page_title: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Armenia)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Armenia) / History
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Budynek Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych Armenii. Erywań, Armenia. English: Building of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. Yerevan, Armenia. Русский: Здание Министерства иностранных дел Армении. Ереван, Армения. This is a photo of a monument in Armenia identified by the ID 1.6/96.5
context_page_description: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia is a state body of executive power, which elaborates and implements the foreign policy of the Government of Armenia, organizes and manages diplomatic service.
  The MFA acts according to the RA Constitution and legislation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinates the activities of the executive power bodies of the Republic in international arena.
context_section_description: In 1918, in parallel with the restoration of the statehood, Armenia gained international recognition and established diplomatic ties. Armenia established diplomatic relations with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran and other countries. Plenipotentiary representatives (consuls) were appointed to the US, Bulgaria, Finland, Switzerland, Japan and other countries, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran opened diplomatic representations in Yerevan.
  After the establishment of Soviet rule in December, 1920, the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was founded, plenipotentiary representations were opened in the Soviet Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Iran, Kars.
  After the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR) was founded in July, 1922 the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (PCFA) of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (Armenian SSR) was eliminated, taking into consideration the fact that the general management of TSFSR member states’ foreign policy was carried out by the TSFSR Council.
  In 1922, after the formation of the USSR, the PCFA became union People's Commissariat as the Soviet Union conducted a common foreign policy and, therefore, union republics delegated the function of conducting the foreign policy to the USSR.
  At the last stage of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet leadership decided to expand the foreign policy functions of the Union's republics, in particular, it was supposed to provide republics with the right to establish diplomatic and consular relations with foreign countries and even to seek their membership in the UN. To prepare the necessary personnel the Faculty of International Relations was established at the Yerevan State University (functioned from 1945 to 1952).
  According to the law, adopted by the Supreme Council of the USSR in 1944, the USSR PCFA turned from total union into union-republic model, which meant the restoration of the People's Commissariats of Foreign Affairs (from 1946 – Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in the governments of the Union's republics.
  In the postwar years Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Armenian SSR operated under the guidance of the Government of the Armenian SSR and the Soviet MFA. The structure of the Ministry included the political department, the consular department, department of information. Ministry was responsible for providing the Central Committee of Communist Party of Armenia and the Government of Armenian SSR with the information about the Republic and international situation, consular support of trade and economic, scientific, cultural and other relations of the Republic with foreign states, citizenship issues, passports, visas, legalization of documents, correspondence with the “Inyurkollegiya” (Foreign Legal Collegium) on issues of civil heritage and other property matters, correspondence of the governing bodies of the Armenian SSR with Soviet Union's foreign missions.
  Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Armenian SSR was a part of the Soviet diplomatic service, diplomatic staff of the Ministry received diplomatic ranks, from time to time was posted to the Soviet Union's foreign missions. Other representatives of the Armenian SSR, also worked in the diplomatic service, many Armenians, some of whom held senior positions in the system of the Soviet MFA, became Soviet Ambassadors.
  In 1975-1985 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Armenian SSR did a great and productive work on collecting information on developments in the Diaspora, on the Armenian issue and in the direction of preparing the decisions of republic's leadership and development the Political Armenology.
  The small staff of MFA of the Armenian SSR underwent the test of the devastating earthquake of 1988, when it was necessary to deal with the issues of organizing huge humanitarian aid arriving from abroad, as well as with issues of political, diplomatic and consular support.
  With the beginning of the Karabakh movement in 1988, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Armenian SSR w
caption: Former building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia
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