Foreign Ministry Provides List of Classified Information

Since the Soviet times, all the government agencies had been keeping the ministerial lists of classified information in secret. In 2012, based on the claim by the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office, the RA Constitutional Court ruled out that lists of state and official classified information cannot be confidential. However, during the last five years, only the RA Ministry of Defense published the ministerial list of classified information.

In October, 2016, “Union of Informed Citizens” NGO appealed to the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Security Service requiring them to provide the lists of classified information of the two agencies. Both agencies responded with rejections, which were later contested in court.

In contrast to the National Security Service, during the preliminary stage of court hearings, the Foreign Ministry provided the list of classified information to the “Union of Informed Citizens” NGO except for the points the names of which are a state or official secret. As a result, the lawsuit brought against the Foreign Ministry was dismissed, and now the Ministry also has to compensate the court expenses made by the NGO.

Below we present the list of classified information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

Thus, the following information is considered classified:

• Annual reports of the Ministry;
• Information related to RA national security, political or economic interests that is not subject to disclosure,
• Information on the cooperation of Armenian state bodies with foreign countries and legal entities on currency, credit, scientific and technical, trade and economy-related issues before concrete agreements are reached and agreements are signed;
• Information on preparation of foreign visits of high-level government delegations before their official publication;
• Information on changes envisaged in RA diplomatic representations and consulates before their official publication;
• Annual reports of embassies;
• Information on the records of negotiation talks with officials of receiving countries;
• Information revealing the RA foreign policy strategies and tactics related to foreign policy, foreign trade, scientific and technical ties, the early dissemination of which may damage the interests of the state.

We urge all the agencies to follow this example and publish the ministerial lists of classified information in order to fulfill the requirements of the RA Constitutional Court ruling (ՍԴՈ-1010 case) and not to get engaged in litigation processes.

Note: This material is not relevant anymore since the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs has updated the list of classified information and published it here.

“Union of Informed Citizens”