Conscription

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Armenia

Armenia’s ruling party faces criticism over soldier non-combat deaths

by Arshaluys Barseghyan

•2 min read

Human rights activist Zaruhi Hovhannisyan has slammed the Deputy Chair of the Armenian Parliament’s Defence Committee, Armen Khachatryan, for attempting to downplay the responsibility of the authorities in the non-combat deaths of soldiers. ‘In our civilian life, we have many suicides, we have many accidents. I don’t know why you don’t talk about it, the reasons for those suicides’, Khachatryan said on Tuesday, in response to a question regarding the recent death of a soldier outside of comba

Georgian conscripts taking an oath. Image: Screengrab from the video of Georgian Ministry of Defence

Conscription

Podcast | Mandatory military service and ‘fictional’ priests in Georgia

by OC Media

•1 min read

Georgia’s defence code is stamping out loopholes that young Georgians use to get out of military service, as rights activists in the country warn that new amendments to the code could lead to discrimination against religious minorities. This week, we spoke to a Georgian student about why he chose to evade conscription, to Ioseb Edisherashvili from the Georgian Young Lawyers Association about the controversy surrounding the defence code, and to Giorgi Shaishmelashvili, the

Conscription

Georgia closes loopholes to defer military service

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

Georgia’s parliamentary majority has amended the country’s defence code, closing loopholes allowing conscientious objectors and long-distance students to defer their military service. Thursday’s amendments revoked exemption from military service for students enrolled in full-time distance study, as well as complicating a process used by conscientious objectors to immediately defer their service. This follows the introduction of a new defence code in September, which removed exemptions for al

Armenia

Armenian MoD proposes $61,000 fee to avoid conscription

by Ani Avetisyan

•1 min read

The Armenian Ministry of Defence has put forward proposals to allow conscripts to avoid most of their military service in exchange for ֏24 million ($61,000). The bill, which was submitted for public debate on Wednesday, would allow wealthier Armenians to serve for just 4.5 months, instead of the usual two years. The ministry explained that the ‘logic’ behind the move was that ֏24 million would be enough to pay a contract soldier ֏400,000 ($1,000) per month for five years. The ministry sa

Armenia

Armenian Yazidi says he was ‘beaten and abused’ while serving as a conscript

by Ani Avetisyan

•2 min read

An 18-year-old ethnic Yazidi man has claimed he was abused immediately upon being conscripted into the Armenian armed forces. On 2 February, relatives of Vle Feroyan appealed to the public after they said they had lost contact with him. Feroyan contacted them the following day and said he had escaped to a nearby forest and would return home, after being beaten and forced to clean a toilet. The commander of the Kapan military unit, where Feroyan was serving, denied the allegations. He said Fe

Ruslan Izzetli being detained during a protest on 11 February against February’s elections results. Photo Fatima Movlamli.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani opposition leader ruled ‘fit for army service’ despite health problems

by OC Media

•3 min read

The head of Azerbaijan’s opposition D18 Movement, Ruslan Izzetli, has been ruled fit for military service despite repeated medical examinations showing he had health problems. Izzetli has labelled the move ‘political punishment’ for his protest against electoral fraud during February’s elections. Izzetli said he was ruled fit for service following an examination on 8 May in Baku in which doctors refused to perform any tests. He said that results from a previous examination two days earlier

Conscription

New bill in Georgia would scrap military exemptions for non-Orthodox religions

by OC Media

•4 min read

The head of the Georgian Parliament’s Defence Committee is set to introduce a bill to scrap exemptions from mandatory military service for religious clerics, with the exception of Georgian Orthodox priests. The bill has sparked protests from human rights organisations, who said the initiative was discriminatory. A number of minority religious groups also opposed to the bill and said they were considering addressing the constitutional court if it is endorsed by parliament. Irakli Sesiashvi