Civilnet
By Siranush Adamyan
A Yerevan-based NGO received roughly $540,000 in state funding between 2020 and 2025 without a competitive tender, according to documents by Factor TV obtained from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The funds were allocated to the Ashot Hovhannisyan Institute of Humanities (Johannissyan Institute) through a series of government decrees that remained classified until August 8, 2025, just after Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace declaration in Washington. The Prime Minister’s Office said the decisions were declassified because “the urgency and sensitivity of the issues have lost their relevance due to the new geopolitical realities.”
Officials have not disclosed what research projects the institute carried out with the money or why they were initially deemed state secrets. Factor TV said its inquiries to the NGO were answered only with a request for written questions.
The institute was founded in 2014 by Vardan Azatyan, who led it until June 30, 2025, when Lianna Aghamyan took over. In May 2024, Azatyan was appointed rector of the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia, and in January 2025 he became a member of the Public Council, a government advisory body. Azatyan is also the author of the 2019 book Who Made the Revolution, dedicated to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s 2018 “My Step” march and street movement. The book, published for the first anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, is reportedly no longer available in bookstores.
According to government records, the NGO received $16,400 in 2020, $108,600 each in 2021, 2023, and 2025, and $108,600 in 2022 and 2024, bringing the total to about $540,000 over six years.
The NGO’s website says it focuses on modern and contemporary historical and cultural studies and seeks to strengthen academic links between Armenia and the diaspora. Prime Minister Pashinyan’s wife Anna Hakobyan wrote on Facebook last December that she met with researchers and artists from the Ashot Hovhannisyan Institute to discuss her “Learning is Trendy” campaign, a government-backed education initiative.
Public commentator Gor Madoyan wrote last week on Facebook that the case exemplifies the “fusion of academic institutions and political loyalty” under the current government, where “funding flows to those producing ideological justification for power.” He added that the classified nature of the grants “undermines public trust and raises questions about the independence of Armenia’s intellectual and cultural sector.”
Update
In a clarification posted on its Facebook page, the Institute confirmed that its cooperation with the Armenian government had been classified and later declassified on October 30, 2025. The institute stated that its cooperation with the Armenian government had been classified and later declassified on October 30, 2025. The institute noted that questions concerning the grounds and procedures for classification and declassification “fall within the competence of the Government of the Republic of Armenia.”
The statement described the institute’s studies as part of the post-revolution reform agenda, addressing “problematic and sensitive features of Armenian society rooted in its historical experience.” It said that while the institute was unaware of how its research had been used in policymaking, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had publicly referred to one of its studies during his July 1, 2024 speech at the Armenian Democracy Forum, citing it as work by a “partner organization.”
The institute added that its five-year “Culture and Modernization” program has produced 20 major studies—five more to be published by year-end—along with 23 critical source editions, 247 digitized archival materials, 12 bibliographies, and two international conferences featuring scholars from Europe, Australia, and the Caucasus. It also published a five-year budget summary showing how the allocated funds were spent, emphasizing that all outputs are publicly available on its website.
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