All Military Personnel Received Bonuses: Auroranews' Alert Did Not Go Unanswered

Earlier today, Auroranews received a call from contract servicemen. “Thank you for speaking about our problem. We have already seen the results. Today we received money, we got 60,000 drams each,” said one of the military personnel who alerted us.

It should be noted that a few days ago we received alerts from the same servicemen and a group of officers. They mentioned that they had not received their full entitlements. The Ministry of Defense later clarified that these were bonuses, and servicemen would receive them in January.

It turned out that the servicemen were caught off guard, as they had stated that in previous years, they had received their December salaries and bonuses within the same month, and this year they hadn’t even been warned in advance. They mentioned that they would not be able to cover even the minimal New Year expenses for their families, adding that the government's approach towards them was unjust.

We tried to verify with the Ministry of Defense whether only the contract servicemen received the money, or if officers and other military personnel also did. “By the order of the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, all military personnel have received bonuses. As for the established bonuses for service, they will be paid according to the current procedure by the 7th working day of the next month,” the ministry informed Auroranews.

Thus, we must state that our and the servicemen's alerts were met with a response, and the ministry took certain steps to rectify the situation. It should be noted that according to our information, the bonuses were of varying amounts.