Armenia not preparing to transition to contract-based military service – preside

YEREVAN. – Armenia is not yet preparing to transition to a contract-based military service. The ruling Republican Party presidential candidate, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan stated this Friday during his talk with the voters in capital city Yerevan. 

He stressed that a professional army is more combat-ready, and if Armenia’s population had been 50-60 million, the country would have selected a contract-based military service. 

“You need to have reserves so as to have a source of specialists during emergency situations,” Sargsyan said and, as example, he recalled the years of the Karabakh war.  

In Sargsyan’s words, at present, contract-based military servicemen comprise 50 percent of the army. 

“With its number, our army does not correspond to a state with a population of three million; it corresponds to the combination of the armies of several European countries. But we are obligated to do this,” Serzh Sargsyan concluded.