Military Medic Day in Armenia Date in the current year: November 17, 2024

Military medicine plays a crucial role in increasing the survival rates in wars and peacekeeping operations. Most people primarily associate military medicine with battlefield medicine (the treatment of wounded combatants and non-combatants in or near the area of combat), but battle medicine is only one of the many fields of military medicine.

In addition to saving the lives of wounded people in military hospitals, army doctors deal with the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, the administration and practice of healthcare for military service members in peacetime settings, and medical research and development specifically addressing the problems encountered by deployed military forces.

Military medical personnel are considered “protected persons” under international humanitarian law, which means that they are protected by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and other applicable laws of armed conflict. This applies both to army doctors and other personnel who serve in the armed forces and to civilian volunteer medical personnel. Military medics may not be attacked or taken as prisoners of war.

The term “military medic” is quite broad and includes doctors, nurses, combat medics, and other personnel. The difference between an army doctor and a combat medic is that doctors are professionals with a medical degree, whereas combat medics receive basic training to provide emergency medical treatment in a combat environment. In other words, the main task of a combat medic is to keep the wounded person alive until they arrive at a hospital or another treatment facility. Combat medics are usually assigned to non-medical units, whereas army doctors primarily work in hospitals.

Military Medic Day in Armenia is celebrated on November 17 to mark the foundation anniversary of the military medical hospital of the Armed Forces of Armenia, the formation of which was finalized on November 17, 1992. However, active training of military medical personnel in Armenia began in 1994, when the defense ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) signed a ceasefire agreement that ended the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Armenian military medics receive education at the Faculty of Military Medicine of the Mkhitar Heratsi Yerevan State Medical University, which is the country’s leading medical university. The faculty was founded in 1994. The course of study for a bachelor’s degree lasts six years; the university also offers a master’s course for military medics, lasting two years.

Most graduates go on to serve in border military units, military hospitals, or the Military Medical Directorate. In peacetime, Armenian military doctors cooperate with the rescue service, taking part in rescue operations and the elimination of the consequences of natural disasters.