Vardan Melikyan Resigns from Position

Vardan Melikyan, the Deputy Minister of Environment, announced on his Facebook page: "Dear friends, I have resigned from the position of Deputy Minister of Environment at my own request. I would like to thank Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Minister Erik Grigoryan for their trust and for the opportunity to serve the Republic of Armenia. I appreciate my fellow ministers Erik Grigoryan and Romanos Petrosyan, colleagues from the Ministry of Environment and other agencies, partners from public, scientific, educational, and international organizations, the media, and the many volunteers for our collaborative efforts.

I hope that over the past 13 months, I have not disappointed you with my work, and in some cases, I may have contributed to the implementation of positive changes. The tasks in the field of environmental management are vast, and the issues have decades-long histories, while quick solutions are often simply unavailable. To achieve sustainable positive changes, diligent daily work is needed, and it must be emphasized that many specialists from the Ministry of Environment and its subordinate structures are making great efforts to deliver results.

Creating appropriate and dignified working conditions will allow for a new influx of specialists, alongside the efforts of the dedicated employees already in place, to achieve qualitative changes. There is also much to be done in terms of deepening cooperation with scientific and educational institutions. The same applies to information and high technologies. It is also crucial to address urgent problems while simultaneously investing efforts in the participatory development of medium-term and long-term plans and programs."