Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
Nov 27 2008
Armenia: Army Targets Students
Alarm about demographic slump leads to proposed enlistment on army-age
students.
By Sara Khojoian in Yerevan (CRS No. 470 27-Nov-08)
The Armenian government is working on amendments to legislation which
would force more students to do military service, thereby overcoming a
potential shortfall in recruits.
The defence and education ministries are drawing up the changes to
three existing laws, but have not yet presented them to parliament.
`They foresee removing the right to academic leave during military
call-up and setting certain benefits for students [for the duration of
their army service],’ said Mary Harutiunian, government spokeswoman.
Currently post-graduate students doing a master’s or doctorate are
entitled to `academic leave’ which exempts them from having to serve
in the military so they can concentrate on their studies.
While the final details of the proposed changes are not yet clear,
there has already been an outcry against the overall plan.
The government says that it needs to act now to tackle a lack of
conscripts for the armed forces. Beginning from this year and over the
next decade, conscripts will be young men born in the 1990s, the
number of whom is constantly declining, as the year 1991, when the
Soviet Union broke up and Armenia became independent, marked a fall in
the birth-rate.
According to national statistics, in 1990-92 the birth-rate (for both
boys and girls) was 70,000 but it has declined sharply since then to
48,000 in 1995 and 37,000 in 2006, after which it began a modest
recovery.
These trends are considered to be a threat to the country in two
official documents, the National Security Strategy and the Military
Doctrine.
However, some experts say that the answer to Armenia’s military needs
is to move away from conscription altogether.
Former deputy defence minister Artur Aghabekian ` currently a deputy
and head of the Armenian parliament’s committee on defence, internal
affairs and national security ` told IWPR, `There is really a
demographic problem in our country but I personally believe that
general conscription is not the solution.’
Aghabekian said it had been a mistake to close military departments in
colleges and universities, which train students in army-related
subjects during their studies and which he said were an important
institution for preparing youngster for careers in the armed forces.
Aghabekian said that Armenia needed to form a professional army by
giving out temporary contracts to professional soldiers.
The military currently do have units staffed by soldiers on contracts,
amongst them Armenia’s international peacekeeping battalion, but there
are no plans to expand this practice.
Another former deputy defence minister Vahan Shirkhanian also believes
the army needs to move away from full reliance on conscription,
particularly since emigration was becoming a big problem. `From 2001
to 2006, 27,000 school-children left Armenia and, this year, from
January to August alone, 83,000 people left Armenia. People who leave
the country take their sons with them,’ he said.
`So just imagine how many [potential recruits] we are losing every
day, which is why our eyes are always turned to universities, to call
up 18-year-olds. But that’s not how the problem gets solved.
`This plan could cause a lot of problems for education and science and
also hurt the relationship between the public and the army. All the
more so when problem number one for our military security is the
restoration of trust between army and the public.’
Research shows that young men do not want to serve in the army and
parents are reluctant to send their children there because they
consider it corrupt.
Surveys carried out by the anti-corruption organisation Transparency
International in 2002 and 2006 reveal that attitudes towards the army
had not changed in those four years. In the first poll, 46.6 per cent
of those surveyed said they considered the army extremely corrupt,
four years later the figure was 40.4 per cent. The corresponding
numbers of people who said the army was merely corrupt were 16 and
25.1 per cent.
A major reason for public distrust of the army is the high death-rate
amongst conscripts, with frequent reports of young men dying in
unexplained circumstances.
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman Armen Harutyunian has sent an
official letter to the head of the government administration Davit
Sargsian, saying that Armenian law was currently in line with the
Europe-wide Bologna Declaration on higher education and that the
rights of students to continuous study risked being abused under the
new legislation.
The chairman of parliament’s education committee Armen Ashotian said
that every effort should be made to soften the impact of the new law
on students ` through new benefits paid to them while they serve ` but
insisted it was necessary.
`We all understand that the age of conscription is approaching the
`demographic pit’, that starts with the years 1990-1992 ,’ said
Ashotian. `Men born at that time should soon be called up into the
army and everyone understands that the most important task is
increasing the efficiency of the army.’
But many young people are opposed to the proposed changes.
Twenty-six-year-old Alexander Chilingirian, who has gained a doctorate
in physics, said that he would never have completed his studies if he
had to serve in the army.
`The army breaks a person,’ said Chilingiran. `And it doesn’t matter
if you join the army at 18 and come out at 20 or if you join at 21 and
come out at 23, you don’t have the will to carry anything on. In two
years in the army the brain doesn’t just switch off, it degrades.’
Sixteen-year-old Mikael Sandrosian, a second-year geology and
metallurgy student in Yerevan, takes a similar view.
`If I go into the army that it will definitely have a bad effect on my
studies,’ he said. `In the first place if I join up, I will forget
everything I know in two years and when I return it will be hard and I
won’t have the will to carry on learning.’
Government spokesperson Mary Harutiunian said that the draft changes
were now being studied by experts, then discussed in government before
being presented to parliament. She said there was no time-frame for
their approval.
She said Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian had promised wide discussion
of the issue to ensure that the eventual changes had public support.
Sara Khojoian is a correspondent with Armenianow.com in Yerevan.