Young scientists take to street against funded pension reform (video)
Employees of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia today took to the street in protest against the controversial pension reform in Armenia. Sergey Abrahamyan, a junior research fellow at the Institute of Informatics, says he received 116 000 drams after the deductions. The young scientists today gathered outside the NAS building and handed a letter to NAS President Radik Martirosyan. They demand that the NAS wait till the ruling of the Constitutional Court which is scheduled to start hearing on the issue on March 28. The group was received by Svetlana Mnoyan who said Radik Martirosyan was not in the building and promised to give him the letter personally. However, the protesters later learnt that Mr. Martirosyan was in the NAS building and was aware of the protest. “Who are those staffers and why did they come here? I do not know any of them,” said the NAS President. Asked why he avoided meeting journalists and NAS employees, Mr. Martirosyan said, “There is an order, I have numerous tasks to perform…” Asked whether he was pressurized to make deductions from employees’ wages and transfer to the special funds, the NAS President said, “No pressure was exerted on us. We do the same thing as other agencies and institutions do.” He promised to forward the copy of the letter to the Constitutional Court.
