Koryun Nahapetyan about cancelling deferment and women’s military service
During the discussion of the government program at the National Assembly, Minister of Defense, Vigen Sargsyan spoke about the possibility for women to be enlisted in the military service, saying that appropriate conditions would be created for them. This as well as the government’s remark to realize draft proposal of taking all the boys of 18 to the Army had great reflection in the society. They started discussing vigorously on the social media that how “now we have pass on to women, now we will take boys of 18 to the Army, what about the science?”
Note, that draft proposal on cancelling that deferment was proposed to the Assembly in1998 by Vazgen Sargsyan, Minister of Defense of that time, and a serious conflict arose with Babken Ararqtsyan, President of the National Assembly at that time, who wanted to resign for that reason. Levon Tter-Petrosyan interfered and he could convince Babken Ararqtsyan not to resign. The draft proposal was withdrawn from circulation.
Deputies of the “Heritage” party Rubik Hakobyan and Tevan Poghosyan put it into circulation again, and David Harutyunyan announced that the government was preparing a new packet including that issue too. Today that question is again an urgent one. Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan did not give a certain answer on that issue at the National Assembly, saying that there are two views – to grant a deferment at institutions of higher education or not.
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-“The former Minister of Defense, for example, believed that after coming back from the deferment, the military personnel is very responsible, and it is very useful for the army. Which option is the right one, I do not know, but I know that the rules of the game should certainly apply to everyone, regardless of the fact what decision we will make.”
In this regard, “Aravot” talked to President of the Committee of Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs, Koryun Nahapetyan. In his words,
-“Once we discussed that issue at the committee, and the stand was that at this phase it is not expedient to implement it. There was not a mutual agreement on this issue at that time either . As for the new situation, I think we will touch upon that issue in the framework of the new constitutional initiative presented by the government. And at this phase Ministry of Defense conducts certain works in the framework of the draft proposals on the elaboration of a new law on Defense as well as on the military service. There are already preliminary observation, there is even an idea ofelaborating a draft proposal where the relations in military service will be regulated.”
Koryun Nahpetyan said that by the end of this year the government would present its position. To our question, “Are you in favor of it, is there a need for that or it is an exaggerated measure?”, Koryun Nahapetyan replied that he was not in favor of it. As for the women’s military service, Koryun Nahapetyan is sure that there is misunderstanding by the society.
-“It is not about the mandatory call for military service. Today also women are not less in the armed forces. There are types of military service where in separate cases women record higher results than men do. There are many women in the central apparatus of the Ministry of Defense too. The question is not that today our armed forces are in such a bad situation that men are not able to implement the defense of the borders of their country and we are trying to solve the problem by involving women in the mandatory military service. There is no such thing. On the other hand it should be noted that many girls, women are interested in military service and in separate cases we even get alarms that why their opportunities of getting involved in military service are limited. It is not a requirement, but there is such a question. For that new conditions should be created so that women can get involved in the military service, if they wish and can do so.”
The appointment of the new Minister of Defense gave rise to various interpretations that he did not serve in the army and is far from the army, he is a civilian person, etc. To our question, “Isn’t it necessary to serve in the army in order to be a Minister of Defense?” Koryun Karapetyan answered:
-“In general serving in the Armed Forces is not only the constitutional duty of each RA citizen, but we also attach a high importance to the fact that a person has served in the Armed Forces. Once I presented more than reasonable arguments on that. As for the Minister of Defense, we should be able to distinguish clearly between the functions of the Minister and the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces. Definitely, in case of the officials of the Armed Forces we cannot imagine that it is possible to be a high ranking officer without serving in the army. In the case of the Defense Minister it is possible because the Defense Minister is a member of the government and his functions substantially differ. Quite different qualities and experience are necessary for the implementation of an effective management in the field of military diplomacy, army building, social defense of the military people. Of course, it would have been preferable that the Defense Minister also had served in the army as he would have seen the peculiarities of organizing the internal service during the military service more vividly, but it is not a mandatory requirement at all. I have such a feeling and I hope that the newly appointed Defense Minister with his activities, tactics, and policy will be able to confirm that indeed he implements an effective policy in the field of defense and soon we will speak about the results”.
HRIPSIME JEBEJYAN
“Aravot”
