THE LENGTH of the mandatory military service on the island will be reduced by six months by 2009, the Defence Minister said yesterday.
Minister Costas Papacostas told reporters that while the details and technicalities of the matter still had not be agreed on, the fact of the matter was that by 2009, conscripts would have to serve 19 months in the army as opposed to the current 26 month period.
The current service is among the longest in the world, second only to Israel in terms of time served.
“We have to look at the financial aspect as well as the various scenarios involved in this change before it passes from the Cabinet for a final evaluation.
“The conscripts that are going in this summer will definitely be affected by the reduction in the service, now concerning last year’s conscripts, that is still under investigation but I believe that they will benefit from this as well,” he said.
Papacostas maintained that the final approval should be given by October.
In a pre-election commitment by President Demetris Christofias, governing party AKEL said that they would reduce the military service to 19 months.
Upon his appointment to the post of Defence Minister, Papacostas ordered the National Guard Chief to carry out an investigation into the matter, while he also appointed a committee and two sub-committees of experts to help.
Opposition party DISY had claimed that they could reduce the compulsory length of military service to 14 months, while the Papadopoulos government had maintained that slashing military service in the National Guard was not feasible, accusing his rivals of wanting to “weaken Greek Cypriot defence lines”.
From the results of the study, Papacostas said that the reduction would have to be gradual.
“What became clear from the study was that the military service cannot be reduced by more than six months, it is impossible for the length of conscription to be less than 19 months,” he said.
“Furthermore, it will have to take place under certain conditions. The reduction will have to be carried out in various phases and cannot happen at once.”
The study looked into not only the possibility of reducing the length of the military service but also involved the restructuring of the National Guard.
According to press reports over the weekend, the study called for the reduction of five-year contractual male volunteers (EPI).
Papacostas rejected this, saying that the opposite would happen.
“These reports do not correspond with the truth. There will in fact been an increase in the number of EPI, however again this will not happen all at once, it will be gradual,” he added.
