Video: Why Soldiers Haven't Received Promised Salaries - Government Clarification

Today, we reported that employees of the military system had approached the Aurora News editorial office, stating that they have not received their salaries for June in full.

"Another false information is being spread by the government, the Ministry of Defense, and the media, claiming that soldiers' salaries are increasing. However, the base salary remains the same, and various bonuses are being added. We all know that this is done to avoid increasing pensions later on. This is the reality," the citizens who contacted us wrote.

In our communication with them, we inquired whether they had asked about the issue in their unit, and they mentioned, "We raised the issue loudly, they said that you would receive the little amount owed for June in July. Later, they said that some units had received it, that it was related to financial transfers, that we had not received it, and so on. It is a situation where no one gives us a concrete and clear answer."

We also learned that Defense Ministry employees, for example, receive their salaries for June by the end of the same month. It is worth noting that on May 30, during an executive meeting, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that salaries for military personnel would increase starting June 1. "Salaries are rising as of June 1, meaning they will receive the increased salary in July," the Prime Minister stated.

Aurora News contacted the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, to understand the issue better. His response is in the video.

We also approached Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's spokesperson, Vladimir Karapetyan. We received a response letter from the deputy head of the staff, Armen Khachatryan.

"According to current legislation, the monetary security calculated for military personnel is paid no later than the last working day of each month (RA Prime Minister’s decision No. 72, dated 31.01.2001). Considering that, according to point 3, part 4 of the RA government decision No. 712-N dated 03.07.2014, allowances for special service conditions are calculated based on actual service days, a military person is calculated the official rate for the month and the allowance in an advance manner, as well as previous month’s allowances based on actual accounting data. From the above, it follows that the allowance set for increases of an average of 10% for actual days in June is calculated and provided with the July main advance payment. The chosen type of allowance for increases of an average of 10% of military personnel’s monetary security was selected as an allowance type, as the increase of the official salary rate can be implemented through changes to the base salary or coefficients set by RA laws, which would lead to changes in the entire state system of RA, while the monthly allowance is set as a decreasing type and it would not be logical to increase it," the response letter states.