Is the “raid” season on youth officially open?

The spring conscription season for military service in Tajikistan will begin on April 1, 2024.

The President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, signed a decree on March 5, 2024, regarding the discharge of military personnel to the reserve and the upcoming conscription for military service.

According to the presidential decree, male citizens of Tajikistan born between 1997 and 2006 who reach the age of 18 by the time of conscription, as well as older citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan who are not entitled to deferment or exemption from military service, are subject to conscription.

Also, according to this decree, military personnel who have completed their required terms of service will be discharged from the Armed Forces of Tajikistan.

Although the official conscription season for youth into the army will begin on April 1, residents of some regions of the country complain that authorities are forcing parents to bring their children back from Russia and send them for military service.

On January 29, 2021, the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan “On Military Duty and Military Service” was adopted in a new edition.

Previously, citizens who graduated from universities and higher education institutions with military departments were exempt from mandatory military service and received the rank of junior lieutenant, but according to the new law, this rank will only be awarded after 12 months of military service.

According to this law, young men can be exempted from military service by paying more than 54,000 somoni (about 5,000 dollars).

The conscription of recruits into the armed forces in Tajikistan has been actively discussed for many years. Every year, during their service in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Tajikistan, military personnel are subjected to brutal beatings, and as a result, some die. There are even cases of disappearance. Most young people evade military service due to poor conditions.

For this reason, military enlistment officers detain young people of conscription age on the streets and in public places, as well as at their places of residence, during a campaign known among the people as “oblava,” and forcibly send them to the army. Such unlawful actions and the cruel treatment of enlistment officers towards conscription-age youth have long provoked a wave of negative reactions and public outrage. However, the authorities of the country have yet to take any measures to rectify the situation.