of the standing committee on defense and security, said the creation of the Interior Ministry was a priority and the ministry itself would become a body forming the sectoral internal policy.

"I express my gratitude to government agencies and all our international partners: the government of the United States, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), whose coordinated work gave a start to the creation of the Interior Ministry. I also want to thank the OSCE and the German government for assistance in organizing today's hearings," Kocharyan said.

Justice Minister Karen Andreasyan said that over the next ten days the bill will be adjusted with the suggestions made during the hearings, after which - in September - the package of bills will be put to a vote in parliament.