On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the security agencies of Armenia, the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia and the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies initiated a cancelation of an anniversary stamp, the official ceremony of which took place today in the History Museum of the NSS of RA. Director of the National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan, Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies Ashot Hakobyan, veteran of the security system of Armenia, chairperson of the RA Council on War and Armed Forces Veterans Petros Petrosyan, chairperson of the Philatelist Union of Armenia Hovik Musaelyan, Managing Director of HayPost Trust Management BV Juan Pablo Gechidjian participated in the event.
The post stamp has face value of 170 Armenian drams and is published in the French publishing house Cartor in the number of 30 000. The author of the stamp is HayPost CJSC designer Davit Dovlatyan.
Among other structures on the stamp, the building of the National Security Service of RA is outlined. On the right part of the stamp, the planet Earth and the enlightened coat of arms of the NSS of RA are portrayed, symbolizing the importance of the national security agencies.
A century ago, the establishment of the security agencies of the First Republic of Armenia, in particular, the establishment of the intelligence and counter-intelligence, occurred under the hardest military-political and economic conditions. The government of the Republic was allocating from its modest budget a certain amount of funds for the organization of ensuring the security of the country, realizing that it was vitally necessary for the Republic, that was under a constant threat of military aggression, to have accurate data on enemy's forces and capabilities, as well as efficient means to counter enemy’s expansionist policy.
As early as 13 August 1918, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Armenia discussed the issue of providing funds to the military ministry in order to cover expenses on aviation, intelligence and radio telegram. The decision was made to approve the steps taken, as well as to issue 6 million roubles on account of the Government’s credit, including 20 thousand roubles for each agency: intelligence and counterintelligence. In future, the amount of money provided to the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Division of the General Staff of the army was constantly growing and had reached 657 thousand roubles as of May 1920.
Until recently the society has known practically nothing about those sons of Armenia who contributed to the history of the Armenian and global intelligence by maintaining the security of the Motherland. It is particularly noteworthy that the officers who served in the security agencies of the First Republic of Armenia were selfless and patriotic persons, and even under extremely difficult conditions did everything possible and sometimes even impossible in order to perform their assignments.
The historical facts indicate that the security agencies of the First Republic of Armenia were one of the leaders among the special services of the region. The security agencies of Soviet Armenia were also distinguished by their professionalism, modus operandi and the results of their work.
Nowadays officers of the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia continue with honor the mission of maintaining the security of the Motherland assuming a role of leaders in the sphere of internal, particularly, economic security and the fight against corruption, and the cancelled stamp will memorize the 100th anniversary of the national security agencies of RA.