Defence official: Armenia focuses on peace to build professional army

Achieving peace as the highest political goal creates an opportunity to advance the development of a professional army, the head of the Armenian Parliament's Defense and Security Commission, Andranik Kocharyan, said.

While discussing the reduction of mandatory military service to 1.5 years, he told journalists that the growing number of participants in the “Defender of the Fatherland” program allows authorities to manage conscription effectively, Caliber.Az reports per Armenian media.

“Therefore, there is no problem with troop numbers,” he emphasised.

Kocharian added that if, in the future, a one-year conscription period proves sufficient for proper training and serving the interests of the state, the issue will be reconsidered.

Official public sources describe exact Armenian troop numbers as a “state secret.”

According to the 2023 Global Militarisation Index (GMI), Armenia fields about 42,900 active soldiers, plus around 4,300 paramilitary personnel, and maintains a reserve pool of roughly 210,000 former service members.

Armenia’s armed forces rely heavily on older Russian/Soviet‑era hardware, a factor regularly noted in global defence‑capacity assessments.

By Jeyhun Aghazada