Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has signed a decree on drafting young Tajiks into the country’s armed forces from October through November 2018, the Tajik president’s official website reports.
The draft affects able-bodied male citizens in the age bracket of 18 years old to 27 years old, who are not members of the armed forces reserve.
The same decree provides for the retirement from active duty of soldiers and sergeants whose service under conscription is over.
Taking into consideration the specific character of service in the border troops, special units and the National Guard, the Ministry of Defense is to select conscripts for serving in these units in cooperation with the security and interior bodies immediately.
The Ministry of Health is tasked to provide specialists from medical facilities of Dushanbe to make medical examination of conscripts for the districts subordinate to the center.
Heads of cities and districts are responsible for organization of the conscription campaign, the website says.
According to the Ministry of Defense (MoD), every year, some 15,000-16,000 young Tajik men are drafted into the country’s armed forces. The two-month-long effort seeking to enlist young men aged 18-27 for the two-year compulsory military service takes place twice a year, in the spring and in the autumn.
Some sources say more than 600,000 young men in Tajikistan are eligible for military service, but some 150,000 of them have received draft deferments or are exempted from the military service and some 100,000 other conscript-age young Tajiks are outside the country in search of a living.
Young Tajiks can avoid or postpone military service if they are ill, studying at university, an only son, or if they have two children.
Tajikistan’s armed forces consist of Ground Forces, Mobile Forces (paratroopers of the armed forces of Tajikistan), Air Force and Air Defense Force.
Unlike the other former Soviet states of Central Asia, Tajikistan did not form armed forces based upon former Soviet units on its territory. Instead, the Russian Ministry of Defense took control of the Dushanbe-based 201st Motor Rifle Division. Control simply shifted from the former district headquarters in Tashkent, which was in now-independent Uzbekistan, to Moscow.
