STEPANAKERT (Noyan Tapan)–President Arkady Ghoukassian issued a decree on August 2 relieving Samvel Babayan of his post as Minister of Defense. Babayan will continue to be the Commander of the Karabakh Army. The president appointed Major-General Seiran Ohanian to take Babayan’s seat.
Artur Aghabekian–who will move on to work in Armenia as the head of the State Department for Social Programs–was also relieved from his post as the Interior Minister. Bako Sahakian was appointed to be the new Interior Minister of the Republic of Karabakh. Sahakian has worked within the structure of Karabakh’s Ministry of Defense. During the past several years he had represented the Interior and National Security Ministry of the Republic of Armenia in Moscow.