The emblematic mountain located in modern-day Turkey but still regarded by Armenians as a key national symbol has been depicted in the stamps put on travelers’ passports ever since the country’s independence. This will no longer be the case starting from this November.
The government did not explain the change approved during a cabinet meeting on Thursday and revealed at the weekend. Speaking during a security forum in Yerevan on Monday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian implied that it does not want to “annoy” Turkey anymore.
“I want to give a very simple example: you built your house within your cadastral line but you painted a picture on your house, especially on the outer walls, that symbolizes your perception that your neighbor does not deserve to have what he has,” Pashinian said, clearly alluding to the decision that sparked an uproar from his political opponents and other critics.
Senior representatives of Armenia’s leading opposition groups insisted that the Armenian passport stamps do not amount to a territorial claim against Turkey and that Pashinian simply keeps cozying up to Ankara with unilateral concessions. Seyran Ohanian, the parliamentary leader of the Hayastan alliance, said the controversial change may have also been demanded by the Turks.
Paintings depicting Mount Ararat on sale at the Vernissage market in central Yerevan.
Pashinian’s cabinet made the decision the day before a Turkish envoy, Serdar Kilic, visited Armenia for further talks with Armenian officials on the normalization of bilateral relations. Ankara continues to make it conditional on an Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement acceptable to Azerbaijan.
Hayk Mamijanian of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc suggested that Ankara did not actually demand Ararat’s removal from the Armenian passport stamps.
“One can endlessly be amazed at how zealously Pashinyan is ready to please Turkey or Azerbaijan,” Mamijanian told reporters.
Artur Hovannisian, a senior lawmaker from Pashinian’s Civil Contract, rejected the opposition criticism.
“The stamp of the Republic of Armenia placed on passports must reflect the state symbols of the Republic of Armenia and be free from emotional, sentimental symbols,” he said.
In fact, Ararat, which is adjacent to the Armenian border and very visible from Yerevan, is depicted in Armenia’s state coat of arms. The mountain is shown rising above a sea that presumably symbolizes the biblical Deluge.
Pashinian criticized the coat of arms in 2023, saying that it underlines a “dichotomy between historical Armenia and real Armenia.” Hovannisian claimed that the Armenian authorities are not considering erasing Ararat from it.
The only legal way of doing that is to amend the Armenian constitution or adopt a new one through a referendum. A government task force formed by Pashinian is already drafting a new constitution demanded by Azerbaijan. The Armenian opposition has vowed to scuttle its adoption at a planned referendum that could be combined with parliamentary elections due in June 2026.
