Students protesting in Yerevan

Students of Yerevan State University have taken to the streets in the Armenian capital protesting against the law on military service that foresees cancellation of the army respite for students.

Several hundreds of students are participating in the action and calling their mates join the action and cancel the law initiated by the defense ministry.

Previously, Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan announced when presenting the law at the parliament that the amendments are aimed to restore justice and that “everyone must go to the army.” According to him, statistics has shown that only a few students who get an army respite go to the army later. The defense minister himself did not serve in the army.

Opponents of the initiative believe that it is aimed at reinforcing the armed forces with the staff, which is a top priority issue for the military leadership in the situation of the demographic crisis and a very tense situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area. However, the measure is rather ineffective, as only 140 students can have the army respite, which is a scant number in terms of the whole Armenian army.

Students are claiming that the Armenian education minister and defense minister come and meet them and discuss the amendments. They believe that the initiative presented by the defense minister will put an end to development of science in the country.