make preferableThe draft law proposes the possibility of undergoing military service in Armenia for less than the regular 24 months by paying 20 million drams to the state budget in case of one month of service and 15 million drams in case of 6 months of service. This was announced at Thursday’s Cabinet session of the Armenian government by defense minister Suren Papikyan, who presented the respective bill.
According to him, the maximum age for mandatory military service in Armenia will be set at 37 instead of the current 27.
“Those [male] persons who have obtained [Armenian] citizenship before the age of 18 and have reached the military draft age and who have not completed military service in another country or have completed service for less than a year, the 24-month military service [in Armenia] prescribed by law will be replaced with a 12-month service. And for not being drafted for that period, to provide for the obligation to pay 2.5 million drams to the state budget,” the defense minister said.
Also, the new bill proposes to set at 15 million drams the amount of the state duty for submitting an application for male citizens until the age of 16 to renounce Armenian citizenship.
Papikyan added that the author of this bill is ruling force MP Hayk Sargsyan, and that the government has made a proposal in the ministerial committee, according to which 24 million drams shall be paid for a shortened term of one month of military service, and 18 million drams for a 4-month service in Armenia.
In addition, it has been proposed to set a maximum number of applications and the procedure for submitting applications for a shortened term of service during each military draft.
“The maximum age limit for compulsory military service shall be set at 32 years,” Papikyan said.
The bill, with the aforesaid proposals, will be submitted to the National Assembly for debates.
