Armenia puts women at gunpoint
Expert opinions on Caliber.Az

INTERVIEWS  18 June 2023 - 11:46

The Armenian parliament has adopted in the first reading a draft law on the procedure for women's service in the army. Amendments and additions to the laws "On defence" and "On military service and status of a serviceman" were passed with 62 votes in favour, Sputnik Armenia reports.

Presenting the draft law before the vote, Defence Minister Suren Papikyan said that women aged 18-27 can apply for military service. The term of service will be 6 months, and it will be possible to withdraw from it at any time before (but not after) the start of service. The service will take place in a separate military unit.

After six months of service, servicemen will receive an award of 1 million drams (about $2,500). In case of early release from service due to health reasons, a serviceman will receive a portion of this payment proportional to the months of service.

Those wishing to continue serving will be able to apply under the Defender of the Fatherland programme and join the service for five years, at the end of which they will receive a payment of $5 million (slightly over $12,000).

I wonder why the Armenian leadership is introducing this practice in the first place. Are there fewer men in today's Armenia able to serve in the army than women? And given the general weakness of the armed forces that they have reached as a result of losing the 44-day war to Azerbaijan, it is even more unclear what can be changed by having women serving in the army. What is the purpose of this, what is it for?

Foreign military experts have agreed to share their views with Caliber.Az.

In the opinion of Doctor of Military and Political Sciences (Georgia), Professor Vakhtang Maisaia, these events can be explained by the fact that there is a big crisis in Armenia now.

"This is particularly evident in terms of military patriotism. This, firstly. And secondly, we should bear in mind that Armenia lost the military campaign (the 44-day war) cleanly and was left virtually on its own. And the velvet revolution that happened there in 2018, the regime change, also generally contributed to the processes that are taking place today.

I think that the outflow of the masses from Armenia (which can be called a demographic bomb), plus the defeatist sentiment in the public environment, has led to the fact that this country is now virtually unable to ensure its own military security, let alone support the Karabakh separatists. And this critical situation is forcing the Armenian leadership to take such unusual decisions as conscripting women into the army," says the expert.

It looks like an attempt to take advantage of the last thing they have, the professor noted.

"By the way, this situation can be compared to what was going on towards the end of Tsarist Russia. In 1916, the government of Nicholas II came up with the idea of mobilising women, and there were even women's battalions. This was because the Tsarist army was on the verge of collapse and moral decay. And all this then ended in February 1917. This is all the analogy that the decision of the Armenian authorities to turn to women to save or preserve the army can evoke," Dr Maisaia said.

In his turn, the head of the security department of the Ukrainian Centre for Political Research Doctrine, Hleb Parfyonov, noted that the experience of wars in Karabakh and Ukraine showed that military genius alone is not enough to achieve victory. Serious human resources are needed.

"Accordingly, we need to use all the mobilisation opportunities for this. If we look at Armenia's demographic pyramid, we can see that there are significantly fewer young people than adults. That is why fewer men will be potentially mobilised in the future than they would like to be. That's why they take such measures due to demographic changes," the expert says.

According to him, Armenia is not alone in the world, we can see similar processes in Scandinavian countries, the US.

"This does not mean that women will fight in full force on the frontline. But the fact that they will be replacing rear positions, that's for sure - in order to increase the manpower of combat units themselves," Parfenov concluded.

Caliber.Az