How Many Conscripts Are Exempted from Military Service Annually?

The National Assembly is discussing a draft law amending the "Military Service and Status of Servicemen" law, which proposes exempting the brothers of servicemen killed in battle from mandatory military service. The draft was presented by Hayk Sargsyan, a member of the "Civil Contract" faction.

Member of Parliament Hovik Aghazaryan inquired how many conscripts were exempted from mandatory military service for various reasons during 2021. The author of the draft noted that based on normalized data from an 8-year period leading up to the 44-day war, approximately 8,000 conscripts have been exempted from military service each year, mostly due to health issues.

"There is a secretive part in your question, but based on averaged data from 8 years ago, I can say that annually about 8,000 conscripts are exempted from mandatory military service, mainly due to health reasons. In terms of comparability, we can say that it was like this before the war," noted Hayk Sargsyan.

According to the MP, he has the figures, and the responses to the ministry's inquiries are in the secret section of the National Assembly. "This is indeed a serious issue, and discussions are currently underway in the government regarding this matter. It was also the task of the Vice Prime Minister during the committee meeting to try to include the conscripts who are not going for mandatory military service due to health problems into other services so that the number of our armed forces can be replenished and such a large number of conscripts are not exempted from military service," emphasized the representative of the Civil Contract faction.

Deputy Defense Minister Arman Sargsyan also stated that it is undesirable to announce such numbers, but he did not deny the figures presented by Hayk Sargsyan.