Armenian army runs short of draftees
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
The shortage of personnel in the Armenian army is caused by a number of factors. These include a reduction in the country's population due to low fertility and high rate of migration. Another reason is the reluctance of Armenian youth to serve in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region and turn into "cannon fodder" for the sake of the myth of greater Armenia. It is not surprising that Armenian military-political leadership is trying to somehow deal with this imminent problem.
For instance, in 2018, Pashinyan’s government decided to send the Internal Troops to the front line. However, the military personnel opposed this and began to write resignation letters.
It is worth noting that women used to serve in the Armenian army in the past as snipers. However, it was not possible to fill in the gaps in the army alone with snipers, therefore, in the last couple of years, Armenian women have been recruited in large numbers to military service. Press Secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan boasts about the growing number of female military personnel in the Armenian army. He believes that this testifies to the "professionalization" of the army since the role of women in any professional army is quite high. Moreover, Hovhannisyan considers that the dream of an ideal, highly combat-ready Armenian army will come true only in case of joint service of women and men.
However, pretty quickly the women in military uniforms started to massively complain to the higher command about unbearable conditions of service. However, these complaints did not have any effect, since no one had responded to them. As a result, women also began to leave the Armenian army.
When women began to withdraw from the army en masse, the Armenian Defense Ministry finally reacted. On October 18, by order of Defense Minister David Tonoyan, a department for working with women military personnel was formed as part of the Department of moral and psychological support of the Armenian Armed Forces. According to the Defense Ministry, the purpose of the newly created unit is to conduct and analyze studies related to organizing and ensuring equal opportunities for organizing female service in the armed forces, submitting proposals for resolving issues and problems raised.
From the above, one can conclude that women were quickly disappointed with the horrible conditions in the army. Indeed, it is difficult to serve in the army (especially women), in which soldiers and officers hate each other, where conscripts from Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia have constant fights, and where corruption and violence flourishes.
---
Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz