Closure of Eleven Regional Offices of the National Archive Proposed

The Justice Ministry has proposed to halt the operations of eleven regional representatives of the "National Archive of Armenia" State Non-Commercial Organization, specifically in the cities of Aparan, Talin, Masis, Sevan, Jambarak, Stepanavan, Dilijan, Artik, Yeghvard, Sisian, and Goris.

The "National Archive of Armenia" was established in 2002 through the merger of the country’s central state archives, creating branches based on the state archives of Yerevan and the provinces. Subsequently, representatives of the National Archive were formed based on these provincial branches, resulting in a total of 41 territorial subdivisions of the National Archive. In recent years, certain divisions have ceased operations due to diminishing functions.

The functions of the territorial divisions of the National Archive can be categorized into two groups. The first involves the replenishment, accounting, and preservation of documents created within the respective regions of the Republic of Armenia. The second relates to providing information based on these documents to state and local self-government bodies in the execution of their authorized powers, as well as offering archival services to citizens and legal entities, both domestic and foreign, by providing socio-legal archival references.

Currently, the National Archive has nine regional branches and 19 territorial representatives, some of which are located in state-owned buildings, while others are in community-owned properties. At present, both the branches and representatives perform the same functions, showing no significant differences in the volume of work or funds handled.

Considering the varying levels of workload of the National Archive’s regional branches and territorial representatives, and with the aim of efficiently distributing the resources of the National Archive, creating better conditions for document preservation, and achieving financial savings, an optimization of the territorial subdivisions has become necessary. A new revised statute is also proposed to be adopted.

As a result, the representatives in Aparan and Talin will merge with the Aragatsotn branch, transferring documents to Ashtarak; Masis will join the Ararat branch, transferring documents to Artashat; Sevan will merge with the Kotayk branch, moving documents to Hrazdan; Jambarak will join the Vardenis representation, moving documents to Vardenis; the representatives in Stepanavan and Dilijan will merge into a single branch for Lori and Tavush, transferring documents to Vanadzor; Yeghvard will merge with the Charrentsavan representation, moving documents to Charentsavan; the representative in Artik will merge with the Maralik representation, moving documents to Maralik; Sisian will join the Vayots Dzor branch, moving documents to Yeghgnadzor; and Goris will merge with the Syunik branch, transferring documents to Kapan.

As a result of these optimization efforts, all currently operating territorial subdivisions of the National Archive will be reorganized as branches and will be named according to the respective community they are located in. The financial savings achieved (approximately 25 million drams per year from salaries and maintenance costs of 11 buildings) will be directed towards increasing the salaries of National Archive employees and upgrading technical equipment.

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