In Cyprus, father says son is considered a deserter without a draft notice
The father of Serge Haro Chakmakdjian said in a letter that the Cyprus National Guard considers his son a deserter, although, according to the man, he never received a call-up notice for service. He also claims that the military refuses to remove his son’s name from the stop list at the airport, preventing Serge from visiting his elderly parents in Cyprus.
Chakmakdjian wrote this in a letter published by Cyprus Mail. According to him, his son was given two weeks of military imprisonment in addition to the standard term of service.
Absence from the lists
The letter’s author noted that his family belongs to a minority whose members were exempt from military service until 2008. Serge turned 16 in 2007, one year before conscription rules were extended to Maronites, Armenians and Latins.
According to Chakmakdjian, the school was supposed to annually submit to the Ministry of Defence or the National Guard a list of young men turning 16 who were subject to conscription. He claims that Serge’s name was not included on such a list because of the rule change. Before his son left for the United States, the family hired a law firm which, according to the father, confirmed that his name was absent from conscription lists.
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Life abroad
Serge left Cyprus through Larnaca Airport in the summer of 2010 using a British passport. According to his father, he was born a British citizen, later also became a US citizen, never held a Cypriot passport and does not plan to live on the island.
After studying in the United States, Serge earned a master’s degree at Imperial College London, worked in the British capital for four years, and then returned to the United States. Chakmakdjian noted that the situation has continued for 16 years. According to him, the military explained its refusal to lift the restrictions by saying that there were allegedly thousands of similar cases and that closing his son’s case could create an undesirable precedent.
The father also said that Serge is now 35 years old and that conscription obligations may remain in force until the age of 50. He stressed that his son did not consider himself to have breached any obligation because he had not received conscription documents.
