- Robert Zargarian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his Civil Contract party have made clear that despite Russia’s warnings, they will continue to pursue Armenia’s eventual membership in the European Union if they win the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Civil Contract pledged to implement relevant “reforms” in its election manifesto reflecting Pashinian’s statements on the subject.
“Once Armenia meets those [EU] standards, EU membership will become a political decision and will depend on whether the EU is ready to accept Armenia,” says the document. “If it is, Armenia will apply to become a full member of the EU. If not, the implementation of the above-mentioned reforms will be a strategic achievement for Armenia as Armenia will have become a country fully compliant with European standards.”
Pashinian’s government enacted last year a law calling for the “start of a process of Armenia’s accession to the European Union.” Moscow has since repeatedly warned that this is “not compatible” with Armenia’s continued membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led trade bloc that gives Armenian exporters tariff-free access to Russia’s vast market.
Putin publicly repeated those warnings when he met with Pashinian at the Kremlin on April 1. He noted that Russia remains Armenia’s most important trading partner and supplies natural gas to the South Caucasus state at a significant discount.
“As you know, energy prices, gas prices in Europe, for example, are currently skyrocketing to over $600 per thousand cubic meters,” Putin told Pashinian. “Russia sells gas to Armenia for $177.5 per thousand cubic meters. The difference is significant.”
That was widely construed as an implicit threat to strip Armenia of economic benefits vital for its economy. Parliament speaker Alen Simonian, responded by saying that Yerevan will leave the EEU if Moscow raises the gas price or imposes other economic sanctions on it.
However, Pashinian and his political allies, including Simonian, downplayed the Russian-Armenian tensions in the following weeks. The Civil Contract manifesto emphasizes that Armenia would remain an EEU member as long as possible.
According to Armenian government data, Russia accounted for 35.8 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade last year, followed by China (12.3 percent) and the European Union (11.7 percent). Its share has increased significantly during Pashinian’s eight-year rule.
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Armenian Speaker Rebukes Turkey For Dragging Feet Over Border
Turkey has taken no further steps to normalize relations with Armenia even after last August’s initialing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty, parliament speaker Alen Simonian complained over the weekend.
“Armenia is ready to open the [Turkish-Armenian] border, but Turkey is not taking any new steps,” Simonian told reporters at the end of a visit to Istanbul during which he attended a session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
“At first, they said that the border will not open until the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is resolved,” he said, according to the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos. “Then they said that the Karabakh issue is resolved. Then they brought up the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace agreement. We negotiated, agreed on 17 points, initialed it, shook hands, but nothing happened after that.”
Turkish media reported late last year that Ankara is finally preparing to open the border for Armenian and Turkish diplomatic passport holders as well as citizens of third countries in line with a 2022 agreement with Yerevan. They said that this will likely happen in March, ahead of Armenia’s parliamentary elections slated for June.
Armenian analysts suggested that Ankara will thus hope to boost Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s reelection chances. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan mentioned the Armenian polls and praised Pashinian in that context in January. Armenian opposition leaders decried what they called Fidan’s endorsement of Pashinian.
In a sign of Yerevan’s frustration with the Turks, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan skipped last week an annual diplomatic forum in the Turkish city of Antalya. Mirzoyan had attended the four previous conferences held there.
Simonian, who held bilateral meetings with his Turkish and Azerbaijani counterparts in Istanbul, blamed Azerbaijan for the Turkish side’s continuing reluctance to implement the 2022 agreement.
“On the one hand, Azerbaijan negotiates with us,” he said. “On the other, it does not allow Turkey to negotiate with us. This is a strange situation. Turkey has become a prisoner of these relations [with Azerbaijan.]”
Successive Turkish governments have for decades made the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on a resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict acceptable to Baku.
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RFE/RL – More Karapetian Supporters Rounded Up Ahead Of Elections
- Karine Simonian
- Naira Bulghadarian
Law-enforcement authorities detained 22 more supporters of billionaire Samvel Karapetian on Monday in a continuing crackdown on his opposition movement seen as the ruling Civil Contract party’s main challenger in Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections.
Police took them in for questioning after searching their homes in the northern town of Stepanavan and two nearby villages. They all were understood to be released without charge several hours later.
The detainees included Mher Gevorgian, a former mayor of the village of Gyulagarak, and Vruyr Ayvazian, a local council member running for the parliament on the ticket of Karapetian’s Strong Armenia party. The Investigative Committee said they were rounded up on suspicion of attending or having others attend rallies for money or under duress. Ayvazian said law-enforcement officers confiscated his two home computers as well as his wife’s and mother’s mobile phones.
“I didn’t coerce anyone to do anything, including participating in a rally,” Ayvazian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
In his words, he was specifically questioned in connection with Friday’s protest staged by Strong Armenia outside a court in Yerevan. Hundreds of its supporters rallied there during Karapetian’s unfolding trial to demand the tycoon’s release from house arrest. Some of them jostled with riot police at one point. At least 17 protesters were detained as a result.
In an extraordinary development, the Investigative Committee charged them with hooliganism and obstruction of the police’s work. Judges did not allow the law-enforcement agency to hold any of them detention, however. Three of the arrested protesters were placed under house arrest while the others were set free.
Senior Strong Armenian members insisted on Monday that the accusations are baseless. One of them, Edgar Ghazarian, said that the arrests of these and other Karapetian supporters are designed to prevent their involvement in unfolding election campaign.
Fourteen such citizens living in the southern town of Artashat were arrested on Thursday on charges of handing out or receiving vote bribes. Karapetian’s party denies the accusations that fueled more speculation about its possible disqualification from the June 7 ballot.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was accused by critics of planning to secure an election victory through fraud or foul play when it emerged in December that his administration requested election-related assistance from the European Union. The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, revealed that Yerevan is seeking the kind of “help to fight foreign malign interference” which the EU provided to Moldova ahead of parliamentary elections held there in September 2025. Two Moldovan opposition parties deemed pro-Russian were barred from participating in the elections won by the country’s pro-Western leadership.
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Netanyahu condemned the vandalism of an Israeli soldier in Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strongly condemned the destruction of a statue of Jesus Christ by an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon, while the army leadership has launched a criminal investigation into the incident amid ongoing large-scale military operations.
The incident was recorded in the Lebanese village of Debel, where the soldier hit the Christian shrine with a hammer. The Israel Defense Forces responded promptly, declaring that such behavior radically contradicts military values. Noting that the vast majority of Israelis are shocked by what happened, Prime Minister Netanyahu promised to take tough measures.
“I strongly condemn this act,” the head of the government emphasized, adding that the culprit will be severely punished based on the results of the investigation. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country, Saar, described the incident as a shame and officially apologized to the Christians whose religious feelings were offended. As a gesture of goodwill, the Israeli military has expressed its willingness to assist the local community in restoring the statue and placing it in its original location.
The scandal surrounding the religious statue takes place in the context of intense fighting in Lebanon. The military operations, which started on March 2, immediately after the joint strikes of the USA and Israel in the direction of Iran, have already killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon. The Israeli side claims that the aim of the current military operation is the disarmament and disarmament of the armed groups against which the state has been waging an armed struggle since 2023, parallel to the ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
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Armenia is ready to facilitate transit transportation between Azerbaijan and Turkey
At the 152nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Istanbul, the representative of the ruling party of Armenia announced the beginning of a new era of stability in the South Caucasus, stressing the economic and humanitarian benefits of the peace process with Azerbaijan.
Hasmik Hakobyan, deputy of the “Civil Agreement” faction, in his speech called the joint declaration of August 8, 2025 a historical milestone, which established the recognition of mutual sovereignty based on the Alma-Ata declaration.
The politician considered the fact that, thanks to diplomatic efforts, there have been no armed incidents and casualties on the borders for almost two years, and it was also possible to ensure the return of prisoners. Yerevan considers regional economic integration to be the main driver of lasting peace.
As an example, Hakobyan pointed to the launch of the TRIPP program, within the framework of which, in November of last year, for the first time since 1991, a cargo train from Azerbaijan arrived in Armenia through the territory of Georgia.
“We are also ready to facilitate transit transportation between Azerbaijan and Turkey, believing that interdependence is the best antidote to enmity,” the Armenian parliamentarian emphasized.
Ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for June 2026, the Armenian authorities are promoting the concept of “Real Armenia”, which is aimed at development in internationally recognized territories.
According to Hakobyan, the government strives to make democracy and peace irreversible by building a future where state borders serve not as obstacles, but exclusively as gates of regional cooperation.
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Baku blocks the dialogue between Yerevan and Ankara. Simonyan
The Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonyan, stated that the process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations is being artificially stopped by Azerbaijan, whose political lobbying directly exerts pressure on Ankara.
In an interview with the Armenian media published in Turkey, the President of the National Assembly emphasized the paradoxical nature of the created situation. Baku conducts direct peace negotiations with Yerevan, but at the same time it hinders the Armenian-Turkish dialogue.
According to him, Ankara has actually fallen under the influence of Azerbaijan. Despite this, Simonyan expressed optimism about the early opening of borders and the establishment of diplomatic ties, stressing that technically both sides have done everything possible and have no serious disputes.
“Turkey seems to be a prisoner of these relations, but I believe that in the near future we will witness the opening of the border,” the spokesperson said.
Commenting on the initiative of the head of the Turkish parliament, Numan Kurtulmus, to create a regional parliamentary format with the participation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, Simonyan described it as a positive intermediate step against the background of the delay in opening the borders. He informed that he personally made a similar proposal a year and a half ago, sending official letters to colleagues from neighboring countries.
Simonyan added that Armenia should not be isolated and is ready to directly negotiate with its neighbors on issues that concern it.
Referring to Ankara’s unstable position, Simonyan drew attention to the constant change in Turkish preconditions. At first, the opening of the border was connected with the solution of the Karabakh problem, and then with the signing of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
The speaker reminded that Yerevan and Baku have already held lengthy negotiations, fully agreed on the 17 points of the document and even initialed it, but the expected breakthrough in relations with Turkey has not yet been recorded.
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The court extended the deadline for the sale of the share of HETC in favor of “Tashir”
The Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia satisfied the claim of “Tashir Capital” CJSC against the government, giving the company the opportunity to expropriate its 70 percent share in “Electric Networks of Armenia” CJSC by May 25, 2026.
The court found it inadmissible to deprive the company of negotiations for the sale of property due to the bureaucratic delay of the postal notification by the government.
The legal dispute arose over the process of expropriation of HEP shares after the Public Service Regulatory Commission suspended the company’s electricity distribution license in November 2025. After that, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure offered the shareholders to sell 100 percent of the shares to the state, setting a deadline of February 21, 2026 for a response. The department intended to consider the absence of a response within the specified time as a refusal of the transaction.
The problem was that the Ministry’s official letter to Tashir Capital arrived only on February 25, four days after the deadline. As a result, the shareholder was physically deprived of the opportunity to express his position, negotiate and voluntarily alienate the property to the state.
Judge Artur Avagyan ruled that the deadlines for the fulfillment of obligations start to operate only from the moment of proper notification of the party. According to the court, the opposite interpretation violates the principles of legal certainty and justice.
“From a legal point of view, such a period is considered ineffective and cannot lead to the loss of rights. In such conditions, the company cannot suffer negative legal consequences, and the opposite position of the administrative body contradicts the constitutional protection of property rights,” the court’s ruling states.
The court also stated that under the existing circumstances, the use of stricter measures by the state, including forced expropriation of assets, will be assessed as a disproportionate and premature interference with property rights. In addition, during the court hearings, the representatives of the government did not present legal counterarguments regarding the calculation of the terms, which was considered by the court as acceptance of the facts pointed out by the plaintiff.
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The court canceled Serzh Sargsyan’s deal. 78.8 million drams will be charged to the budget
The Anti-Corruption Court of Armenia invalidated the sale and purchase agreement of the state plot signed by the former Minister of Defense Serzh Sargsyan in 2006, obliging the buyer to pay multi-million financial compensation to the state.
The judicial act was made on the basis of the claim of the State Interests Protection Department of the General Prosecutor’s Office. The 0.17-hectare plot of land located on Tsovakal Isakov Avenue in Malatia-Sebastia administrative district of the capital appeared at the center of the case.
The court recognized the deal between the then head of the defense department and the private company as illegal. Since the actual return of the territory to the state is currently impossible, the court ordered the closed joint-stock company to compensate the market value of the asset. The amount subject to confiscation will be 78.86 million drams (equivalent to about 205.3 thousand US dollars).
“Considering the impossibility of returning the mentioned plot of land, as a consequence of the invalidity of the contract, its value will be expropriated from the company in favor of the Republic of Armenia,” explained the supervisory department, adding that the judgment has already entered into legal force and an enforcement notice has been issued.
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Verelq: Yerevan tightens control over the construction of “Ajapnyak” metro
Yerevan is speeding up the implementation of the strategic plan for the construction of the new “Ajapnyak” metro station, moving the control of the works to a strict weekly regime.
During the procedural session held on April 20, the mayor of the capital, Tigran Avinyan, declared the construction of the station as an absolute priority of the city authorities. The mayor instructed to report on the progress of the project every Monday, presenting even the smallest details.
According to him, the monitoring will be maintained until the actual construction works start. “I will personally call, write letters, tire my colleagues on this topic on a weekly basis, so that the program moves forward,” Avinyan emphasized, demanding practical steps.
In parallel, the municipality is preparing the construction area. Aneta Babayan, the head of Yerevan Development Investment Program Implementation Office informed that the expropriation zone will cover an area of about 42 thousand square meters, including 33 property units. In order to compensate the owners, 10 billion drams will be provided according to the preliminary calculation.
It is expected that the economic profitability of the project will be 15.3 percent, which is significantly higher than the minimum threshold of 9 percent set by the government. The financing will be carried out entirely by means of the state budget. It is planned to allocate 2 billion drams in 2026, and another 22 billion in the following two years.
In order to effectively coordinate large-scale works, a special interdepartmental management council will be created in the near future.
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Official invitation
Dear partner,
We kindly invite you to participate in the professional workshop entitled “Re-reading the political, religious and social ideas of the spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei”, which will take place on on April 22 at 14:00 at YSU Theology Faculty.
Your presence will be greatly appreciated and will greatly contribute to the success of the event.
Address: c. Yerevan, Abovyan 52:
Date: April 22, 2:00 p.m
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