Edita Gzoyan has been dismissed as director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute after presenting a book about the “Artsakh issue” to U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance during a visit to the institution, with Nikol Pashinyan saying he ordered her removal because the gesture contradicted the foreign policy line of his government.
“When the country’s leadership says there is no Karabakh movement, what does it mean to give a foreign guest a book on the ‘Artsakh issue’?” Pashinyan said during a press briefing.
He said foreign policy is determined by the government and that state officials cannot contradict it.
“How many people in this country are supposed to conduct foreign policy? Foreign policy is conducted by the government. Any state official in Armenia who says something that contradicts the country’s foreign policy must be dismissed. What is there to discuss? Are we a state or some kind of amateur circle?” he added.
The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute is one of Armenia’s best-known academic and cultural institutions, conducting research on the Armenian Genocide and regularly hosting foreign dignitaries, diplomats, and scholars.
The dismissal comes amid broader shifts in messaging by Pashinyan and his government on Artsakh. Pashinyan has said Armenia must move away from what he calls the “logic of conflict” as part of efforts to establish lasting peace and normalize relations with Azerbaijan.
He has also proposed removing a reference to the 1990 Declaration of Independence from Armenia’s future constitution, arguing that it reflects the same logic of conflict.
Critics say Gzoyan’s dismissal points to rising political pressure on academic and cultural institutions as references to Artsakh become increasingly sensitive within Pashinyan’s official state structures.
