The Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Armenia developed, approved with the interested state bodies and submitted to the RA Ministry of Justice for the state-legal expertise a draft law of the Republic of Armenia "On making additions and amendments to the civil code of the Republic of Armenia", according to which the deadline for submitting an application to the court for judicial recognition of a serviceman or other citizen missing during the military operations is set within three months instead of one year and in the same conditions, the deadline for declaring a missing person dead by a court is set within one year instead of two years. The activity of law applies to the relations arising from September 27 of 2020.

The scope of the social guarantees for the servicemen recognized as missing in court and other persons who voluntarily participated in the combat operations is defined by the paragraph 2 of the part 4 of the article 72 of the RA law "On the status of military service and servicemen" and by the RA law "On compensation of the damages caused to the life or health of the servicemen during the defence of the Republic of Armenia".

For the purpose of clarifying the personnel process for the possibility of appointing other servicemen to the positions held by the missing servicemen since September 27 of 2020, an order of the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Armenia was adopted, according to which the missing servicemen, about whom there is no information regarding desertion or death, are considered to be in captivity and on that basis they are released from the military position and left at the disposal of the personnel.

At the same time, since the part 13 of the article 61 of the law "On the status of military service and servicemen" did not envisage a provision for maintaining the salary of the servicemen left at the disposal of the personnel on the grounds of being in captivity, the relevant draft law developed on the initiative of the RA Ministry of Defence envisages the right to urgently submit the draft law to the RA National Assembly and adopt it by the RA National Assembly. According to the regulations, the salary for the servicemen being in captivity is maintained and its payment is made in the manner prescribed by the order of the head of the state authorized body only in the case when as a result of an official investigation into the fact that a serviceman is in captivity it is obviously justified that being in captivity is not a consequence of the serviceman voluntarily leaving the military unit or place of service or battlefield or (voluntarily) being taken prisoner or if there is no criminal proceedings initiated on the grounds of the article 382 of the criminal code of the Republic of Armenia.

To execute the requirements of the above-mentioned law, by the order N 1169-L of 07.12.2020 of the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Armenia, the procedure for paying the salary for the servicemen being in captivity was established which regulates the relations related to the payment of the salary of the servicemen left at the disposal of the personnel on the grounds of being in captivity (in this case, we are also talking about the servicemen whose whereabouts are unknown) to the family, taking into account the requirements of the law.

The order N 1169-L of 07.12.2020 of the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Armenia was published on the official website of the RA Ministry of Defence.