What the Constitution Actually Says
Article 21 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, "Symbols of the Republic of Armenia," does not leave any discretion. Clause 2, in the official Armenian text published on arlis.am (the state legal information system): "Հայաստանի Հանրապետության զինանշանն է. կենտրոնում՝ վահանի վրա, պատկերված են Արարատ լեռը՝ Նոյյան տապանով, և պատմական Հայաստանի չորս թագավորությունների զինանշանները։" Working translation: "The state coat of arms of the Republic of Armenia: in the centre, on a shield, are depicted Mount Ararat with Noah's Ark, and the coats of arms of the four historical Armenian kingdoms."
Clause 3 of the same article continues: "The detailed description of the flag and coat of arms is defined by law." The word in the Armenian text is օրենքով -- by law -- meaning a statute passed by the National Assembly. Not by Prime Ministerial decree, not by Council of Ministers order, not by a roof shape on a parade tribune.
The 1992 Law on the State Coat of Arms of the Republic of Armenia, adopted by the Supreme Council on 19 April 1992, restored the 1918-1920 First Republic design by architect Alexander Tamanian and painter Hakob Kojoyan, with Mount Ararat and Noah's Ark on the central inescutcheon. The 1992 statute defines the design in detail. To change it requires a new law from the National Assembly. To change Article 21 itself requires the procedure under Article 202: a national referendum.
September 2025 -- The Passport Seal
On 15 September 2025, the government changed the design of the state seal (դրոշմակնիք) used in Armenian biometric passports, removing the Mount Ararat image. The change was reported by Azatutyun.am (RFE/RL Armenia) journalist Ruzanna Stepanyan. Opposition voices called the move "a dangerous message" and an act of "pleasing the Turks" -- given that the Republic of Türkiye has historically protested Armenia's use of Mount Ararat on state symbols on the grounds that the mountain lies within Turkish borders. (Stalin's reply, in 1945, was that the Turkish national symbol is the crescent and Türkiye does not, presumably, claim the moon.)
The September 2025 change went through as an executive act. No National Assembly law. No referendum. No published decree text on the Prime Minister's site, on the President's site, or on gov.am that could be located by OWL through Tor in May 2026.
October 2025 -- The Marukyan Lawsuit
On 17 October 2025 Edmon Marukyan, founder of the Bright Armenia party, filed a lawsuit against the government over the passport seal change. Marukyan's position, captured in Azatutyun coverage: "Principally what is it -- whether or not [Ararat] is in your border. But it is a nerve. It will become an argument, conflict, fight, war." The case sits in the administrative courts and is, as of the writing of this article, unresolved.
Whatever the eventual ruling, the political fact is that a sitting government changed a state symbol mandated by Article 21 of the Constitution, and the only legal challenge came from a minor opposition party with no parliamentary representation.
April 2026 -- The Unpublished Draft Constitution
On 18 April 2026, Pashinyan publicly addressed reporters' questions about why the new draft Constitution text being prepared by his government is not being published. The exchange, reported by Azatutyun journalist Shoghik Galstyan, was held in the context of removing Mount Ararat from the state coat of arms. Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan made "contradictory statements" on the issue across the same week.
OWL has not been able to obtain the unpublished draft. The political signal is unmistakable. A constitutional rewrite is being prepared, and the body holding it -- the executive branch -- treats it as a confidential government working document rather than a draft for national deliberation. Article 21 is, by all available indications, going to be rewritten without first being seen.
May 28, 2026 -- The Aragats Tribune
By 23 May 2026, journalists in Republic Square were photographing the construction of the central tribune for the 28 May Republic Day military parade. The tribune's roof was shaped as the silhouette of Mount Aragats. Mount Aragats lies entirely inside the present-day Republic of Armenia. Mount Ararat does not. In the Pashinyan administration's vocabulary -- repeated by the Prime Minister on multiple occasions since 2023 -- Aragats is the symbol of "real Armenia," and Ararat is a symbol of irredentist nostalgia for a territory Yerevan should not claim.
On 3 May 2026 the Prime Minister had already personally branded the Republic Square setup in a Facebook video titled "Yerevan, Republic Square 2026." By 21 May the Ministry of Defence was rehearsing artillery salutes. On 26 May the Ministry confirmed the morning of 27 May would include an Armed Forces air flyover of central Yerevan. By the morning of 28 May, on Republic Day, the sitting cabinet, the diplomatic corps, foreign delegations and the international press will be seated below a roof in the shape of a mountain that the Constitution does not put on the coat of arms.
No decree was issued. No law was passed. No referendum was held. Article 21 still says Mount Ararat. The tribune still says Mount Aragats.
The Pattern
Read together, the September 2025 seal change, the October 2025 lawsuit, the April 2026 unpublished draft Constitution and the May 28 parade tribune are not separate events. They are a single nine-month executive sequence. Each individual step is, on its own, deniable: a passport-stamp redesign is technical, a parade roof is decor, a draft Constitution is internal. Read together they are the dismantling of an explicit constitutional symbol of the Republic, executed step by step in a way that never triggers a single parliamentary vote.
Article 21 has not been changed. The coat of arms in law still has Mount Ararat with Noah's Ark and the four historical kingdoms. The state in practice is being staged under different symbols. The gap between text and practice is the precise location of a constitutional violation, and the only thing missing is anyone in a position to enforce it.
Sources: Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, Article 21 (arlis.am) · 1992 Law on the State Coat of Arms (irtek.am) · Azatutyun.am, Sept 15 2025 (seal removal) · Sputnik Armenia, June 15 2023 (Pashinyan on the coat of arms) · 1lurer.am, May 3 2026 (PM Republic Square 2026 video) · mamul.am, May 23 2026 (Hakob Karapetyan reporting on tribune) · Hetq, May 21 2026 (MoD artillery rehearsal) · Pashinyan Facebook video, May 3 2026