Conscripts Can Pay 24 Million Drams and Serve for a Few Months: MoD Proposes New Legislation

The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia has presented a new bill for public discussion, proposing the introduction of a new system for contract military service as well as a short-term mandatory military service for conscripts under the condition of paying money to the state budget of Armenia. This was reported by the website e-draft.am.

According to the government's program for 2021-2026, the establishment of legislative grounds for the gradual and regulated reduction of the term of mandatory military service has been planned. In this context, taking into account the experiences of several foreign countries, it is proposed to allow conscripts to be discharged from mandatory military service early under the condition of paying 24 million drams to the state budget if they complete the training phase (on average, four and a half months) of military service.

The specified amount is also justified by the reasoning that instead of one conscript, a contract soldier can be offered a monthly salary of up to 400,000 drams for a period of five years, which is a crucial motivational component for introducing a professional military service system.