“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia is operating in an emergency mode: for us this regime started in January, when the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus developed and spread in China. The Embassy of Armenia to China started operating immediately; it was necessary to register the citizens of the Republic of Armenia in China, then to find those in dangerous zones and decide how to organize relevant activities. About 600 citizens of Armenia have been registered, and we were in contact with them hourly. We evacuated 2 citizens of Armenia from Wuhan”.

“When the crisis began in Italy, both the Foreign Ministry and the Embassy of Armenia in Rome started to work in the same format. The process was coordinated by the Ambassador of Armenia to the Holy See Garen Nazarian and the entire staff of the Embassy of Armenia to Italy. Immediately, within a few hours, we evaluated the situation and got the whole picture based on which the decision to evacuate was immediately taken. On Sunday, March 15, a special flight was carried out. Imagine a situation, when there are citizens of Armenia in different cities and villages of Italy. And Italy is closed: it is impossible to move from one town to another, or from one city to another. We needed to gather everyone in Rome. The Embassy of Armenia ordered 50-seater buses and departed from 4 places - Milan, Venice, Florence and another one location to Rome. Our staff welcomed them at the airport and even carried out the check-in. As a result, 67 citizens of the Republic of Armenia were evacuated”.

“No foreign citizen can enter the territory of Georgia. Only citizens of Georgia can return or arrive in Georgia. The Upper Lars is also the Russian-Georgian border. The Consul General of Armenia in Rostov-on-Don is in the Upper Lars checkpoint and every minute coordinates the activities of 150-160 citizens of Armenia during these three days, starting from issues of food supply to various other issues. There is no restriction on cargo transportation.

We urge the citizens of Armenia, who live, work or currently are in Russia, not to return to Armenia via the Upper Lars checkpoint. The Upper Lars is closed. It was closed because of unfavorable weather conditions, but now it is closed because the borders of Georgia are closed. We are speaking about the citizens of Armenia who intend to return to Armenia via land, i.e. via Upper Lars.”

“In case of any questions, we urge our citizens to contact the Embassies of Armenia abroad, all of which, regardless of the country of residence, work in a 24-hour regime and also have operating hotlines”.