Gegham Manukyan: Pashinyan`s party turns 25-day military training for  reservists into tool of punishment

ArmInfo.Nikol Pashinyan's ruling "Civil Contract" party has turned and continues to turn the 25-day military training for reservists into a tool of punishment. This was written by Gegham Manukyan, a member of the Armenian parliament from the opposition "Armenia" faction, on his Facebook page.

He recalled that the ruling party threatens citizens with  conscription, hates the Armenian Armed Forces, and considers them a  place for punishing and suppressing political opponents. In this  vein, he called for a rejection of this hostile attitude.

In a video message accompanying this post, Manukyan noted that in  recent days, various government officials have begun threatening  Armenians planning to travel to Armenia these days, not only to  participate in the upcoming elections but also for various other  reasons. "They are threatening that those arriving from Russia will  be sent to a 25-day training camp for reservists. Firstly, with this  message, these authorities are trying to scare all our compatriots:  don't dare come to Armenia, or we'll send you to a 25-day training  camp. Secondly, this government once again demonstrates that it  doesn't care about the military, the army, or the military service,  and is all about serving its own political and electoral agendas.  This is not the first time that 25-day training camps have become a  tool to pressure opponents," he said.

It should be noted that Armenian media previously circulated footage  of men arriving at Yerevan's Zvartnots Airport being served summonses  for 25-day reserve training by representatives of the country's  military police. Previously, Armenian authorities attempted to spread  information that Russia would allegedly send up to 100,000 citizens  to Armenia to participate in the elections. No factual evidence was  presented to support these claims.