By the decree of President Arayik Haroutyunyan, Samvel Shahramanyan was appointed Minister of Military Patriotism, Youth, Sports and Tourism of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), and relieved of his duties as Director of the National Security Service.

"We have high expectations in connection with this important ministry. Of course, the renaming of the ministry was largely welcomed, but it was not unequivocally accepted; a new ministry is being created, not renamed. We will work and you will be convinced that this will be one of our important and necessary qualitative changes," Haroutyunyan on Friday said live on his Facebook page.

He added that Shahramanyan was awarded the rank of Major General.