Credit Obligations of Fallen Soldiers, Disabled Individuals, and the Missing to Be Paid

The enforcement proceedings initiated against the family members of those who became disabled, were killed, or went missing during the war are subject to termination. During today’s National Assembly session, Deputy Minister of Justice Yeranuhi Tumanyan presented the proposed amendments by the Government of Armenia to the law on Enforcement of Judicial Acts.

According to her explanation, the current law, adopted in 1998, does not include provisions for the non-collection of credit obligations based on participation in military operations, acquiring disability as a result, or being killed.

"The draft proposes to terminate the enforcement proceedings concerning individuals who were recognized as killed, disabled, missing, or deceased during military operations in the Republic of Armenia or while on combat duty at the contact line with the enemy, or while performing special missions, which were initiated for credit obligations assumed before December 31, 2020," said the deputy minister.

She also noted that many banks have voluntarily written off debts for the families of war participants after the conflict, but there are cases where enforcement proceedings have already been initiated, creating legal issues in suspending those proceedings.

Babken Tunyan, a member of the Civil Contract faction, inquired about what is planned for situations where creditors have already paid the debt as a result of the proceedings. Yeranuhi Tumanyan stated that such cases are not addressed in the proposed legislation.

“There has been a suggestion from National Assembly experts for the refunded amounts to be returned. However, these require additional calculations; it needs to be understood what amounts are being referred to. Unfortunately, statistics or accounting are not being maintained in this regard,” she said.

Tunyan was not satisfied with this response. “I believe that the enforcement service itself should have this statistic, meaning they should know better than anyone else how much money has been collected from whom,” he stated, suggesting that the government present the statistics and make necessary amendments before the second reading of the draft.