By Elen Muradyan
Armenia’s government has approved new legislation that significantly strengthens penalties for citizens who evade mandatory military training assemblies, marking another step in the country’s efforts to address its ongoing military personnel challenges.
According to a decision approved during Thursday’s government session, individuals who avoid military training assemblies without legally recognized exemptions will face severe administrative or criminal liability. The legislation, presented by the Ministry of Defense, establishes a graduated system of penalties based on the nature of the evasion.
Citizens who fail to report to military commissariats for training, refuse to undergo health assessments, or decline to participate in military assemblies will face fines ranging from 15 to 30 times the minimum wage. More serious cases could result in short-term imprisonment of up to two months or incarceration for one to three years.
The law imposes even harsher penalties for those who attempt to evade service through self-inflicted injuries, simulating illness, document forgery, or other deceptive methods. Such violations could lead to imprisonment for two to five years.
The legislation allows individuals to avoid criminal liability if they voluntarily report and participate in the required training assemblies.
The changes will come into effect on the tenth day following their official publication.
This latest measure comes amid broader efforts to reform Armenia’s military service requirements and address personnel shortages. According to recent government data, only 30 to 40 percent of eligible Armenian men actually fulfill their military service obligations, a gap that officials say critically impacts national security.
The ruling Civil Contract party has been advancing comprehensive conscription reforms that would raise the upper age limit for mandatory service from 27 to 37 years while introducing a tiered system allowing citizens to choose between full service, shortened service with substantial fees, or symbolic service with even higher payments.
“The systemic avoidance of military service has created both operational challenges for our armed forces and inequities among citizens,” said a Defense Ministry representative who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “These new penalties for training evasion represent just one component of our broader strategy to ensure national defense readiness.”
Controversy and unaddressed systemic problems
However, the government’s approach to military reform has drawn significant criticism from defense experts. Eduard Arakelyan, a military analyst at the Yerevan-based Regional Center for Democracy and Security, argues that the recent initiatives fail to address the root causes of Armenia’s military personnel problems.
“Instead of acknowledging their own failures in the defense sphere and implementing deep reforms to restore order and discipline in army structures, the government has found nothing better than to offer the wealthy class of citizens the option to pay for ‘refusing military duty,'” Arakelyan wrote in a recent analysis published on CivilNet.
See: The state offers buyouts, but doesn’t offer solutions to the army’s systemic problems (in Russian)
According to Arakelyan, the proposed tiered system for military service creates a troubling social divide: “The wealthy citizens, primarily from business circles, officials, and middle-class social groups, will have a legal way to buy their draft-age children and relatives out of full military service, while the poor segments of the population, especially from the regions, will not have such an opportunity.”
He further argues that this approach contradicts the declared goal of defense reform, which would involve the entire society in Armenia’s defense system, from school education to mobilization reserve preparation.
Armenia’s current conscription system faces multiple challenges. Common avoidance tactics include renouncing Armenian citizenship before age 18, a method used by over 8,700 young men between 2020 and 2024, or leaving the country until reaching the age of exemption. Health-related exemptions, which account for approximately 80 percent of all service deferrals, have also come under scrutiny for potential abuse.
Arakelyan points to deeper issues affecting military recruitment that the new penalties and fee-based options fail to resolve: “A country with a population of 3 million cannot recruit the minimum required number of conscripts due to a crisis of trust in state institutions, internal political instability, inefficiency of the government and army command, and also due to the decline in the prestige of military service as a result of defeats and low discipline in the army.”
He particularly highlights the alarming number of non-combat deaths in the Armenian armed forces. “In 2024 alone, out of 40 deaths among military personnel, only four cases relate to combat losses,” Arakelyan notes, suggesting that these statistics further undermine public confidence in military service.
Military analysts note that Armenia’s persistent security concerns with neighboring Azerbaijan make these reforms particularly urgent. The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war highlighted critical personnel shortages that continue to affect Armenia’s defense posture.
“Training assemblies for reservists are essential for maintaining military readiness, especially given our limited pool of active personnel,” explained Armen Grigoryan, a Yerevan-based security analyst. “By criminalizing evasion of these assemblies, the government is closing another loophole in a system that has been too easy to circumvent.”
The legislation is expected to complement other proposed reforms, including stricter oversight of medical exemptions and penalties for those who refuse mandatory medical evaluations. However, critics like Arakelyan argue that without addressing the fundamental issues of trust, discipline, and military leadership, “neither a combat-ready army nor comprehensive defense can be built.”
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