The Ministry of Defence of Artsakh (

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

: Լեռնային Ղարաբաղի Հանրապետության պաշտպանության նախարարություն) is a government agency of the unrecognized

Republic of Artsakh Artsakh, officially the Republic of Artsakh () or the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (),, is a list of states with limited recognition, breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan ...

. It is the executive body in implementing defense policies of the

Artsakh Defense Army The Artsakh Defence Army ( hy, Արցախի Հանրապետության պաշտպանության բանակ, Artsakhi Hanrapetut’yan pashtpanut’yan banak) is the defence force of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Est ...

. The current Minister of Defense is Lieutenant General

Kamo Vardanyan The name Kamo may refer to the following: Places Japan (Note: ''kamo'' (wiktionary:鴨#Japan, 鴨), is the common word for ''duck'' in Japanese, but the following names do not necessarily mean ''duck'' and are not necessarily written with that Ka ...

History

On 26 March 1992, the Defense Committee under the NKR Council of Ministers was established. On the initiative and under the direct leadership of the NKR Defense Committee, a number of very important and urgent events were launched during the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War, referred to in Armenia as the Artsakh Liberation War ( hy, Արցախյան ազատամարտ, Artsakhyan azatamart) was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in th ...

Assets

''Martik''

''Martik'' is the official newspaper of the Defense Army. The first issue of the newspaper was published on March 16, 1993. It was originally called the "Combat Sheet". It was created at a time when there were no other sources of information that primarily served to convey frontline information to the public. The first editor of the official newspaper, then called the coordinator, was Valeri Atajanyan. The newspaper was edited by Hrant Aleksanyan, Vahram Atanesyan, Marcel Petrosyan and Mher Harutyunyan at different times. It is part of the Public Relations Department of the Defense Army. Currently, the editor of "Martik" is Yeraz Harutyunyan. As of 2018, it has issued 4,000 copies.

Goyamart

The "Goyamart" TV program is a branch of the Defense Army political department that serves as the equivalent to the

Armed Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...

. People such as current

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

Deputy Vardges Ulubabyan had a role in its establishment.

Music Units

Military music in the Defence Army includes a large repertoire of traditional Armenian and foreign music (mainly Russian marching music). Russian marches include

Den Pobedy "Den' Pobedy" (russian: День Победы, en, Victory Day) ranks among the most popular in the large corpus of Russian songs devoted to the Second World War. The song refers to the Victory Day (9 May) celebration and differs from most of th ...

, the

March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment The March of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guard Regiment (russian: Марш Лейб-гвардии Преображенского полка) is one of the most famous Russian military marches. The Preobrazhensky Life-Guard Regiment was one of the ...

, and the Jubilee Slow March "25 Years of the Red Army". The Ministry of Defence maintains a

military band A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the tit ...

that was notably led by Nerik Grigoryan and Vagan Sargsyan and participates in holidays such as the Day of the Artsakh Republic. It was founded in May 1997, by the order of the Chief of Staff of the NKR Self-Defense Committee. It became active by November. It is associated with the

Band of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia The Band of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia is the central military band of the Armed Forces of Armenia. It is currently part of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Military Band Division of the General Staff of the ar ...

. The army also maintains the Song and Dance Ensemble "Aspet".

List of Ministers

* Incumbent's time in office last updated: {{Date.

References

Executive branch of the government of the Republic of Artsakh Defence ministries Military of the Republic of Artsakh