The attached blurred photograph, taken in 2010 when our son Serge graduated with three A*s and an A in his A levels and received local academic awards, marks the last time our family spent a day together in Cyprus.

Our boy Serge was not served with a draft notice for the National Guard. Yet, instead of conducting an investigation, the army has labelled him a deserter and slapped him with a two-week military prison term on top of the standard conscription time.

We belong to a minority group that was exempt from military service until 2008. Before Serge left to study in the United States, we checked on his status. We hired a reputable law firm to verify that his name did not appear on any military call-up list. The firm’s investigation confirmed this.

I have learnt from the school Serge attended that the annual directive was to inform the defence ministry/National Guard of the list of names of army-eligible boys turning 16 each year. In our son’s case, his name did not appear on the list because he turned 16 in 2007, a year before the conscription rule took effect to cover Maronites, Armenians and Latins. So his name fell through the cracks.

Serge flew out of Larnaca airport with his British passport in the summer of 2010. He went on to graduate in the United States before moving to London to pursue a master’s degree at Imperial College. After completing his studies, he worked in London for four years before returning to the United States where he has since lived and built a career.

He was born a British citizen and has since also become a US citizen. He has never held a Cyprus passport and has no intention of living here.

Despite repeated appeals, the army refuses to remove his name from the airport stop list, preventing him from visiting his ageing and increasingly frail parents. As a result, we are forced to undertake the travel ourselves whenever we wish to see our son, or we meet half-way.

This situation has so far lasted 16 years, with another 15 years potentially remaining, as military call-up obligations extend until the age of 50 and Serge is now 35.

The army’s response is that he is one of “thousands” of similar cases and that withdrawing their case against him would set an undesirable precedent. Yet if there are indeed thousands of such cases, should that not prompt the army and the ministry to investigate them rather than allow families to suffer indefinitely?

At the time, in 2010, military service ran 24 months. As a high-achieving student pursuing higher education abroad, Serge was eager to launch his career as a structural engineer. He was never knowingly in breach of any obligation because he was not served with draft papers.

I write this not only as Serge’s father but also as someone living with a rare combination of chronic illnesses that now severely limits my ability to travel.

Haro Chakmakjian, Nicosia