Cabinet approves new voluntary military service option for women

YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. The Cabinet approved on Friday the Defense Ministry’s bill on introducing a new voluntary military service option for women.

If the bill gets final approval in parliament, women will be enabled to join the military for a 6-month service.

The recruits will serve in the training military bases.

Servicemembers will receive a 1,000,000 AMD remuneration upon completion of the 6-month service.

Furthermore, after completing the 6-month term, recruits will have the chance to sign up for contractual military service for 5 years under the Homeland Defender option, Defense Minister Suren Papikyan explained at the Cabinet meeting.

In turn, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that this move is part of his administration’s concept of having a professional army.

“At first glance it may seem otherwise but this is actually a step for having a professional army, because we are enabling women to voluntarily join the military and serve for 6 months. This isn’t going to be a walk in the military base, this will be a normal military service. As a result, there’ll be citizens who will go back to their civilian lives after being discharged and will be listed in the reserve of our military. Some of them will want to enlist into professional service, and they will join the army and will start serving contractually. I am speaking about active duty combat service,” Pashinyan said.

The bill is expected to enter parliament during the current session, thus, if passed, the service option will be available during the upcoming winter conscription.