The Armenian government has introduced a draft law proposing to reduce the length of mandatory military service from two years to 1.5 years, starting with the summer 2026 draft.
According to the government, the initiative is justified by recent reforms aimed at expanding contractual military service. These include the “Defender of the Fatherland” program, the establishment of a professional sergeant system, the introduction of a servicemen certification process, and the organization of contractual service in border units while preserving long-service pensions.
Tigran Abrahamyan, secretary of the Republican Party of Armenia, has warned that the proposed changes could worsen existing problems. He noted that over the past four years, thousands of reservists and members of the Yerkrapah Union have been repeatedly called up to perform combat duty and operational tasks, which underscores continuing staffing shortages. Reservist gatherings, often presented as training exercises, in reality serve to fill manpower gaps in combat duty. In his view, the reduction in service length will not address these issues and may in fact deepen them.
Abrahamyan also argued that the initiative serves multiple political purposes: turning the reduction of service into a pre-election campaign tool, framing concessions as the result of state incapacity, and signaling to Azerbaijan that Armenia has no intention of sustaining a long-term military posture. He stated that rather than improving security, the draft law represents a serious internal blow to the state.
