Yesterday Manvel Badalyan, President of the Council of Civil Service, gave a press interview on the heels of growing protest within the ranks of state employees regarding their wages.

An open letter to President Sargsyan on the matter recently appeared in the Facebook website. Right now, the minimum salary for Armenian civil servants stands at 40,000 AMD per month ($105). There is talk about drafting a “social package” bill that if adopted would raise salaries by 15,000 AMD.

Mr. Badalyan responds to questions posed by Hetq correspondent Zhanna Sargsyan.

Mr. Badalyan, what is your salary?

300,000 AMD

Does a civil servant making 40,000 have the right to expect that extra 15,000, thus affording them the purchasing power for the barebones basket of social goods?

Are you implying that I could be against raising anyone’s salary? That’s impossible.

Does it surprise you that many civil servants are up in arms? All they have been doing is to remind us of the president’s campaign promise to raise salaries, which hasn’t happened.

It doesn’t surprise me that they are protesting. As I say, we are making small strides forward. We just weren’t able to do more earlier on.

Mr. Badalyan, are you aware that five civil servants have been dismissed?

How would I know?

Four were from the Ministry of Urban Development and one from the Ministry of Labor.

How were they dismissed?

They signed resignation papers.

So, what can we do?

But there was pressure for them to resign.

I’ll repeat my stance on this. If a civil servant performs satisfactorily and without fault, then there’s no minister that can fire them. Well, let’s not say a minister. But there have been cases in those ministries you mention when they wanted to dismiss employees buy couldn’t.

Those civil servants who posted their grievances in Facebook were asking for assistance, but there was no official response.

Well, if they never came to us because they don’t trust us, what can I say?

Didn’t you tell reporters at the time of the Facebook incident that everybody was happy with the social package?

Where did I say that? They only asked me one question as I was leaving a government meeting and I told them it was a small step forward. I never said everyone was pleased with the package.

I said the same thing once at a parliamentary debate on the budget. Let those people come to our office and explain the situation. Let’s see what officials dismissed them or pressured them into writing a resignation letter.

People have to meet us halfway. If someone doesn’t want to assume his share regarding resolving his or her problem, then I’d rather not extend a helping hand. People shouldn’t be cowering in fear like that.

People resigned because they were getting anonymous phone calls threatening not only them but their families.

Really, to that extent? If they were getting anonymous calls because they demanded pay raises, then I should have gotten a good beating long ago. I have always stated that salaries for our civil servants are very low, including mine and that of the country’s prime minister.

If this is the case, I will take it very seriously and follow up.

Just imagine, people are receiving threatening phone calls for participating in the Facebook discussion.

Excuse me, but to be honest, I find this hard to imagine. I have no desire, as the head of a department, to defend the fearful and people with no scruples. My words will annoy some people.

I want to defend those who want to defend themselves.

Only five have been fired. Why don’t you defend the rest?

Who are those five?

They are the five activists who organized the Facebook petition. By the way, those signatures were retracted under pressure. 1,000 civil servants out of 7,000 signed in just one day. Wouldn’t you say that this reveals a serious problem? Why are they being silenced?

How are they being silenced? You say that they have cause to be scared. I accept that, but what can we defend if pressure has already been brought to bear? We can’t reinstate these five people.

Can’t you call them back and prove that they signed resignation letters under pressure?

They sign the resignation and left. Before going to the press they should have come to our council. We shouldn’t be learning about all this through the press in such a spotty manner.