Citing her income declaration, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service revealed late last week that Shushan Aleksanian makes 3.6 million drams (about $10,000) per month as chief executive of the state-run company HayPost. The official monthly salary in the country currently stands at less than 320,000 drams. Most HayPost employees earn significantly less than that.
The revelation sparked an uproar from opposition figures and other critics of the Armenian government. They say Aleksanian earns far more than any government official because she is married to Hayk Konjorian, who led the Civil Contract faction in the former Armenian parliament and was due to be elected vice-speaker of the new National Assembly later on Monday.
An opposition lawmaker, Agnesa Khamoyan, pressed Konjorian on the subject during a debate on his candidacy for the post nominated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party.
“My wife is the lowest-paid director in the history of HayPost,” responded the senior lawmaker.
Konjorian also said that Aleksanian, who had joined HayPost after Pashinian came to power in 2018, was appointed as the company’s chief executive in November 2024 on a fair and competitive basis.
Shushan Aleksanian, the executive director of HayPost.
The Armenian Ministry of High-Technology Industry, which directly oversees HayPost, declined last week to give any details of the purported job contest mentioned by Konjorian. It did not even say whether anyone else applied for the lucrative position.
The ministry also refused to explain Aleksanian’s salary, saying only that there is no “separate formula” for calculating it.
HayPost’s 2025 financial report shows that spending on the remuneration of its top management soared by 28 percent last year despite a 7 percent fall in the company’s revenues and a nearly sixfold surge in its debts.
Armenia’s leadership faced opposition allegations of widespread nepotism within its ranks even before the latest controversy. Late last year, it installed Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan’s wife, Gohar Abajian, as head of Enterprise Armenia, a state agency supporting business projects in the country. The then chief of Pashinian’s staff claimed that Abajian was appointed because of winning a job contest, rather than her government connections.
Pashinian has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated “systemic corruption” in Armenia. However, members of his entourage are increasingly accused by media of using their positions to enrich themselves, their families or cronies.
Konjorian came under media scrutiny last December after the investigative publication Hetq.am reported that he purchased an expensive house in Yerevan at a massive discount. The price paid by Konjorian was set just below a legal ceiling set for a government scheme that has exempted home buyers from income tax for the duration of their mortgage repayments. The lawmaker thus qualified for the tax rebate. He denied receiving any discounts.
