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MP Tigran Abrahamyan of the opposition Pativ Unem faction denounced the Armenian government’s plans to merge police troops and several other police units into a new National Guard force aimed at protecting senior officials and state facilities.

Under the current law, those forces are subordinated to Armenia’s armed forces during wartime, but the new law would keep them under the Interior Ministry.

In a post on social media on Friday, the lawmaker claimed the initiative aims to “free the country's main military resource from the responsibility of protecting the country.”

“At least, the National Guard is not known to have such functions, whereas Article 3 of the law "On Police Troops" envisages their involvement in Armenia’s defense, among other things,” Abrahamyan said.

He accused the Armenian leaders of using the police forces to “maintain their grip on power and facilitate the handover of territories”.

“The process of transforming the regular army into fedayee detachments continues,” the MP said.