The Yerevan Municipality has allocated 80 million AMD ($167,200) to organize celebrations marking “Erebuni-Yerevan Day”.

The Gyumri Municipality has allocated 8 million AMD to celebrate what it calls “Gyumri Day”.

Not to be undone, the Vanadzor Municipality will spend 7 million to celebrate, you guessed it, “Vanadzor Day”.

Krist Maroukyan, a member of the Vanadzor Municipal Council representing the Lousavor Hayastan (Bright Armenia) faction, describes the expenditure as “having fun during the plague.”

“They think that the people can be satisfied with bread and entertainment alone, since they aren’t capable of defining the problems and resolving them,” Maroukyan told Hetq.

Maroukyan says the money could be better spent fixing the roads in Vanadzor and for paying municipal workers.

Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanyan, who represents the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, doesn’t agree with Maroukyan’s assessment.

“Following the same logic, we could organize nothing, have no cultural life, celebrate no holidays, and only focus on socio-economic matters,” Aslanyan said.