SOME DETAILS OF MILITARY SERVICE EVASION IN ARMENIA
Translated by Pavel Pushkin

Source: Novoe Vremya (Yerevan), October 31, 2006, p. EV
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 13, 2006 Monday

In the Soviet times evasion of the military service was an ordinary
matter in Armenia. As a rule, parents, especially top-ranking ones,
did their best to protect their sons. These were mostly residents
of cities. If they failed to protect their sons from the service
they tried to arrange for their sons to serve as close to home as
possible. The luckiest ones remained to serve in Armenia. Some of
the conscripts were exempted from service for bribes or for good
relations. At any rate, one thing did not stand in the way of the
other. All thinkable false documents about bad health, incomplete
status of families and other documents of this kind were obtained by
hook or by crook. Military commissars and doctors made very much money
on this. Practically the same is happening nowadays. Probably flight
of conscripts to Russia or to other CIS countries was added to the
well-tested methods. Very often conscripts flee without any documents,
sit and wait for the time when they turn 27. Alleged religious belief
has become a popular method to. Another less prestigious method is
post-graduate study. There are post-graduates in the country sufficient
for an entire division.

Deserting from the army acquired local specific traits to. Soldiers
desert seldom but they are often allowed to go home for a while for
bribes. This phenomenon has not acquired a mass nature yet but is at
least very popular.

Nothing will evidently change in the future and no supreme national
interests can serve as an obstacle.