Employees of two Armenian ministries protest against their liquidation

A group of employees of Armenia’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Diaspora held a protest today against the expected liquidation of their ministries.

YEREVAN, December 21, /ARKA/. A group of employees of Armenia’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Diaspora held a protest today against the expected liquidation of their ministries. According to media reports, the Ministry of Culture will be merged with the Ministry of Education and Science, while the Ministry of Diasporas will be liquidated, and contacts with the Armenian communities abroad  will be coordinated by the office of the deputy prime minister.

The employees were collecting signatures under a letter they were going to hand to  the acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, substantiating the need for preserving both ministries. According to the employees, the decision to liquidate the ministries was not discussed with them .

“We were not warned about this decision, employees learned about it yesterday. A draft decision was sent to us through the Mulberry electronic system, according to which, before  January 1,  part of the Ministry of Culture is to merge with the Ministry of Education and Science, and the other part with the City Planning Committee,” an employee said to Novosti-Armenia news agency.

She said the acting minister of culture Lilit Makunts had a meeting with the staff yesterday, saying that none of them will lose their jobs. 

Levon Antonyan, the head of a Diaspora Ministry's department in charge of relations with Armenian communities in the Near and Middle East, said  in turn the decision to liquidate the ministry was announced a few days ago.

He said the ministry’s staff is skilled with a huge experience of communications with Armenian communities abroad and it will be very difficult to find replacements for them.

The protesters gathered in front of the government building and handed their letter to a representative of the government. “If our demands are not met, we are ready to hold  sit-in protests on New Year’s days,” one of the protesters said. -0-