When was it decided to change the coat of arms of the RA Armed Forces during the reign of Suren Papikyan?

During the preparation days of the military parade-report held on May 28, on May 22-23, it came to light that the RA authorities decided to change the coat of arms of the RA Armed Forces, as the one depicted in the posters posted on the Republic Square was significantly different from the official one.

Only days later, on May 27, the RA Ministry of Defense introduced The new coat of arms of the Army of the Republic of Armenia, where the tricolor of the Republic of Armenia is present, the map of the Republic of Armenia “developed” by Nikol Pashinyan is also depicted on it, an eagle with a sword in one hand and a cross in the other, that is, the place of the cross has been changed.

And on January 23, 2001, approved by the President of the Republic of Armenia, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Robert Kocharyan and used before the new one appeared, the RA flag is depicted on the coat of arms of the RA Armed Forces, without the map of “real Armenia”. By the way, “State symbols” of the official website of the RA Ministry of Defense section is still the old coat of arms.

It should be noted that before the presentation of the new coat of arms of the RA Ministry of Defense and the presentation of the explanation for changing it, 168.amsent a written request to Suren Papikyan to find out when the idea of ​​changing the coat of arms of the RA was born, the sketch was developed, and who was its author, in response to which, in its reply letter sent only on June 5, the defense department said:

“As part of the transformation of the RA Armed Forces, the works on the new coat of arms of the RA Armed Forces started in January 2024. They were carried out by leading specialists and military personnel. During the works, not only the emblem of the Armed Forces was designed and implemented, but also the insignia of the sergeant system, officer’s epaulettes and combat troops.

Let us add that the concept of transformation of the army was submitted in November 2024.

And on January 28, 2024, at the festive event dedicated to the 32nd anniversary of the formation of the Army of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan had announced that the mindset in the army needs to change.

“And that change should be expressed in every detail, starting with the uniform, continuing with the appearance of each soldier, continuing with the environment, weapons and equipment in the places of permanent deployment, the salary of servicemen and the system of social guarantees, our requirements for the professional skills of servicemen and the degree of ideological training of each serviceman. We have started this process, but I can’t say whether we are moving fast enough.”

And instead of “combat army”, the wording “defensive army” began to be used.

In one of the articles we wrote that when it comes to defense capability (оборонопоспосность), the state is first of all in mind. And the defense capability of the country (оборонопоспосность государство) is a comprehensive concept or state, and the military power or the fighting ability of the army is a component of it.
In other words, the defense capability of the country is ensured not only by the military construction, but also by the powerful economy (this determines the quality of the military or defense construction), the development trends of the military industry, the demographic picture, the functioning of all state bodies in peace and war situations, the foreign policy, in some ways even the legal-legislative base, the moral and psychological disposition of the public, etc.

When, for example, the head of Russia sees a threat to its borders from NATO, he instructs the government to increase the country’s defense capabilities, which means the implementation of complex measures.

Let’s return to the issue of changing the emblem and insignia of the Armed Forces.

On May 26 we wrote that in January 2020, a new version of the emblem of the RA Ministry of Defense was circulated, which was perceived as the emblem of the RA Armed Forces and gave rise to various interpretations: “there is no power in it, the lion’s wings have nothing to do with the animal, the swords are not Armenian, that the Armenian crosses have been flourishing since the Urartian region, and the Celtic one is a combination of the Scandinavian emblems of Thor and Odin”, etc.

And the fact that there is a discussion about a new version of the emblem of the Ministry of Defense became clear in the context of the Army Day celebration, because it was printed on the invitation card. Later at that time Artsrun Hovhannisyan, spokesperson of the RA Ministry of Defense clarification spread that it is not about the coat of arms of the Armed Forces.

“This is not the coat of arms of the RA Armed Forces, but a version of the coat of arms of the RA Defense Ministry.

If we leave aside our personal opinions, several circumstances are important here.

This is a draft, not official, not final.

2. Neither in this picture, nor in yesterday’s circulated picture, the symmetry of the lines may not be preserved, because it is not a vector file.

3. This project can become official in case of public support. It can become.”

Accordingly, in our written request addressed to RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan on May 27, 2026, reminding us of this, we asked the following question: “Whether a new version of the coat of arms was approved in 2019-2020 by the order of the then RA Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan, if so, we will ask you to provide the draft or original version, and inform by whom it was canceled.”

Moreover, we have also asked to be informed whether there was an idea to change the coat of arms of the Armed Forces before 2018.

In response to our questions, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia only stated in its reply. “Regarding your second question and the posted picture, we should note that it was never a variant of the Armed Forces coat of arms.”

And whether it was officially used as a logo, there is no word on this, when, we repeat, in the questioning, we presented in detail that it was presented as a version of the Army logo by the spokesman of the Ministry of Defense, on the other hand, how could the logo be on the Army Day invitation card, if there was no intention to make it a coat of arms?

By the way, before the defense department responded to our written request, former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Davit Tonoyan in a briefing with journalists referred to to this question.

“If I’m not mistaken, back in 2016, the Ministry of Defense created a very open and public interagency commission and involved artists, heraldists (heraldists), because actually our coat of arms had heraldic problems. That change was placed before us, I chaired that committee. We had a result, we had a coat of arms, which was later qualified as not a coat of arms, and I think it is still used in the Ministry of Defense, it is a winged lion. And regarding the new one, I can’t give you my assessment, because there is no friend to the taste,” explained the former Minister of Defense, essentially confirming in our article published on May 26 and information included in our written request to the Ministry of Defense thereafter.

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