Against the backdrop of the reduction of import volumes from Iran and the sharp increase in the price of nitrogen fertilizers, the Armenian government has decided to financially support agricultural farms. For 2026, the state will allocate around 900 million drams in order to ensure the profitability of agricultural works.

The relevant decision was adopted at the April 18 meeting of the executive. According to the justification of the government, if the price of nitrogen fertilizer fluctuated between 6,500 and 8,000 drams during the season, it increased by another 3,000 drams in the first ten days of April. The relevant authorities note that in the conditions of such inflation, doing agriculture becomes unproductive. The analyzes of the ministry showed that 21 thousand tons of nitrogen fertilizers are required for the current year. 5,000-6,000 tons of it have already been acquired, and now there is a need to ensure access to the remaining 15,000 tons.

Beneficiaries whose cultivated land area does not exceed 30 hectares will be able to use the state support program. The subsidy mechanism will operate according to the following principle. the state will compensate the difference between the market price of one 50-kilogram bag and 8,000 AMD, but the compensation provided for each bag cannot exceed 3,000 AMD.

The draft also clarifies that the villagers must make purchases exclusively from the suppliers included in the list published by the Ministry. At the same time, all the responsibility for the quality of the sold fertilizer will be borne by the supplier companies

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The Government of Armenia has approved the conclusion of agreements worth about 284.4 million dollars with the World Bank, the purpose of which is to provide long-term housing solutions for about 109 thousand people displaced from Nagorno Karabakh and to promote the development of the country’s mortgage market.

This decision adopted at the April 18 session specifies the sources of funding. The bulk of the package, $240 million, will be raised as a loan facility, and $24.4 million will be provided from the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) in the form of a grant.

The program will also be supplemented by a 10 million dollar grant from the “Viable Planet” Foundation, and another 10 million dollar loan, guaranteed by the government, will be directed directly to the National Mortgage Company.

The support program will work in several directions. It is planned to provide direct financial assistance to refugees for the repayment of rent and utility costs, as well as to subsidize the mortgage loan advance payments and monthly contributions of the beneficiaries of the state program.

One important component is to open a credit line for financial organizations for the purpose of refinancing mortgage loans. The program also includes digital and institutional capacity building.

Implementation of the project is entrusted to the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. According to the justification of the government, the project is a logical continuation and expansion of the state support program launched in May 2024.

According to official data, 4,735 families have received housing certificates, of which 2,113 have already managed to buy an apartment, receiving more than 4.2 billion drams from the state budget. After the entry into force of the international agreement, funding will be allocated in stages, according to the established indicators and results.

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The implementation of the universal income declaration system is often unfairly discredited, but the main goal of this reform is to precisely target needy citizens and provide them with state support.

This was announced by the RA Prime Minister at the government session on April 18 Nikol Pashinyan. According to the head of the executive, the system is being demonized among the public, while it is necessary to clearly explain to the people that the new mechanism is meant to identify the vulnerable classes and direct the assistance to the right recipients.

As an example of social injustice, the Prime Minister recalled the previously recorded cases when state benefits were used by people driving expensive cars, in particular, “Mercedes G-Class”.

Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the problem is not that someone just received an allowance, but that due to such illogical distribution, the state was deprived of the opportunity to provide more and quality services to citizens in extreme need.

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The Government of Armenia intends to use non-standard political and legislative mechanisms in order to finally settle the long-standing problem of legalization of houses in Yerevan’s Haghtanak (4th village) district. Moreover, the dismantling of houses inhabited for decades is definitely excluded.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this during the government session held on April 18. According to the head of the executive, the regular administrative orders aimed at solving the problem are always facing legal obstacles, which the state system’s links are unable to overcome on their own.

In the created situation, the citizens, actually owning their property, are deprived of the opportunity to manage it legally, sell it or inherit it.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the issue requires high-level intervention and, if necessary, appropriate legislative changes. It was proposed to create a special working group for the effective settlement of similar long-term and crisis problems.

It should be reminded that the residents of the mentioned district have held protests many times in the past, demanding to settle the issue of their property rights, but the problem has remained unsolvable until now.

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The Government of Armenia optimizes the mechanism of calculation and provision of bonuses for special purpose units of the Armed Forces and servicemen on combat duty. For this purpose, during 2026, the budget of the defense department will increase by around 3.5 billion drams.

According to the decision adopted at the government session on April 18, the coefficients of the premiums for service providers in the new contact line formed after the military operations of 2020 will be revised. In addition, two different supplements for special forces will be combined.

Previously, the conditions and amounts of their calculation differed, which complicated the administration. With this step of the executive, the entire process of recording, documenting and allocating financial funds will be significantly facilitated.

According to the justification of the decision, the policy adopted by the state is aimed at expanding the social guarantees of the military, where financial security is considered as the main incentive for conscientious performance of official duties. The new system is expected to increase the attractiveness of the service, especially in the special purpose, special operations and intelligence units.

The settlement references provided by the document have a confidentiality stamp and are not subject to publication.

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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan positively assessed the resolution of the situation in the Middle East and in particular around the Strait of Hormuz, instructing the Competition Protection Authority to monitor the proportional decrease of prices in the domestic market.

At the government meeting on April 18, the head of the executive emphasized the need for accurate monitoring of the market. According to him, as soon as crises appear, the prices of goods immediately increase, but after the stabilization of the situation, businessmen reluctantly return them to the previous level.

In this context, the Prime Minister addressed the Chairman of the Commission for Protection of Competition Gegham Gevorgyaninstructing to analyze the situation and achieve price reduction where there are already objective prerequisites for it.

In the middle of April, against the background of the temporary ceasefire established in the region, the Iranian authorities announced the complete opening of the Strait of Hormuz for commercial ships. Restoring safe navigation through this strategically important waterway, which provides a significant portion of the world’s energy exports, contributes to the stabilization of global supply chains and international economic markets.

At the same time, the United States continues its blockade (which began on the evening of April 13) against ships carrying Iranian cargo, as well as ships entering Iranian territorial waters.

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The multi-month queues for Schengen visas among RA citizens are due to the unprecedented increase in the flow of passengers to the European Union countries. Compared to 2017, in 2025 it has increased by about 580 percent.

This was announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in a press conference on April 18, referring to the acute visa queuing crisis. According to the head of the government, the budget planning of the European partners was not intended for such a sharp increase. As the main solution to the situation, official Yerevan is negotiating visa liberalization. Pashinyan emphasized that today Armenia is the only country that is in active negotiations with the EU on this issue, and the topic will be raised again at the upcoming summit.

Currently, the queuing process has become so complicated that citizens sometimes have to pay an amount equal to the cost of the tourist package just to enter the embassy.

Referring to his controversial parliamentary statement regarding the 2-euro air tickets to Larnaca, the Prime Minister explained that the prices of the airlines are floating, but at the time of his speech, such a price was really fixed. Speaking about pensioners, the head of the executive expressed hope that the increase of pensions by 10 thousand drams will allow the elderly to travel both within the country and abroad.

He admitted that today pensioners are still just overcoming the threshold of the minimum consumer basket, but he emphasized that active leisure and travel at retirement age are one of the most important components of public well-being, which the state strives to achieve.

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The Government of Armenia will provide 40 million drams from the reserve fund for the technical and telecommunication equipment of the 8th European Political Community Summit scheduled in Yerevan.

According to the decision taken at the April 18 session, financial resources will be transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to cover the organizational needs of the high-level event to be held in the capital on May 4.

According to the justification of the project, due to the lack of deadlines and urgency, the supply of equipment must be completed by April 20, so the purchase is carried out by a one-person purchase procedure.

“HENMARCOM” and “Topaz-95” LLCs responded to the requests sent to the four companies guaranteed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service, from which the necessary purchases will be made.

The technical re-equipment of the ceremonial service is carried out within the framework of the relevant program of the 2026 state budget. The executive emphasizes that proper hosting of the summit directly follows from the government’s plan for 2021-2026, one of the key goals of which is to strengthen multilateral cooperation with the European Union and its member states.

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The Armenian government expects Turkish airlines to enter Gyumri airport. In parallel, official contacts between Yerevan, Ankara and Baku are turning into a normal working process aimed at the regulation of regional relations.

RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this in a briefing following the government session on April 18, noting that the process of expanding air traffic is already underway, and there is hope that new flights will be made to Gyumri in the near future.

The head of the executive reminded that the agreement on the implementation of Turkish Airlines flights to Yerevan was reached earlier, during the meeting with the President of Turkey in China. The Turkish side took the initiative, to which the official Yerevan responded positively.

Referring to the tripartite diplomatic contacts, Pashinyan emphasized that communication between Armenian, Turkish and Azerbaijani officials should be perceived as a daily work activity. Although, according to the Prime Minister, there are no conceptual news in the negotiations at the moment, daily consistent work is being done to find edges for the development of relations.

Speaking about the prospects of opening the Armenian-Turkish border and concluding a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, he assured that the main problem is not the actual implementation, but the specification of the dates, and the government is making maximum efforts to achieve the results as soon as possible.

The process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations without preconditions was officially started at the end of 2021 with the appointment of special envoys Ruben Rubinyan and Serdar Kilic. As a result of bilateral negotiations, the parties managed to implement a number of important agreements. In particular, at the beginning of 2022, passenger air traffic between Yerevan and Istanbul was restarted, and in January 2023, Ankara officially lifted the ban on direct air cargo transportation. 

However, some key agreements still remain incomplete or are in the process of implementation. The most important of them is the agreement reached in the summer of 2022 on the opening of the land border for citizens of third countries and holders of diplomatic passports. Although the Armenian side has completely completed the modernization and technical equipment of the “Margara” checkpoint, the border remains closed because, according to the statements of the Armenian envoy, the Turkish side has just started infrastructure works in its territory. In addition, the project of the joint restoration of the historical border bridge of Ani is currently in the stage of technical and documentary agreement.

At the same time, Turkey, despite its commitment to negotiate without preconditions, has not refused to condition the Armenian-Turkish process with Armenian-Azerbaijani peace negotiations.

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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan does not rule out that the publication of the draft of the new Constitution will be postponed until the end of the upcoming elections, due to internal discussions in the ruling team about the governance system.

In the briefing following the April 18 government session, the head of the executive clarified that he personally worked on the document and is in favor of its publication. Nevertheless, debates continue in the political team on a number of fundamental nuances related to state administration regulations. The Prime Minister emphasized that he does not consider it appropriate to publish the text without finally addressing these work issues. Taking into account the fast approach of the pre-election stage, if a consensus is not formed in the near future, the project will be presented to the public only after the elections. Let’s remind that at the beginning of last year, the Ministry of Justice announced that the text will be ready in March 2025.

The need to adopt a new Mother Law has been actively discussed since February 2025. Although the authorities put forward the agenda of constitutional reforms after 2018, the current process is taking place against the background of demands voiced by official Baku. Azerbaijan considers the amendment of the Constitution of Armenia as the main precondition for signing the peace treaty. Baku’s displeasure is related to the preamble of the RA Constitution, which refers to the Declaration of Independence of 1990, where, in turn, the decision on the reunification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno Karabakh is mentioned. The Azerbaijani side interprets this legal chain as a territorial claim.

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