Legalized Discrimination Or New Policy?
According to MP Hayk Sargsyan’s project, wanted citizens aged 27-37 are given the opportunity to be released from criminal prosecution and enter military service.
for a period of 12 months and pay 2.5 million drams to the state budget,
for a period of 6 months and pay 5 million drams to the state budget,
for a period of 1 month and pay 10 million drams to the state budget,
to pay 15 million drams to the state budget instead of military service.
Among the important points, we should also add that those citizens who volunteer to go to military service, instead of 2 years, will undergo mandatory military service for 2.5 years. This point of the project is presented as an incentive norm.
The legislative regulation brought with it several issues. From a legal point of view, we can claim that this legislative regulation contains a discriminatory treatment related to property status.
Discrimination is defined both by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Revised European Social Charter (ECHR).
The ECHR says “The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be ensured without discrimination, that is, regardless of sex, race, skin color, language, religion, political or other belief, national or social origin, belonging to a national minority, property status, from birth or other status.” It should be noted that Article 14 of the Convention also considers discrimination the property situation. The Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia also considers money, securities and property units as property (Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia
Article 132).
The 12th protocol of the ECHR is also about discrimination, which prohibits any type of discriminatory treatment.
Based on the above, it becomes clear that the shortening of the military service period or general exemption from military service in exchange for money is considered a clear manifestation of discriminatory treatment due to property status.
It is noteworthy that this legislative regulation becomes more problematic when we talk in the context of the reality of the Republic of Armenia. After the 2020 war, the 2022 racial attacks in Jermuk and the 2023 deportation of Artsakh Armenians, service in the border zone has become more dangerous.
These indicators are not complete and refer only to peaceful conditions.
There are countries in the world that have similar legal regulations, let’s consider some of those countries.
Citizens in Turkey are allowed to pay to be exempted from military service.For example, under a law passed in 2012, those born before 1983 could pay about $16,000 to be exempted from military service. This law has been debated many times, and its main criticism has been that only wealthy families can afford to pay, which creates social inequality.
In Iran , citizens abroad who have avoided compulsory service can pay around €15,000 to be exempted from military service.
In Tajikistan, a law passed in 2021 allows citizens to pay about $2,200 to be exempted from mandatory military service. However, they have to undergo a one-month military training to take advantage of this opportunity.
In Switzerland, there is a “Military service exemption tax”, which is intended for those who are unable or unwilling to perform their mandatory military service. They must pay this tax in return for fulfilling their service obligations.
As we can see, this payment in Armenia exceeds the amount of the countries considered as an example ($38,500), thus, by setting this amount, the legislator offers a highly differentiated and discriminatory approach, that is, wealthy individuals and families have the opportunity to benefit from this legislative regulation.
Funded by the Federal Office of Foreign Affairs.
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