Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Coming to power last year, Armenian Prime Minister made a commitment to improve the socio-economic situation in the country, as well as to improve conditions for Armenian servicemen. However, no serious development in this regard is seen yet.

Being unable to find another way out, the Armenian prime minister decided to increase the allowances of soldiers by pitiful $4. In particular, the monthly money support to the military servicemen serving in the military units on the line of contact increased by 2,000 drams ($4), and for the rest of the military units - by 1,000 drams ($2). Even such minimal handouts are presented as an incredible success in Armenia.

Interestingly, Armenian Defense Minister David Tonoyan justified the need for this minor increase with the fact that over the past 10 years, the prices for personal hygiene items for soldiers have risen by almost a third.

Thus, the Armenian authorities have just indexed the underwear prices for the Armenian army and presented this as a serious improvement.

Meanwhile, the Armenian army has serious problems with underwear. In August 2018, about 10,000 units of low-quality underwear were discovered during inspections of the Armenian Defense Ministry in one of the military units.

Now the Armenian soldiers and sergeants will have to buy their own underwear for their pitiful increase in allowances. The Armenian leadership has once again demonstrated that it is not even able to fulfill its promises to provide the army with the necessary clothes in a timely and complete manner.

With such an approach, it is impossible to increase the combat effectiveness of the army that the Armenian government desires so much.

Meanwhile, the situation in the Armenian army continues to remain doleful. The hazing and arbitrariness in the army force more and more soldiers to commit suicide.

In the first half of 2019, 425 crimes were registered in the armed forces of Armenia. Almost 52 of these crimes are grave and 14 are particularly grave. Moreover, the number of crimes against the freedom, honor, and dignity of the soldiers has increased.

Total corruption, hazing, the arbitrariness of robbery and violence in the Armenian armed forces have completely discouraged young people from serving.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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