New Phone Number to Be Operated for Receiving Citizens' Alerts

The new emergency phone number '112' will be implemented for receiving citizens' alerts, consolidating the phone numbers of two agencies under the Ministry of Internal Affairs: the police and the rescue service (formerly '1-02', '1-01', and '911'). According to Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Armen Mkrtchyan, the response time for a single call will be reduced to 10 seconds, while the average response duration will be cut to 10 minutes. He also mentioned that the '112' number is already in operation.

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Arsen Torosyan suggested that the old numbers '1-02', '1-01', and '911' should not be removed immediately, but rather redirected to the new number, provided that this does not incur significant costs. Torosyan pointed out that in the USA, the '911' number is widely used, and citizens calling from there might not be aware of the '112' number.

“We have not set a definitive deadline for removing these numbers; our plan is to phase them out when they are no longer necessary,” commented the deputy minister. Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan also stated that the emergency medical service number '1-03' will remain operational, and the Ministry of Health will maintain its operational center for emergency services. “Programmatically, we will be able to transmit information online within seconds through a unified platform,” she added.