Armenian authorities see solution to call-up-related problems in  legalizing all existing risks - MP

ArmInfo.  The Armenian authorities see the solution to the problems that arise at different stages of conscription for active military service not in reducing  corruption, closing existing "loopholes" or eliminating the reasons  for evading military service, but in the form of legalizing all  existing risks. This was written on his Facebook page by Tigran  Abrahamyan, a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of  Armenia from the opposition faction "I have the honor".

According to him, the authorities, who first equate the mission of  defending the homeland with ordinary professional employment, turn  service into simple work, and then proclaim a hero not a servant who  is ready to sacrifice his life for the homeland, but a simple  taxpayer, wonder why people avoid service, why they hesitate to  choose a military profession or why career officers and contract  soldiers quit.

"The authorities, trampling on the foundation, value system and  ideological basis of the armed forces, want to convince people that  the basis of the army's combat readiness, its personnel and the  threatening state of conscription are exclusively finances, which can  be changed at the cost of new social polarization and internal  division," the RA NA deputy noted.

A draft amendment to the law "On military service and the status of a  serviceman" is being introduced into the NA, according to which a  state fee of 15 million drams will be charged when persons under 18  change their Armenian citizenship. The corresponding legislative  initiative was put forward by the RA National Assembly deputy from  the ruling "Civil Contract" faction Hayk Sargsyan. The specified  amount of the state fee of 15 million drams, according to Sargsyan's  plan, will correspond to the amount that must be paid by persons who  have reached the age of 27 and evaded service in the armed forces of  the country, which will allow them to avoid criminal punishment. In  addition, the deputy proposed increasing the maximum age for  conscription into active military service by 10 years - from 27 to 37  years.