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On February 17, 2015 the Military Registration and Enlistment Office of Artashat registered for conscription Ukrainian national H.P. and in September, 2017 referred him to medical examination for conscription.

The RA Ministry of Defense explained that his registration was based on the fact that Yerevan was mentioned as his place of birth in his birth certificate. In other words, the defense department enlists and drafts a person only based on the data on his place of birth in his birth certificate, without checking and verifying his nationality.

Whereas, the RA Ministry of Defense is obliged to make such decisions only after verifying the data on each person.

In this case, H.P. got nationality of Ukraine by consent of his parents in line with the RA Law on Citizenship effective at the time of his birth; this is supported by the birth certificate and passport of a Ukrainian citizen granted to him. Moreover, on August 4, 2016 H.P.’s father got a reference from the Passport and Visa Department of the RA Police stating that “There is no information on H.P.’s nationality; he was not issued any passport of Armenian citizen.”

HCA Vanadzor took on protection of H. P.’s rights back in January 2017 and sent a number of inquiries on the grounds for his registration to the RA Ministry of Defense and the RA Military Enlistment and Registration Officer.

HCA Vanadzor got a response to its inquiry sent to the RA Ministry of Defense on March 3, 2017 no sooner than 3 months later when HCA Vanadzor filed an administrative complaint to the RA Prime Minister demanding that competent authorities were compelled to provide the required information.

By his letter of June 9, 2017, the RA Military Enlistment and Registration Officer assured that to solve the issue of H.P.’s conscription, inquiries were sent to the Passport and Visa Department of the RA Police and promised to provide further information after getting their replies.

It took them over 4 months to get such further information.

After repeated inquiries by HCA Vanadzor, we got replies from H. Muradyan, RA Military Enlistment and Registration Officer, and then on October 10, 2017 from M. Hakobyan, Chief of the General Staff of RA Armed Forces, stating that H. P. was not subject to conscription and military registration in RA.

In fact, the actions taken by the citizen and HCA Vanadzor made it possible to prevent illegal conscription in this case.

We do not know whether there have ever been any other similar cases. If you have any information on any similar cases, feel free to contact HCA Vanadzor.

But a question arises: doesn’t this case expressly deny the RA Defense Minister’s statement that they have no task to ensure a certain number of conscripts.