Armenian parliament exempts brothers and sons of soldiers killed in action from compulsory military service

YEREVAN, April 12, /ARKA/. By a vote of 68 Armenia’s National Assembly has approved today in the second and final reading a bill that exempts the brothers and sons of Armenian soldiers killed in action from 24-month long compulsory military service.

According to Armenia’s Investigative Committee, 3,822 people were killed and 187 servicemen and 21 civilians are still missing after the 44-day war in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in 2020 autumn.

"We have younger brothers of soldiers who were killed in the 2016 four-day and 2020 44-day wars in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflcit zone who are subject to compulsory military service because they are not the only sons in the family. Many of their parents are in a difficult psychological and social state and don't want to send their younger sons to compulsory military service," Hayk Sargsyan, an MP from the Civil Contract party, an author of the bill, said earlier.

According to Sargsyan’s estimates, only 52 young men will likely qualify for the exemption over the next two years.

Sargsyan stressed that the bill when passed into law will apply not only to the sons and brothers of soldiers killed in the 2016 and 2020 wars, but also to relatives of soldiers who died in other circumstances while on combat duty or while defending the homeland.

Under the changes made between the first and second readings, those brothers or sons of fallen servicemen who want to do mandatory military service will be able, on their own application, to waive the exemption and be drafted. -0-