Reinhold Robbe’s visit to Armenia and Georgia

Recently, a visit to the South Caucasus by Reinhold Robbe, a former Parliamentary Ombudsman for the German Armed Forces, gave representatives from both countries the opportunity to discuss these challenges.

In Yerevan, Mr. Robbe met with Andranik Kocharyan, the Chairman of the Defense Committee of the National Assembly, Armenian Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, and German Ambassador Matthias Kiesler. Their meeting featured a presentation by Mr. Robbe on the office of the German Parliamentary Ombudsman for the Armed Forces. This ombudsman, elected by the German Bundestag, supports the parliament with democratic oversight of the military. He and his staff of 60 are responsible for approximately 180,000 soldiers, investigating complaints filed by individuals and assembling a comprehensive annual report for the members of parliament.

Although this German model serves to orient important democratic progress, advancement will require active effort from a wider set of institutions within the South Caucasian democracies. In Armenia, the lack of an ombudsman is not the main impediment to effective control of the armed forces. This is rather a lack of transparency in the military budget. In Tbilisi, meetings held between Mr. Robbe and political and civil society representatives revealed that while Georgia meets the institutional prerequisites to ensure democratic oversight of its armed forces, there are doubts as to whether these institutions are fulfilling their functions effectively.