Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan dismissed Gagik Vanoyan as head of the State Protocol Service. The decision followed a speech in which Pashinyan confused the president of Kyrgyzstan with the president of Kazakhstan. The diplomatic mix-up was serious enough to cost Vanoyan his job, although the report gives no fuller account of the exchange. Protocol chiefs oversee official visits, ceremonial events and the practical details of representing the state. Vanoyan had been reappointed to the post in August, returning him to a central role in the government’s diplomatic preparations. The case carried particular sensitivity because Armenia maintains close relations with both countries whose leaders were mentioned. The report did not say whether the dismissal would lead to wider changes within the protocol service.