Epress.am News from Armenia
In September, 2015, Armenian contract serviceman A. Grigoryan applied to the country's Defense Ministry with a request to be discharged from military service. After almost half a year of silence, following an Administrative Court appeal filed by Grigoryan in January, 2016, the Defense Ministry notified the serviceman on February 29 that he had to pay AMD 2, 632, 912 (about $ 5 500) compensation to the Ministry in order to be eligible for a discharge. Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office (HCAV) reports that, despite disagreeing with the amount of the compensation, Grigoryan nevertheless paid it. However, to date, the serviceman has not received a reply regarding his discharge.
Back in 2015, HCAV had appealed to Armenian Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan in connection with Grigoryan's request, and having had received no response, the human rights organizations turned to Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan with a futile demand to eliminate the Defense Ministry's inaction.
After this, on January 16, 2016, Grigoryan filed an appeal with the Administrative Court to oblige the Ministry to issue him a discharge order. According to Article 48 of the Armenian law On Principles of Administration and Administrative Proceedings, “in case of failure by the competent administrative body to adopt an administrative act within the time limit envisaged by the law, the administrative act is automatically considered adopted, and the applicant may take action towards the implementation of the relevant right.”
The Defense Ministry made the compensation claim only after the serviceman's administrative complaint, and Grigoryan has taken out a loan to be able to pay the money. The discharge order, however, has yet to be issued, and Grigoryan is forced to continue his service, HCAV says.