Dismissals in the Ministry of Defense Will Start with Colonel Arushanyan

The newspaper "168 Hours" reports: "Dismissals in the Ministry of Defense (MOD) are expected to begin with the order for the dismissal of Colonel Serzh Arushanyan. Since 2013, he has been heading the Social Protection Department of Servicemen. Within the ministry, there are discussions about the potential revelation of a corruption scandal in the department, as there have been numerous complaints addressed to the hotline regarding the department's work.

In the Social Protection Department of Servicemen, citizens’ applications have been piling up for months, with reports indicating a backlog of up to 3,000 applications in recent times. Currently, there are over 1,200 applications lacking progress within the department. This indicates that families of servicemen who have lost their breadwinner are left hanging for months at the mercy of MOD officials as they await the determination of benefits for those who have lost their sustenance, in order for the families of the deceased to be supported.

Among those waiting silently for months are veterans receiving disability pensions, individuals undergoing examinations by the Central Military Medical Commission, and urgent requests from parents of soldiers for free surgeries or social assistance.

It turns out that even high-ranking military personnel preparing for retirement are not exempt from this situation. Perhaps it is this demographic that has expedited the decision for Colonel Arushanyan's dismissal. It is reported that complaints about the performance of the head of the department have frequently reached Minister David Tonoyan, who considers that Arushanyan has abandoned his social responsibilities and sees himself as a part of the high command.

Our sources note that Arushanyan had previously managed to convince Minister Seyran Ohanyan that the expectations of 'barrel rollers' against him were not about pensions, but rather about the leverages of his position, while currently there seems to be no such relationship with Minister Tonoyan, and hence there are no chances to obfuscate the situation.

The dissatisfaction of the beneficiaries has reached the Government from within the ministry. It is not excluded that in addition to Serzh Arushanyan, there may be other dismissals in this department of the MOD.

Furthermore, the actions taken by the previous administration to deprive military personnel of the right to allocate pensions and benefits are soon to acquire legal force. Two years ago, through a confidential order, this function was already transferred from the MOD to the Social Security Service, with the electronic pension system also serving these 33,000 beneficiaries.

However, the process of reviewing groups recognized as disabled due to military service, thanks to connections with the Volunteer Union for the Defense of the Fatherland (VAYC), remains incomplete. These reviews were temporarily suspended during the post-revolutionary period. The issue is that those who were disabled under dubious grounds have lost their previous status, and the revolutionary government suspects that there may be criminal elements in the efforts to save state funds and has been uncovering cases of violations of human rights.

Previously, 168.am reported that the statuses of disabled veterans that were granted 15-20 years ago began to be reviewed from 2017 on the initiative of former MOD Minister Vigen Sargsyan and former Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artem Asatryan. As a result, prior to the revolution, over 500 disabled veterans lost their previously granted statuses, high pensions, and state-licensed social guarantees, while 55 individuals lost the right to receive housing from the MOD. These cases have been handed over to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Armenia."

Details in today’s edition of the newspaper.