Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Anna Naghdalyan today posted the following on her Facebook page, touching upon the news about the issuance of 783 diplomatic passports since May 2018.

“Touching upon the interesting figures presented on Lurer.com, in regard to the diplomatic passports issued on the basis of the Law on Diplomatic Service, I deem it necessary to explain the matter in a way that will be clearer to understand.

I would like to cite the original version of the response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was not edited by Lurer.com, and as a matter of fact, Lurer.com edited the version without informing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “Since May 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, governed by Article 49 of the Law of Armenia on Diplomatic Service, has issued 782 diplomatic passports, which also includes the new passports issued on the occasion of expiry of the term of diplomatic passports of diplomats of Armenia in the specified period.

Out of the aforementioned persons, diplomatic passports were issued to 764 diplomats under the requirement in part 1 of Article 49 of the Law of Armenia on Diplomatic Service (persons included in the service within the bodies of diplomatic service in Armenia and foreign countries, family members permanently residing with them in a foreign state, other persons holding state positions and prescribed by law).”

I must add that based on part 2 of Article 49 of the Law on Diplomatic Service, since May 2018, upon the permission of the Prime Minister of Armenia, only 19 diplomatic passports have been issued. As a matter of fact, this number is more than 90% less than the number of passports issued under the same provision since May 2018.

Currently, there are 1,127 persons who have diplomatic passports in Armenia. Since May 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declared 425 diplomatic passports as invalid.

In reality, I won’t comment on the ‘mathematics’ and will emphasize that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is consistent with strict observance of the Law on Diplomatic Service.”