On August 24, it became known that the de facto Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia has submitted a new project for public discussion, which proposes to introduce a new system of contractual military service, as well as short-term mandatory military service of rank-and-file members, on the condition of paying 24 million drams to the state budget of the Republic of Armenia.
In particular, it is stated in the presented document that the introduction of this system is due to “increasing the attractiveness and interest of entering the contract military service in accordance with the 2021-2026 plan of the RA government, creating prerequisites for the development of professional contract military service, the service location and conditions specified by the RA Ministry of Defense as private with the need to introduce a new system of transition from compulsory military service to contract military service and short-term compulsory military service procedure for rank-and-file members instead of compulsory military service” [1].
It is said that in the case of contract service, the term of which is 5 years, “regardless of the desire to be discharged from military service or to continue the service, or in case of early discharge due to health conditions, these servicemen will be paid an honorarium in the amount of 5 million AMD, which the serviceman (or citizen) will manage at his discretion “. And “a certain period of mandatory military service of the rank-and-file and, due to this, in case of completion of the training phase of the serviceman (average: four and a half months), the possibility of early release of the serviceman from the mandatory military service on the condition that the serviceman pays 24 million drams to the RA state budget.”
In fact, the de-facto authorities of Armenia, not taking into account the threats that are growing day by day around Armenia, have devoted themselves to the task of finally disbanding the army. There are two points of interest here:
⦁ First of all, what used to be called giving money, discharge from the army and was considered a manifestation of corruption, today becomes legal and now anyone with sufficient means can be released from service for money.
⦁ If this is done to ensure the transition to the so-called “professional army” as quickly as possible, it has a dangerous tendency. Perhaps, the most important idea in this whole information pile is that the de facto authorities of RA are doing everything possible to quickly disband the army and create a non-combatant “professional army” from it.
Let us emphasize again that this is happening at a time when a dangerous transition is unfolding around our country. And that is not enough, the situation is destabilizing all over the world. Accordingly, the world is moving toward militarization, and even countries that have been supporters of a “professional army” for years are moving to conscription. Latvia is one of such countries, whose Defense Minister Artis Pabriks announced that the country will gradually switch to the mandatory conscription system from January 2023[2].
Recently, such a trend has been observed in other European countries as well, which reaffirms the fact that the world is moving towards militarization. And even being a member of NATO is not a sufficient guarantee for Latvia, so the latter decided to gradually restore the mandatory conscription.
[1]RA draft law “On Amendments and Additions to the Law on Military Service and the Status of Servicemen”, https://www.e-draft.am/projects/4679/justification?fbclid=IwAR0ZBsRtj-0ltjUd6EthdqSH75raPURzwGjbvRTCiCRMSjwv7aN7asBLA-0 (referenced on 24.08.2022.)
[2] Latvia returns to conscription, https://hayaliq.com/en/latvia-returns-to-conscription/(referenced on 24.08.2022.).
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