Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Artak Davtyan told reporters today in Yerevan that he isn't planning to resign in response to growing public criticism over the continuing non-combat deaths in the military.

In his defense, Lieutenant General Davtyan, who assumed the post in May 2018, said that under his watch eight solider suicides had been averted.

Davtyan, earlier in the day, had been invited to a closed-door session of the National Assembly to answer questions by MPs on the matter.

Regarding a possible personnel shake-up in the armed forces, Davtyan verified that changes would be made.

"There will be personnel changes, which will be officially decreed. Regarding the resignation of the Artsakh Defense Minister, I think it is not our jurisdiction, I cannot comment on them,” Davtyan told reporters.

Many of the non-combat death in the armies of Armenia and Artsakh (citizens of Armenia also serve in the latter), are officially attributed to what the Pashinyan government describes as a “criminal subculture” - a system of values and behavior that some conscripts bring with them from the outside, from the streets.

Referring to the fight against such “street morals”, Davtyan said the phenomenon is now viewed as a fight against such a "criminal mindset".

Of the thirteen deaths since the beginning of the year, in both Armenia and Artsakh, Davtyan claimed that four were the result of illness and that four, the result of a tragic accident.

“I’ve attended the funerals and visited the military units,” Davtyan said, adding that the deaths are being investigated.