YEREVAN. – The four university students, who are on a hunger strike in protest of curtailing the right to military deferment in Armenia, will vacate the Yerevan State University lecture hall where they are holding their hunger strike, and join their friends who are protesting at Marshal Baghramyan Avenue, outside the National Assembly (NA) building.

“We have not ended the hunger strike,” wrote Davit Petrosyan, one of these students on hunger strike, on his Facebook page. “We are just going to Baghramyan.”

As reported earlier, “For the Development of Science [in Armenia]” initiative member Vahan Kostanyan stated outside the NA building that the situation has changed, and he called on their four members on hunger strike to end it and join them.

After this appeal, a statement was made that the students on hunger strike were ending it and joining the demonstrators at Marshal Baghramyan Avenue.

The NA on Wednesday passed the bill on Military Service and the Status of Military Servicemen, in the second—and final—reading. This bill proposes to considerably limit the right to deferment in Armenia.

Members of the aforementioned initiative are not attending classes in protest of this bill, and are demanding that the current right to deferment be maintained.