Ex-minister: ANIF employees were paid $10 million in salaries in three years

Mesrop Arakelyan, a former advisor to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and former social welfare minister, has responded to Pashinyan’s claims of asset recovery.

"Nikol Pashinyan reports that $1.8 million were returned to the state budget after 20 years of plunder over the past seven years. Meanwhile, employees of the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF), established and later dissolved by Pashinyan's government, received $10 million in salaries in three years,” he wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.

His remarks come in response to Pashinyan’s earlier announcement that as of 17 March 2025, a total of $1.803 million (equivalent to 710 million drams) had been repatriated to Armenia through court rulings and settlement agreements.