In today’s Armenia, people with disabilities need to feel better because there are two ministers with disabilities in the Government of the Republic of Armenia. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan declared live on Facebook today, answering a Facebook user’s question on people with disabilities and their pensions.

“If I’m not mistaken, the fact that there are two ministers with disabilities in Armenia is unprecedented. This also shows how the government perceives people with disabilities,” he stated.

However, Pashinyan remembered that people with disabilities had once corrected him and said that raising their pensions won’t solve the problem globally. “I remember talking to the current minister Batoyan and other people with disabilities as a deputy and being told that the increase of pensions won’t solve their problem. They said that the government has to make sure that people with disabilities are fully integrated in society and that education, employment and public transport are accessible for them. I’m glad that Mrs. Batoyan now has the chance to solve those problems as minister.”

Pashinyan stressed that the government has to create an opportunity for people with disabilities to feel like full-fledged citizens. “This is a very important issue because people have the wrong perceptions of people with disabilities in Armenia. People with disabilities need us to treat them as full-fledged citizens, and each of them has that opportunity,” he said.

Touching upon the financial assistance for people with disabilities, Pashinyan recalled that this year, the government has increased the benefits of those people with disabilities whose benefits are lower than the consumer basket. “We need to continue our social policy, but we also have to create an opportunity for those people to be able to use their talents, just like Stephen Hawking did,” he said.