Amid 5000 Casualties, Prisoners, and Protests, Armenian Defense Ministry Allocates 7-8 Million for March 8 Celebration

During these days, as the enemy is reaching Goris village by village through verbal agreements with Nikol Pashinyan, placing Azerbaijani signs along the way, and parents of the missing are scattered in the lands surrendered to the enemy searching for their sons, it has become clear that officials at the Armenian Ministry of Defense are nonchalantly preparing for a restaurant celebration.

Yerevan.Today has obtained highly concerning documents revealing that a group of ministry employees has been tasked with compiling a guest list for a 250-person celebration, developing a menu of preferred dishes... (expensive alcoholic beverages, bougatsa with rokfor cheese, a lavish selection of 5-6 types of cheese, salads) and not forgetting 10 kg of pineapple, and 20-year-aged "Nairi" brandy. Surprisingly, the concert program summarizing the ministry's celebration list involves ordering 8 performers for a 2-hour music program to entertain the 250 staff members.

In the Ministry of Defense, the aftermath of the war has not caused a gloomy mood; on the contrary, officials are thinking about lavish meals and festivities, even though the war is not formally over. There remains the serious issue of prisoners, missing personnel, and the ongoing delimitation problem in Syunik, along with a significantly large and seemingly insoluble burden on this agency.

The public procurement service has been assigned to a restaurant in Yerevan for March 8, with an estimated budget of 7-8 million AMD, for 31 tables. The procurement has, in fact, been completed, and soon Yerevan.Today will publish the name of the restaurant that won the contract. Additionally, a strict condition has been set regarding the coronavirus: the right to use the 31 lavish tables will be granted to 250 healthy Ministry of Defense employees who pass a testing requirement—this is emphasized as a prerequisite in the public procurement documents, although it does not specify whether the testing will be conducted at the expense of the Ministry's budget.

Moreover, another stringent condition imposed on the restaurant owner is that all 10 servers catering to the Ministry's celebration must have undergone medical examinations. It is clear that the scenario for a 250-person celebration should have been rejected outright by Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan, even if it has been traditionally celebrated with such splendor. However, he has not done that; instead, his subordinates have compiled a festive list and conducted it through public procurement.

Meanwhile, that 7-8 million AMD should have been allocated by a single order directly to the grieving mothers, sisters, and wives of the servicemen who fell or were injured in Artsakh.

Auroranews attempted to verify the information with the Ministry of Defense, but we were unable to connect with any employees.