Hybrid threats outweigh war risks, Armenia’s intelligence chief says

By Alexander Pracht

Armenia currently faces very low military threats, the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service Director, Kristinne Grigoryan, said at a security conference in Yerevan on Monday.

“Compared to the past several months, at this moment we can say that security threats are very low. But there are threats against our democracy,” Grigoryan said.

She cautioned against underestimating hybrid threats targeting Armenia, stressing that such risks usually do not come from a single state or actor but often emerge in combination.

Additionally, Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said Armenia is rethinking its national symbols and narratives to reduce external threats and ease pressure on its security system. 

Responding to questions about the government’s recent decision to remove the image of Mount Ararat from Armenia’s border stamps, he described the move as a “necessary path” for building comprehensive security. He argued that openly discussing sensitive identity-related matters strengthens resilience rather than weakens it, since “no secret process exists.”

Turkey has long objected to the use of Mount Ararat in Armenia’s national symbols, labeling it an irredentist claim on its territory. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has previously hinted that Ararat’s presence on Armenia’s coat of arms “contains incorrect codes” for this reason. 

Grigoryan added that national narratives are “undergoing transformation,” with the ultimate aim of gradually removing elements that could be perceived as threats, thereby reducing the burden on the state’s security system.

The opposition also claims the government intends to change the coat of arms under pressure from Turkey and Azerbaijan, but lacks the courage to state this openly. For now, however, the coat of arms adopted in 1992 remains unchanged.