The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia has asked NEWS.am for 30 days to respond to its question about a possible demand from Turkey to remove the emblem of Mount Ararat.

On September 16, Armenian News-NEWS.am had sent a written request to Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan to find out whether the Turkish side had petitioned to the Armenian MFA with a request to remove the image of Mount Ararat from the coat of arms of Armenia, as well as from the border sign (stamp) of entry into or exit from Armenia, and if so, when. Also, we had separately addressed the second question to the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia.

Five working days after sending the request, on September 23, an official letter was received from the Armenian MFA stating that, taking into account the need to perform additional work, the response to the request would be provided within 30 days.

As for our question regarding the removal of the image of Mount Ararat from the border sign (stamp) at the entrance or exit to Armenia, which was sent to the government on September 16, the PM’s Chief of Staff, Arayik Harutyunyan, first forwarded it to FM Ararat Mirzoyan, and then the Acting Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mnatsakan Safaryan sent a draft response, according to which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had addressed the matter raised by us during his press briefing on September 18.

On that day, in response to a question from reporters, Pashinyan had stated: “The issue related to that stamp was put into circulation months ago when there was not even a theoretical possibility or agreement on the horizon about the visit of the special representative of Turkey. In general, no such issue has been discussed and cannot be discussed in any Armenia-Turkey negotiations.”

It is noteworthy that in order to answer the question about a possible demand by Turkey to remove the image of Mount Ararat from the coat of arms of Armenia, the deputy FM has petitioned to the PM’s Chief of Staff, Arayik Harutyunyan, asking for his remarks regarding answering the reporter’s questions, but Harutyunyan has not responded to this letter to date.

Thus, Armenian News-NEWS.am is ready to wait up to 30 days to receive an answer to this simple, but important question for the public, from the Armenian MFA or the government.

As reported earlier, by the Armenian government’s decision of September 11, the image of Mount Ararat will be removed from the border sign (stamp) of entry into or exit from Armenia as of November 1.