The Minister of Defense announced in the National Assembly that reducing mandatory conscription by 6 months cannot be considered a reduction in the army, citing the increase in contract service as justification. Tigran Abrahamyan, secretary of the “I Have Honor” faction, wrote about this on his Facebook page.
“First, reducing conscription by 6 months means a 25% reduction in the number of conscripts in that direction, and second, the increase in the number of contract servicemen reported by the Ministry of Defense is not equivalent to the number of those being reduced.
And most importantly, various figures in the government, before this change, admitted that there was a serious recruitment problem and that under these conditions they were proceeding with an inadequate reduction in the army.
“I understand the joy of a part of society who view this proposal from an emotional and non-professional perspective, but we must clearly understand that in the face of numerous existing complications, a rupture will occur in the armed forces, which will have serious consequences for the country’s defense.”