The Director of the Conscription Directorate in Syria, Sami Mahala, said that the rate of enrollment in military service has improved, adding that the breakthroughs that have occurred in the field have had a positive effect on the number of people wanting to sign up for service.
In a statement to Al-Watan on the sidelines of a forum held in the Rida Said Hall at Damascus University to explain the latest decree related to the delays to military service, and sponsored by the National Union of Syrian Students, and attended by a number of university students, Mahala said that considering civilian victims as martyrs would require study and then the issuance of a decree in this respect. He said that the Conscription Directorate was not the relevant body for this study.
With regards to delays for military service, Mahala said that more than 300,000 of those required to undertake military service had study delays this year. He said that over the years of the vicious war in Syria there had been no cancellation of any study delay, despite Article 10 of the Military Service law stipulating that it is allowed to cancel study delays for all those required to perform military service during a time of war through a decision from the General Commander of the Army and Armed Forces.
Mahala said that expatriates are excluded from reserve service and that they need to send a residence certificate each year to prove their residence in the country where they are living. He said that if they were called to service before they traveled, they were not exempt, and would only be exempt if it was issued after they travelled. He said that convicts were also eligible from a military service delay, until they completed their sentence.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
