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E. T., who was drafted into the armed forces on January 31, 2017 despite health problems, was discharged early with the support of HCA Vanadzor.

E. T. had previously been granted a deferment twice and recognized as temporarily unfit for military service once; however, these decisions were based on only part of his health problems. His other health complaints, on the basis of which the conscript had to be referred to the stationary department for examination and on the basis of which he could be recognized as unfit for military service, were ignored by the CMC members.

What should be noted is that E. T. did not receive any treatment of any of his health problems throughout the whole period of the deferment. Therefore, his state of health could not have been improved given the gravity of his health problems.

Nevertheless, with the decision of January 30, 2017, the RA MoD Central Medical Condition once again recorded only part of E. T.’s health problems and recognized him as fit for military service with some restrictions.

To defend his rights, E. T. turned to Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office on February 14, 2017.

After receiving and scrutinizing the findings of the examination of the serviceman’s state of health that had been conducted prior to his being drafted, E. T.’s representative S. Soghomonyan, advocate at HCA Vanadzor, turned to the Chairperson of the RA MoD Central Military-Medical Committee with the claim to refer E. T. to the session of the RA MoD CMMC and to grant him an early discharge. However, the submitted claim was not studied properly, and the matter was not taken forward. Following this, the inaction of the Central Military-Medical Committee was appealed to a higher instance; an appeal was submitted to the RA Minister of Defense. However, the submitted claim was not met in this case either.

On October 24, 2017 S. Soghomonyan, advocate at HCA Vanadzor, applied to the court with the claim to oblige the respective bodies to issue a decision on referring E. T. to the session of the RA MoD Central Military-Medical Committee, recognizing him as unfit for military service in peaceful conditions and granting him an early discharge.

Right after applying to the court, E. T. was transferred to the Central Military Clinical Hospital, where, on February 12, 2018, following the examinations of nearly two months, the RA MoD Central Military-Medical Committee issued a decision on recognizing E. T. as unfit for military service in peaceful conditions and granting him an early discharge.