Who are the three football players from the Armenian national team exempted from military service

The Armenian government, during its meeting today, February 18, exempted members of the national football team, Serob Grigoryan, Artyom Simonyan, and Armen Hambardzumyan, from mandatory military service.

The reasoning for the decision states that these players had been granted deferral until the winter recruitment of 2020, based on a government decision made on December 14, 2017.

"Since Serob Grigoryan, Artyom Simonyan, and Armen Hambardzumyan will turn 26 in 2021, it is impossible to grant them any further deferral from mandatory military service. Hence, there is a necessity to exempt the aforementioned football players from mandatory military service," the reasoning reads.

The players are registered with the Yerevan Central Territorial Military Commissariat.