YEREVAN. – The amount of payments made to the Insurance Foundation for Servicemen will reach 15,000 drams for citizens whose monthly income exceeds 1 million drams. Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan stated this at the special session of the National Assembly during the discussion of the bill on making amendments and additions to the law on compensation for damages caused to the life or health of servicemen during the defense of Armenia.

He noted that these payments shall change depending on the amount of people’s income. "According to the current norms, the [current] means of the Foundation are not enough to pay full compensation to the people who took part in the hostilities," the minister explained.

In addition, as per Badasyan, the families of volunteers who were killed in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) will also receive compensation from the Insurance Foundation for Servicemen.

A number of other amendments have also been made to the aforesaid bill. The first concerns the missing. Earlier, the absence of a person for a year was considered the condition for being declared missing, but now the Armenian government will reduce this period to three months. The Minister noted that this was about paying compensation—depending on the status.

Other changes apply to volunteers who have not been involved in hostilities through the military commissariat. Accordingly, their family members or the volunteers themselves—in case of receiving a disability status—can apply for a Ministry of Defense for a respective certificate, and based on this, they can apply to the Insurance Foundation for Servicemen to be eligible for compensation.