The Republic of Armenia is a mountainous, land-locked country located in the southern part of the Caucasus region. It was the smallest republic of the former Soviet Union covering only 29,800 sq km. Out of a population of 3.2 million, 66.6% are classified as urban and 33.4% as rural. Armenia has always had highly developed industrial and agricultural sectors with pesticide usage widespread both in agriculture and in public health for malaria control. At the end of the 1980s about 400-500 thousand tonnes of pesticides, including organochlorines, were used annually.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union pesticides were imported into the republic under the centralized control of the Ministry of Agriculture. Each year a Committee of Chemical Development in Agriculture (with relevant organisations represented) adopted a list of pesticides permitted for use with instructions on dose, frequency of usage, and date of expiration. Pesticides were imported mainly from Russia (about 90%) with the rest from India and elsewhere. They were received at a central stockpile, and later distributed to rural storehouses.

The activities of AWHHE and the measures taken by the Armenian government's Emergency Department have increased security reducing the risk of people and animals entering the site. However, the area is still considered an active landslide zone.

This site is not the only one in Armenia. A full inventory has not been carried out but according to information obtained from the Ministries of Agriculture and Nature Protection, there are about 200 tonnes (in addition to the 500 tonnes in Artashat) of obsolete and expired pesticides in different regions mainly located in previous regional centralized stores. Constructive actions need to be undertaken to ensure safe treatment and disposal of the obsolete pesticides at these site.