Today it became known that the Armenian authorities are planning to carry out reforms in the army and create an opportunity for the rank and file to be released from service early (after 4.5 months) while paying 24 million drams. The size of the said amount is determined based on the logic that instead of one fixed-term soldier, a contract soldier can get up to 400 thousand drams per month for five years.

Head of "Armenia" parliamentary faction, former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan told NEWS.am he is confident that social justice and unity will be violated.

According to his conviction, people who have the appropriate means will be exempted from military service.

"I am not against people who got rich. After all, due to the taxes they pay, we exist and develop our country. But there are very few such people, and the rest will seek to sell all their property and be exempt from military service.

If the authorities seek to expand the base of contract servicemen with the money they expect to pay, that will not happen. That kind of money will not be paid. I can tell you where the money for this purpose can come from. We are talking about the state budget which is spent ineffectively on the basis of the inefficient structure of the government, about salaries, about bonuses - all this can be added up," Ohanyan said.

According to Ohanyan, at the expense of the 24 million drams which each soldier of the rank and file will be able to pay, it won't be possible to accumulate a considerable sum.

"When there are such problems in the sphere of security in the country, when the security environment is not assessed, when external and internal threats are not revealed, when there are no corresponding steps in the sphere of defense and army reforms, when there is anxiety in society concerning whether the army is restored or not, those are populist steps," the ex-minister said.

The faction head also called populist the government's plan to reduce service in the army to 1.5 years, calling it a result of frivolous calculations.

"Today, against the background of problems in the field of security, it's not time to take such steps. On the contrary, we must work to raise the patriotic spirit and the level of military-patriotic education.

Any unconsidered step means action not based on calculations. And such actions will always lead to failure, and failure means destroying the army.

Under the current authorities, everything has intent. They have brought our country to a disastrous state; the failures will continue. And the authorities in this situation are quietly enjoying their vacations, offices, and salaries, enjoying bonuses without doing any work," Ohanyan added.

He compared the Armenian authorities to the doormen who open the doors of our country to everyone without thinking.