Defense Ministry refutes Azeri fake news about reserve training

The Armenian Defense Ministry has denied Azerbaijani media reports that had falsely claimed that the country is organizing training musters for reservists because it is preparing for war. 

Defense Ministry spokesperson Aram Torosyan, in comments for Armenpress, underscored that the 25-day training musters for reservists is a regularly held program in Armenia and there is nothing unusual in them.

He said that the training musters of reservists has been defined by law since 1991 and still remains the main activity of reserve training for eligible citizens.

“Training musters have been held for a very long time, and initially they were held for a three-months period, but since 2023 the involvement of reservists is carried out for a 25-day period, which allows a more productive organization of the training musters in terms of timing and causes less “inconvenience” to involved citizens. This is why the Cabinet is regularly adopting a decision on holding training musters. The previously held regular training musters have been replaced with the 25-day training musters for already two years, and therefore this is nothing new and there is nothing unusual here. The training musters don’t have any aggressive subtext and are part of the normal training of citizens registered in the reserve and the military reforms, which is typical to the mandatory process of organizing defense in all countries,” Torosyan said.