Armenia Unitary state

Structures and competences

Regional level :

10 provinces):

Armenia’s 10 provinces (marzer) are administrative divisions. Yerevan has a special status as the country’s capital.

Each province is led by a chief executive (marzpet) appointed by the central government.

The provinces were created by the Constitution of Armenia, adopted on 5 July 1995. This aspect of the constitution was implemented by the Law on Administrative-Territorial Division of the Republic of Armenia of 4 December 1995, and by the decree on public administration in the provinces of the Republic of Armenia of 2 May 1997.

Territorially speaking, they are a legacy from the merger of the raions (a USSR administrative division) dating back to the country’s time as the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Constitution, as amended in 2005, recognises the provinces as administrative divisions, in the same manner as the municipal communities.

The provincial chief executives (marzpet) are appointed and dismissed by the central government, subject to approval by the President. They report regularly to parliament.

Their remit is to apply the government’s territorial policy in the following areas:

– finance

– urban development

– building and public works

– transport and road-building

– agriculture and land-use planning

– education and training

– health and social security

– culture and sport

– nature and environmental protection

– trade, procurement and other public services.

They are assisted in this task by a provincial council.

There are also responsible for coordinating executive branch departments at the territorial level, particularly in the areas of domestic affairs and national security, defence, communications, energy, taxes, emergency response and civil defence.

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Local level :

(915 municipal communities):

The Law on Administrative-Territorial Division of the Republic of Armenia of 4 December 1995 defined and created the provinces and subdivided them into 926 municipal communities (48 urban communities and 865 rural communities, plus Yerevan and its 12 districts). These, in turn, are subdivided into around 1,000 settlements (towns or villages).

The 1995 constitution granted Yerevan the status of a province. However, the most recent constitutional amendment (27 November 2005) transformed the city into a municipal community.

Yerevan, the country’s capital city, was previously a province with 12 districts, each with its own elective bodies. Following the constitutional reform of 2005, the Law on Local Self-Government in the City of Yerevan was adopted in 2008. The first elections to Yerevan municipal council were held in 2009. Following these elections, the capital’s 12 districts lost their status as separate local governments.

Armenia’s municipal communities are its only local government entities. For administrative purposes, each province is divided into communities (hamaynkner). Almost all settlements have their own local government (only a handful of municipal communities are made up of more than one settlement).

The country has 915 local governmentsin total – 866 rural municipalities and 49 urban municipalities. The average population per municipality is around 2,350, excluding Yerevan, the country’s biggest city. When the capital is included, the average increases to around 3,600 inhabitants per municipality. Around half of the municipalities (48.2%) have fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, and only 8.5% have more than 5,000. This suggests that Armenia is divided into a large number of small municipalities.

Until 2009, Yerevan functioned in largely the same way as the country’s other provinces, albeit with a few specific features. This situation came to an end with the adoption of the Law on Local Self-Government in the City of Yerevan in 2008, which conferred on the city its own form of governance.