According to the information of “Pastinfo”, masked persons broke into the house of Martun Grigoryan, a member of the National Assembly from Gyumri, early this morning around 07:30.

As it is already known, Martun Grigoryan in 2026 participates in the parliamentary elections with PAP and yesterday PAP chairman Gagik Tsarukyan had quite successful meetings in Shirak within the framework of the campaign.

Note that M. Grigoryan has a large electorate in Gyumri, which was also evidenced by the results of the extraordinary election of the Gyumri Council of Elders, where the CP lost and the opposition managed to unite and take over the administration of Gyumri.

Moreover, according to our information, M. A decision has already been made to arrest one person from Grigoryan’s team.

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According to the report about the apparent crime received by the RA Investigative Committee, AA posted a clip on Facebook with an accompanying note on May 21: “People, they are handing over a position secretly from you, listen to the words of this volunteer, meanwhile, the Minister of Defense is campaigning with hearts”, where the latter and another person are talking about handing over the combat position located in the direction of Jermuk city to Azerbaijan.

On the same day, the RA Ministry of Defense officially denied the information provided by AA and that person.

On the basis of the received report, criminal proceedings were initiated with features of perjury and organizing perjury.

The preliminary investigation revealed the identity of the person speaking in the given video, whose face is covered, who was on combat duty in combat position N.

During the interrogation, the latter denied the information about handing over any position, at the same time stating that, being in an inebriated state, he participated in the gathering organized by NK, where he met AA, who, being informed about his social problems, immediately organized the interview with the journalist. He stated that he was in an inebriated state and gave false information.

Notice: the person accused of a crime is considered innocent until his guilt is proven in accordance with the procedure established by the Code of Criminal Procedure by a legally binding court verdict.

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“Suren Papikyan, can you explain why you didn’t die? Can you explain why 15 of our soldiers who died in a fire in the shelter died?” Arman Tatoyan, candidate for Prime Minister of the “Wings of Unity” party, said about this in a conversation with journalists today, referring to the course of the pre-election campaign.

Arman Tatoyan mentioned that there is a need to summarize the pre-election campaign of these two weeks and the shameful situation that has been created. According to his assessment, an atmosphere of fear and hatred has been created, it seems that there is a race for resources from all sides. And against this background, according to him, it turns out that a person has to make a choice in favor of foreign powers: Moscow, Brussels, Baku, Washington. According to Tatoyan, no one is talking about what Armenia needs, what the elections in Armenia should be like.

Arman Tatoyan believes that the authorities have become masters of fear-mongering and spreading hatred and deception.

According to him, the authorities are trying to position themselves as defenders of democracy and human rights, but such a scheme has been created that spreads fear among people, spreads threats, both personal and the threat of war.

According to Tatoyan, that situation is constantly being developed and maintained, because the entire campaign is based on it, and it has spread throughout the country.

“Instead of being more united, everything is based on division and enmity,” emphasized the politician.

Tatoyan also mentioned that all this is happening under the veil of democracy. He recalled the controversial recording he released last week.

“I clearly showed that there is a scheme, using the example of the Armavir State Regional College, we showed that students and professors who are compliant, at a high level, are being forced to go to the pre-election gatherings of the government. And what, until now nothing, no reaction, I mentioned specific names, we presented it with a report about the crime,” said Arman Tatoyan.

In his assessment, law enforcement bodies work in sync with the government.

According to the politician, this government has turned death into a cult, they are talking about the recent deaths of soldiers and people, they are saying, “Why didn’t you die during the war?”

“How can the RA Prime Minister be happy or say: justify why you were not killed? On the contrary, shouldn’t he be happy that people were not killed, they remained alive, everyone’s life is valuable. And the Minister of Defense, look what he is doing, behaving like a puppy, speaking with “Ara” and saying on live TV: justify why you were not killed.

Can you explain why you didn’t die? Can you explain why 15 of our soldiers who died as a result of a fire in the shelter died? They died because of the minister appointed by the prime minister, Suren Papikyan, and also because of the commanders chosen by him. If you are the Minister of Defense, the function of the minister is to organize the war in such a way that as few people as possible are killed, not to rejoice or say, “Why weren’t you killed?” During Stalin’s time, people returning from the front took people for questioning and punishment, this is the same Stalinism,” Tatoyan expressed this opinion.

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“For me, there is no question of enclaves, there is a question of the security of my country, the security of my people,” Arman Tatoyan, the prime ministerial candidate of the Unity Wings party, said about this in a conversation with journalists today, referring to the issue of enclaves, which is being actively discussed again these days.

He mentioned that for him the issue of enclaves does not exist. “There is no such question in me, I have the security of my country, the security of my people. I have been to all those places, Tavush marz, Tigranashen, many times, I know by heart what will happen there, if the government’s plan suddenly comes true and Azerbaijan occupies those so-called enclaves. We will have separate settlements.

For example, the station settlement, which is near the enclaves, passes by the buildings, shares the whole. The road going to Aygehovit, Vazashe will be closed completely, a full detour should be taken. We will have heights that will be occupied by the Azerbaijani armed forces and will control our villages. Without that, they are under the target, they will control people’s pastures, arable lands, grass floors, schools, houses, roads,” said Arman Tatoyan, continuing that there will be a total collapse of security. He noted that it is unnecessary to talk about gas pipes and Internet cables.

According to him, the government is deceiving and lying about the issue of Artsvashen.

“Nobody is giving up Artsvashen, but if you compare Artsvashen in terms of security and the territories that they intend to give to Azerbaijan, it is obvious from the speech, they are absolutely incomparable,” said Arman Tatoyan.

Details in the 168TV video.

—

On May 21, Alik Aleksanyan representing the “Strong Armenia” party stated that an army position was secretly surrendered to the RA Armed Forces in the Jermuk sector, referring to the claim of a volunteer.

Later, the RA Ministry of Defense denied this claim, stating:

“In a video shared by one of the members of the “Strong Armenia” party, an unknown person falsely reports that a military position of the RA armed forces “surrendered” in the Jermuk sector.
We declare that the mentioned is misinformation.
We urge the law enforcement agencies to study the mentioned video and the information contained in it in order to make a legal assessment.”

Today, the RA Investigative Committee message is distributed, where it is noted.

“According to the report about the apparent crime received by the RA Investigative Committee, A.A. posted a clip on Facebook with an attached note on May 21: “People, they are handing over a position secretly from you, listen to the words of this volunteer, during this time the Minister of Defense is campaigning with hearts”, where the latter and another person talk about handing over the combat position located in the direction of Jermuk city to Azerbaijan.

On the same day, the RA Ministry of Defense officially denied the information provided by AA and that person.

On the basis of the received report, criminal proceedings were initiated with features of perjury and organizing perjury.

The preliminary investigation revealed the identity of the person speaking in the given video, whose face is covered, who was on combat duty in combat position N.

During the interrogation, the latter denied the information about handing over any position, at the same time stating that, being in an inebriated state, he participated in the gathering organized by NK, where he met AA, who, being informed about his social problems, immediately organized the interview with the journalist.

He stated that he was in an inebriated state and gave false information.”

Let’s leave to what extent who is right or wrong, but another episode caught our attention. The RA Investigative Committee actually declares that the person who was in an inebriated state performed combat duty.

I wonder if the person in a state of inebriation was one of the land guards led by Sasun Mikayelyan, or a participant in a training camp, and regardless of that, a shameful image of combat duty is obtained.

By the way, we tried to get an answer to this question from the RA Investigative Committee, but they told us that they are not aware, and we should take what is written in the message as a basis, but here it is only mentioned about a person who performed combat duty while intoxicated, it is not clear whether he is a part of the training camp or a national guard.

Later, it was possible to find out from our sources that we are talking about the militia, which is used as needed, and in connection with which information about salary cuts appears in the press from time to time.

And the fact that in the above mentioned case we are dealing with a person who was on combat duty in an inebriated state, that is also RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan confirm

In this context, let’s remind that he was drafted in the training camp in March of this year ձերբակալվել՝ within the framework of the criminal proceedings initiated in connection with the injury of conscripted reservists in the training camp.

Earlier, information was spread in the mass media that 3 reservists were stabbed to death in Vardenis.

It should be noted that at the end of 2025, RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan announced that: “if in 2025 16,000 reservists participated in the training sessions, then in 2026 it is planned that the number of reservists participating in the training sessions will be 20,000 on average»:

Let us add that a system of territorial defense and local self-defense was formed, which, as Suren Papikyan was to report implies a permanent structure, starting from the company ring to the command staff, where there are permanent staff positions and employees.

“Their function is to receive the reservists during training sessions, train them and ensure integration during combat duty.” he elaborated, adding that the training sessions are also meant to clarify what the reservists should deal with in case of possible problems and how to protect the border of our country.

Regardless of who we are talking about: a country guard, a participant in a training camp, or a militia deployed as needed, this once again proves that there is a problem with increasing the quality of combat duty and discipline, and one cannot entrust a position to random persons, which we are alerting for years.

Maybe this is not a good day, so to speak, but in this case, is it justified to shorten the period of mandatory military service, and is it possible to talk about a professional army?

—

“LUYS” fund analyzed the 2026 the implementation report of the RA state budget in the first quarter.

Thus.

• 2026 in the first quarter, the total revenues of the state budget amounted to 668.5 billion drams, 5.2% more than the indicator of the quarterly specified plan. The overperformance of the program indicator was mainly supported by “tax revenues” and “other revenues”, while chronic underperformance continues to be recorded in terms of official grants, which indicates shortcomings in the areas of cooperation with donor organizations and the fulfillment of previously assumed obligations.

Accumulation of significant volumes of temporary free funds of the budget (increase in interest income from their bank placement) was recorded, which is mainly a consequence of the continuous underperformance of expenditures on the most important programs and indicates the ineffectiveness of the budget policy. 

• 2026 in the first quarter, the actual total expenditures of the RA state budget, 603.3 billion drams, are 29.6% or 254.2 billion drams less than planned in the quarterly revised plan. 46% (116.8 billion drams) of the shortfall in expenses is related to current expenses, and 54% (137.4 billion drams) is related to operations with non-financial assets. At the expense of internal sources, the quarterly program of financing the state budget was underachieved by 28.7%. The picture is more bleak in terms of financing the state budget at the expense of external sources. this time again (as in the same period of last year) the share of spending on the account of external sources was extremely low: only 0.7% of budget expenditures, or 4.3 billion drams, were financed from external sources, which is about four times lower than the indicator of the quarterly adjusted plan, and about 2.3 times less than the actual size of the same period of the previous year.

The current expenditures of the state budget, 560.9 billion drams, were underachieved by 17.2% compared to the specified plan. In this reporting period, all their components were also underperformed.

Expenditures on non-financial assets (capital expenditures) decreased significantly compared to the same period of the previous year by 43.4%, and were underachieved by more than four times compared to the quarterly specified plan, mainly due to the underachievement of capital expenditures of the RA Ministry of Defense. In the case of capital expenditures, underperformance also applies to all cost components.

A significant part of the under-execution of expenses is related to the programs implemented under the responsibility of the Ministries of Defense, KGMS and Labor and Social Affairs. Performance (in percentage terms) is the lowest for programs under the responsibility of the Ministries of Defence, Ministry of Defense and Security, 39.9%, 62.7% and 65.6%, respectively.

Shortcomings in many of the programs are chronic, which means that the current government is simply not able to ensure the effective implementation of a number of important programs (“Development of the military-industrial complex”, “Implementation of the digital transformation process”, “Tourism development”, “Establishment, construction, improvement of public educational and pre-school institutions”, etc.), in the event that the current government’s 2021-2026 budget is determined by them. providing a significant part of the targets defined by the activity plan. 

• Q:The state budget of 2026 in the first quarter, a surplus of 65.2 billion drams was made, against the planned deficit of 221.8 billion drams. In other words, the deviation of the implementation of the state budget from the plan is 287 billion drams. The formation of the surplus is mainly caused by a significant underperformance of costs.

Low budget performance limits the impact of government programs on economic activity and infrastructure development and is the best indicator of low efficiency of the current government.

The full analysis is available at: by reference

—

Iveta Tonoyan writes: “The reason becomes clear…

It is obvious that the campaign against PAP has nothing to do with any legal or judicial process. This is an exclusively political action, the main purpose of which is to create an atmosphere of fear, to limit the activity of the opposition forces, and a clear attempt to destroy the normal election campaign.

Today, the results of sociological polls published by the international “Gallup” organization reveal the real motive of the government’s actions. The 4 opposition political forces have a significant advantage to form a new government.

It is this reality that panicked Nikol Pashinyan and forced him to try to stop the growing support of the opposition by way of another political persecution.

In fact, Andranik Tevanyan and Martun Grigoryan became the victims not of any “accusation”, but of the data of this sociological survey. And these numbers are another proof of Nikol Pashinyan’s nervousness and political imbalance.

Dear compatriots, “Prosperous Armenia” party will never deviate from its adopted political path. We will continue our struggle for a dignified, safe and strong Armenia.

We will continue the quiet, restrained program campaign, the open and sincere dialogue with our people.

We are sure that no matter how much the authorities try to carry out new pressures, provocations and persecutions until the end of the campaign, our people will make their dignified and correct choice on June 7. And with that election, this government will receive a clear political assessment of the people.”

—

Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the Russian State Duma, joined the almost daily critical statements from Moscow to Yerevan. Volodin stated that Nikol Pashinyan is taking advantage of the opportunities provided by Russia, while making unfriendly political decisions towards Russia.

“According to the deputies of the State Duma, Pashinyan conducts an unfriendly policy towards the Russian Federation, cynically using the opportunities provided by our country,” wrote Volodin on the Russian Max channel, asserting that “this is dishonest and, as the example of Ukraine shows, will not lead to anything good.” A high-ranking Russian official insisted that Moscow should make a decision.

“We can no longer remain silent about the processes taking place in Armenia,” Volodin wrote, again mentioning the law passed by the Armenian parliament last year on starting the process of joining the European Union and Armenia’s membership in the International Criminal Court.

Two days ago, a discussion of a special working group on the issue of Armenia was organized in the Russian Security Council, where Secretary Sergey Shoigu made rather harsh statements, calling the steps taken by the Armenian leadership “incompatible with the spirit of allied relations with Russia”, emphasizing Armenia’s European aspirations among them. However, the RA authorities are sure that Moscow will not take drastic actions, it does not have such a toolkit, and the Armenian-Russian cooperation is mutually beneficial, that is, it is also in the interests of the Russian Federation. Nikol Pashinyan announced today.

“I understand that the number of people who want to cause a crisis in RA-Russian relations is quite large, but as I said, we will not argue with Russia, we will not fight. Russia is a superpower that should be treated with respect, and we treat it with respect.”

He emphasized again that they have no desire to leave the EAEU, and only Armenia can raise this issue in the EAEU.

He also said that they treat the interests of the Russian Federation with respect and do not resort to actions against the interests of the Russian Federation. Pashinyan said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is the head of the state, why shouldn’t he come to Armenia? According to him, Zelensky came to Armenia in the same way that the president of Azerbaijan visited Russia during the conflict with Azerbaijan.

The head of “Rosselkhoznadzor” Sergey Dankwert announced on the air of “Vesti” that he is recording problems related to the supply of not only flowers, but also fruits and vegetables from Armenia. “The problem is that we have problems not only with flowers, but also with vegetables and fruits,” Dankwert said. The Russian official noted that inspections in Armenian enterprises will continue for another week.

“We will make a decision based on the results of those inspections,” added the head of the service.

“The ban will remain in force until the inspection of the greenhouses is completed and the results are analyzed. Despite the guarantees given by the Food Safety Inspectorate of Armenia, 135 cases of violations of the established phytosanitary rules were registered among the 96.2 million flowers imported to Russia in the first months of this year. This is 77% of the total number of cases detected in 2025,” he emphasized.

The Armenian side reported yesterday that a group of Russian specialists arrived in Yerevan for phytosanitary inspections.

To remind, “Rosselkhoznadzor” has temporarily limited the import of flower products from Armenia since May 22. Today, during his press conference, Pashinyan also addressed this issue, describing them as work problems that happen many times during the year, and they themselves raise these issues on EAEU platforms.

The sharp tightening of public rhetoric between Moscow and Yerevan, which is expressed by direct warnings from the Russian Federation, indicates that the “status quo” in Armenian-Russian relations has run out.

Russia is no longer ready to tolerate the “geopolitical diversification” of Yerevan, when Armenia tries to get closer to the West politically and institutionally, but at the same time preserve and consume the economic benefits of EAEU. Yerevan is convinced that Moscow does not have sufficient tools, and Moscow seems to consider that Armenia’s dependence on Russia is fatal. However, it is certain that the restrictions on the import of agricultural products and flowers by “Rosselkhoznadzor” are not ordinary work problems, but the first economic blows. The “phytosanitary war” seems to indicate the first stage of Russia’s pressure tools.

If the RA authorities try to continue this policy, they should most likely prepare for Moscow’s gradual but consistent use of economic and energy levers.

Russia could artificially paralyze Armenian exports at the Lars checkpoint, limit lucrative re-export schemes and revise energy tariffs, which would short-term hit Armenia’s economic growth and unleash domestic social discontent, even though Pashinyan insists that agreements are in place and cannot be broken.

Nikol Pashinyan’s assurances that Armenia respects the interests of the Russian Federation and is not going to leave the EAEU seem to be perceived in Moscow as tactical maneuvers, as they do not correspond to de facto political steps.

Volodin’s open reference to the example of Ukraine is a signal that Russia is ready to use tools to break the foreign policy course adopted by Yerevan or to put pressure on the government. Moscow is creating a situation where the continuation and privileges of economic cooperation within the framework of the EAEU will be directly conditioned by political loyalty. Russia is creating a situation where Yerevan’s space to maneuver narrows, and RA enters the stage of economic confrontation.

If the Armenian authorities fail to get tangible guarantees from the West, the Russian opposition threatens to mix the economic and political playing cards.

The model of building one’s own economic success on the Russian market and the political future on European hopes does not seem to be working.

—

Following the episodes of Nikol Pashinyan’s campaign related to the army, including the reaction of the leader of the country to the emotional but fair demands of the soldiers, the missing in the war, the parents and relatives of the soldiers who died in the fire in the Azat shelter, why is it that sometimes these people are not given the opportunity to speak, I remembered an anonymous article published in “Haykakan Zhamanak” in October 2010 article-editorialwith the caption “We continue to kill ourselves”.

At the beginning of the article, reference is made to the 20-year-old pastor Manvel Saribekyan, who was kidnapped by Azerbaijan at the same time and killed in Azerbaijani captivity.

“I don’t believe that twenty-year-old Manvel Saribekyan got lost, and the Azerbaijanis arrested the Armenian border violator. I am sure that it was necessary to find a “saboteur”, they violated our border and kidnapped the Armenian youth in order to weave an absurd anti-Armenian myth. Therefore, the guilt of Manvel’s tragic death lies on the shoulders of the RA authorities.

 I understand that with this statement I am attacking the reputation of the most combative army in the region, raising doubts about the reliability of our borders, but I don’t believe it. Maybe I’m wrong. What is that? if the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia makes mistakes every God’s day, I can make mistakes too. Especially since my mistake is unlikely to be fatal for Armenia. And the mistakes of Seyran Ohanyan and his owners not only plunge the country into the abyss, but also cause us to hear at least once a week that an Armenian soldier committed suicide.

According to us, Armenian prisoner Manvel Saribekyan was killed. Or the beasts and monsters tormented him so much that the tortured young man saw no other option but to commit suicide. Both are possible… None of us can boast that falling into the hands of the enemy, we will not see suicide as the only way out. What kind of flaming definitions are being made about Azerbaijanis, how is the catchphrase “Turk remains Turk” making waves again?: How do these same people behave when a monstrous bot from our army is smacking the air? It is known how they behave. they blame those who raised the alarm about the situation in the Armenian army,” writes the anonymous columnist of Nikol Pashinyan’s family newspaper, perhaps himself, and continues.

“If they haven’t completely lost their human face, why don’t this same Seyran Ohanyan and his masters shudder to think that there are such monsters in the army that make a soldier’s life so hellish that he prefers voluntary death?” On native soil, in the environment of his fellow countrymen. Are those who promote suicide hypotheses really so hopelessly stupid, square and soulless that they don’t understand that suicide is something more terrible than murder? If a soldier commits suicide, isn’t it clear that he is in a desperate situation, having to hang the rope around his own neck? Isn’t it terrible? Why is no one punished after that, why the commander? not fired and judged,Why don’t the RA Defense Minister and Chief of Staff resign? Why?

Because Armenians are puppets, aren’t they Turks? Do they kill themselves tenderly or “suicide”?

Because our soldiers are romantic guys, they look at the sky at night and think how endless the world is and how small a creature man is, and feeling their own powerlessness against that mysterious world, they decide to die so that the “global” question marks don’t smack their young brains.

Well, we declared that a Turk remains a Turk, we spilled our beans, and then…? And what name should we give to Armenian Seyran Ohanyan, who after so many tragedies tries to justify even the sadistic officer of the famous video tape – well, he was drunk, they say, he is such a good guy when he is not drunk. What do you say… The tears of their mothers are tears, the tears of the crying mothers of soldiers killed in the army and “suicides” are tears? Why do they protect executioners and murderers with their teeth?

It’s not difficult, isn’t it, to judge the criminals and more or less openly present themselves to the society, to the grieving mothers and say, “I’m sorry, if you can… Those who do not see the innocent blood spilled in their own house and bravely wave their fists at Azerbaijanis from afar, will they be very angry if I say that they are protecting them because they are executioners and murderers? I say get angry. Those who sponsor executioners are more dangerous. By sponsoring them, the leadership of Armenia encourages the executioners – continue in the same spirit, we are the owners.”

Let us first remind here that Manvel Saribekyan (born on February 27, 1990), a resident of Ttujur village of Gegharkunik region, was captured on September 11, 2010. According to the information circulated, the 20-year-old young man had taken several cattle to the pasture, and lost his orientation due to the fog in the “Keghut” camp, ended up on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and was captured by the Azerbaijanis.

On October 5, 2010, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan and the Military Prosecutor’s Office issued a joint statement that Saribekyan committed suicide at the place of preliminary detention, but before that he was shown on Baku television, and also managed to claim that “the Armenian pastor is a detective who was captured during a sabotage operation.”

A month after the murder, only Azerbaijan decided to hand over Manvel Saribekyan’s body to Armenia in Tavush region. I myself was present, the picture was terrible. The Armenian pastor was subjected to torture, inhuman treatment, physical violence on his body and there were many traces of torture.

ECHR in 2020 too had recorded that Azerbaijan violated Manvel Saribekyan’s right to life. In other words, the European Court of Human Rights decided that in terms of Manvel Saribekyan’s death, there had been a violation of Article 2 of the UN Convention (right to life) and Article 3 of the Convention on Torture (prohibits torture and “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”).

Let’s go back to the article of “Haykakan Zhamanak” in 2010, where the RA authorities were blamed for the capture of the pastor, where, in fact, suicide cases within the army were equated with what the enemy did, and the behavior of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in 2026. He gets extremely angry when he is blamed for the blood of several thousand boys in the 44-day war, when he himself declared: “we could have prevented the war, as a result we would have had the same situation, of course, without victims”, or he gets excited and upset when the relatives of the boys who were burned to ashes by the fire in the Azat shelter remind them of this, they say to the leadership of the 2nd Army Corps of the RA Armed Forces released, a trial is underway. And shameful things are revealed in the trial. But Prime Minister Pashinyan forgets that he previously demanded the resignation of the Minister of Defense and the head of the General Staff in response to suicide cases.

By the way, after the fire at Azat’s residence, Vilen Gabrielyan, still a member of the CP, said the same thing in his conversation with “CivilNet”. demand 

“If I were in the opposition, I would demand the resignation of the Minister of Defense. But I’m not in the opposition, I’m Suren Papikyan’s teammate. therefore, I support him in solving the problems in the army,” Gabrielyan emphasized, asserting that the RA armed forces need a serious transformation, because the system does not work in line with the existing challenges.

As a matter of fact, Gabrielyan, who submitted an application to become a member of parliament again today, has softened his behavior and mentality.

In the context of the article, let us recall that during one of the briefings this year, journalists asked Pashinyan a question about the facts of the war crimes committed in the sovereign territory of Armenia, the shooting of Armenian prisoners and the torture of women, and raised the issue of the demand to punish the relevant officials and military of Azerbaijan, to which Pashinyan responded that the solution of the issue requires a broader perspective.

“I do not agree that we, you and I, should look each other in the eye and deceive each other, and even more so, deceive our people, because it is a double-edged sword. Those rumors exist now, and no one denies the facts, but we have to understand what we are talking about, and that is the trap from which we cannot get out,” he continued.

Can we remember Pashinyan’s journalistic claim in 2010 that? “The leadership of Armenia encourages executioners”? For Pashinyan, the executioner has always been and remains the former authorities of RA.

You will say that now there is a different geopolitical situation, “peace” has been established, but does the geopolitical situation cancel the question of the authorities’ responsibility in the cases described by journalist Nikol Pashinyan or the anonymous columnist, moreover, it is not about a few thousand victims… Of course not, and at some point, when Pashinyan becomes the opposition, won’t he return to the logic of the above-mentioned articles, even if we are dealing with different geopolitical situations?

—

Edgar Elbakyan imagines the future of Armenia very sadly, noting that “now we are in a pre-genocide situation”, but he is convinced that Pashinyan’s attempts to destroy the Armenian national identity and create a “CP identity” have failed. 168 TVof Revue in an interview with the program, talking about the topic of national identity, the identity and differences of the homeland and the state, and the current processes, political scientist Edgar Elbakyan answered the important questions, what is Armenia in general and what is Armenia about?

The political scientist emphasizes that Armenia is a national state.

“I imagine the future of Armenia very sadly, because the issue is not pluralism. You know, we can have a very healthy society where people don’t agree on the tax code or uniforms in schools, but when we argue about what Armenia is, living in a society, and there’s clearly an ideological camp that says, Armenia is the historical and cultural continuation. If we say: let’s forget genocide, let’s forget Karabakh, Tigranashen, land issue, Khorenatsi, Mount Masis, what is left underneath, just our biological reserve? “Armenia is a national state, or at least ideally it should be,” said Edgar Elbakyan.

The political scientist clarifies that Pashinyan’s behavior of measuring the Motherland purely materially, with roads, kindergartens and restaurants, and not with spiritual and national values, in the general picture of the rejection of Artsakh, is very typical of today’s politics, because with the temporary weakening of the role of religions and the church, politics has turned into a kind of religion, but the good news is that we are already gradually entering the next transformation phase, when religion and the church are valued again.

“When he announces that a kindergarten and a school have not been built in Artsakh, and people applaud, don’t be surprised, because he appeals to the self-reliant part of people, to the emotional part of people. It has become their identity. They made this their identity. In fact, I will call this anti-Armenianism, and see how it was built. Identity is built there when you are able to first divide into “us” and “them” and most importantly, you are able to explain to people the reason for their suffering. They try to convince that “you are suffering because of being Armenian”. Of course, they stated that “you are suffering because of Karabakh”.

It was clear that in reality Karabakh is not the issue, but the national struggle, they were just hiding it, that it is a conflict, it is an expenditure of resources, this, that. Now it has already become. “You will not live well if you look at Mount Masis. You will not live well, because Mashtots has not become a QR code. You will not live well, how many Raffi you read, Khorenatsi you read”, and so on. He does not accidentally say that September 19 [of 2023] is the day of Armenia’s independence. This is the most vulgarized form of a liberal approach to identity, when you are “liberated” from yourself, from your identity,” commented the political scientist.

Speaking about the hidden process of handing over territories and the conversations surrounding it, Edgar Elbakyan mentioned.

«I am sure that Tigranashen is the first, or maybe they will start from the so-called Soflu-Barkhudarlu in Tavush marz. It depends on how the elections will be held, if they are held, with what advantage, how ready will people be? I am saying something that is a bit painful for us, but the Turks are just looking at where their enemies are weaker. Kemal, for example, in 1920 in May it was decided whether to attack the Greeks or the Armenians. He saw that the Armenians are weaker, he decided to start with the Armenians…

Now they look at it as a weak military front, or “well, where is the best place to start?”, so they cut Armenia like a cake, but they definitely want to surrender Tigranashen, and if it is surrendered, it will turn into an Azerbaijani military base. it has no other meaning for Azerbaijanis. The Goris-Kapan road will look like a playground in front of it. There will be a military base under Yerevan’s nose. Old people must remember that during the Soviet years, Azerbaijanis wrote Brezhnev’s famous speech in large letters on the hill in front of Tigranashen. “Azerbaijan walks wide”. Another form of psychological violence against Armenians»։

Elbakyan also added. “In general, the founder of our state, the one who says: state, state, do it, the founder of your state is from Karabakh. Aram Manukyan is from Karabakh. Apart from the fact that Aram Manukyan is from Artsakh, the outcome of the battle of Sardarapat was decided by the Karabakh cavalry… If we start dividing into groups like that, the co-founders of this state are the Sassoons and Mshetsi, who cleaned the skirts of Aragats… In other words, how do you stand and say forget it? There are people. Now give and kill the honey beekeeper so that he forgets that they came from Artsap village. Do you want to erase the memory of those people?’

Full interview in the video.

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