Panorama
Outgoing Armenian National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan paid a farewell visit to President Vahagn Khachaturyan on Thursday.
Social media users noticed that the photographs accompanying the official statement about the meeting no longer showed the painting of Mount Ararat that had previously hung on the wall of the president’s office.
A review of official reports and photographs from meetings held at the presidential residence indicates that the painting has, in fact, been absent for quite some time.
The last publicly available image showing the painting of the twin peaks of Sis and Masis (Mount Ararat) at the president’s office dates back to October 14, 2025, when Khachaturyan met with Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of Belgium.
A large photograph of Mount Ararat had also been displayed in another reception room, where Khachaturyan typically meets with foreign ambassadors accredited to Armenia, Armenian diplomats and other officials. It was in this room that Alen Simonyan met with the president. The photograph is no longer displayed there either.
When was the painting removed? Who authorized its removal? Are there currently any rooms within the presidential residence where an image of the biblical mountain is displayed?
Panorama.am attempted to reach out to the president’s office for comment. However, repeated phone calls to its Public Relations Department went unanswered.