Armenia has officially removed the image of Mount Ararat from its passport entry and exit stamps, as the new design came into effect starting November 1, 2025.
Footage circulating on social media shows newly issued Armenian passport stamps without the mountain’s image, confirming the government’s earlier decision to replace the iconic symbol with a simplified, text-based design.
According to the Armenian Government Decision of September 11, 2025, published on the Armenian Legal Information System (ARLIS), the updated format features the words “????????” and “ARMENIA” in Armenian and English, the name of the border crossing point, the date, the entry or exit mark, the stamp number, and distinctive symbols for air, rail, or automobile crossings.
The change officially removes Mount Ararat, which had been part of Armenia’s passport stamps since the 2011 regulation (Government Decision No. 702-N) defining border procedures and documentation formats.
Observers note that this symbolic shift comes amid ongoing normalization talks between Armenia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. In recent years, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has increasingly emphasized Mount Aragats—Armenia’s highest peak located within its borders—as a symbol of national pride, often contrasting it with Ararat, which lies across the border in present-day Turkey.
At a 2023 press conference, Pashinyan remarked: “If children call Ararat, and not Aragats, the highest mountain of Armenia, does this mean that Armenia has territorial claims against Turkey?”
Since then, official imagery and rhetoric have increasingly highlighted Aragats, signaling a deliberate shift in how Armenia presents its national identity in light of evolving geopolitical realities.
The new passport stamp, now in use, marks the end of an era for one of Armenia’s most recognizable national symbols—one that, while remaining central to the Armenian cultural imagination, no longer appears in official travel documents.
