Edmon Marukyan, leader of the Bright Armenia party, has filed a lawsuit in the Administrative Court demanding the annulment of the Armenian government’s September 11, 2025 decision to remove Mount Ararat’s image from border control stamps.
Marukyan announced his legal action on social media, according to Sputnik Armenia. He submitted the case to the court on October 16, not as a political figure, but as a private citizen, arguing that the decision directly affects his rights and national identity.
Marukyan argued that the government’s decree is neither explicitly justified nor transparent. While the decree presents a new stamp design that omits Mount Ararat, it does not openly state the removal or provide any rationale for it.
Instead, Marukyan referred to statements by high-ranking officials, including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, National Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan, and ruling party MPs Maria Karapetyan and Artur Hovhannisyan, where they described Ararat as a “problematic symbol” and “biblical but legally unfounded.”
“These scandalous comments explain why the decision was made, but none of them appear in the decree itself,” Marukyan said. He called the move a veiled attack on the Armenian national coat of arms, which features Mount Ararat and is defined by both the Constitution and a separate law.
He has asked the court to suspend the enforcement of the decision, since new border stamps without Ararat are scheduled to come into use starting November 1.
Marukyan stressed that if left unchallenged, the move may pave the way for future changes to the coat of arms itself. “That’s why this must be stopped now,” he warned.
The government’s decision, based on a proposal by the National Security Service, cited internal contradictions and editorial issues in the current decree from May 12, 2011. The updated technical specifications for border stamps do not include Mount Ararat, making this the most visible change. The issue was added to the cabinet’s September 11 session without public reporting or discussion.
