Avetik Chalabyan, coordinator of the Hayakve National-Civic Union’s council, told a press conference that the social conditions of pensioners have significantly worsened in recent years, and the pension system is turning into a deep social crisis.
“Today, pensioners live worse than seven years ago, when this administration came to power,” he said, noting that while government spending on state institutions and debt servicing has increased, pensions have seen little improvement, Panorama.am reports.
Chalabyan announced that Hayakve is launching a specific initiative aimed at addressing the pension issue, including a proposal to raise pensions by 50%.
Hrayr Kamendatyan, a member of the union’s socio-economic commission, presented a study showing that about 502,000 pensioners in Armenia face worsening problems. He questioned the government’s claims of fivefold increases, noting that in 2018, pensioners made up 15.6% of the population, rising to 16.27% today.
“This shows our nation is aging, and while life expectancy has increased, tens of thousands become pensioners every year. The state must not turn its back on them but instead carry out real reforms,” Kamendatyan said.
He highlighted that Armenia’s minimum pension is currently 36,000 drams (about $93), compared to $188 in Azerbaijan, $148 in Georgia, and $505 in Turkey. “This is not just an unfavorable comparison. It’s disgraceful. In neighboring Turkey, pensioners receive two to five times more than in Armenia,” he stressed.
Kamendatyan accused the authorities of spreading “childish lies” about reforms, saying that claims of fivefold improvement are misleading. Actual increases since 2018 include a 17% raise, back payments of up to 5,000 drams, a 3,000-dram supplement for some groups, a minimum pension set at 36,000 drams, and back payments raised to 6,000 drams, while utility benefits were removed.
According to him, the average pension rose from 40,000 drams in 2018 to 49,000 today, while poverty only fell by 3 percentage points—from 26.7% to 23.7%—failing to reflect the true impact of rising costs. Malnutrition indicators have also worsened.
Former deputy minister of labor and social affairs Davit Hakobyan added that in the past seven years, average salaries increased by 74%, but pensions only by 20%. “Today, a pensioner cannot buy with 36,000 drams what they could afford in 2017,” he noted.
