The Diaspora National Mobilization Conference was held in Paris on April 11–12, 2026, bringing together 160 political activists, community leaders, international lawyers, clergy, and scholars from 26 countries, including Armenia and Artsakh.
The aim was to provide a comprehensive assessment of Armenia-Diaspora relations amid ongoing national challenges and evolving geopolitical realities, while highlighting the urgent need for coordinated mobilization around a unified pan-Armenian agenda.
This is a critical moment in the history of the nation. With each passing day, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is causing significant damage to Armenia’s national interests to such an extent that, should he remain in his post after the June 7 parliamentary elections, the security of the homeland could be seriously jeopardized. Armenia needs a competent leader who is dedicated to protecting the country’s national interests from all foreign intrusions, whether from the East, West, North, or South.
Armenians who ignore the plight of their homeland at this critical juncture and sit with their hands folded are contributing to its demise. Regardless of where they live, all Armenians have the sacred duty of saving Armenia from its enemies, both inside and outside of the country.
Regrettably, around half of Armenia’s registered voters have indicated they will not participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Such disengagement enables the continuation of governmental policies most citizens oppose. All registered Armenian voters have the civic duty to participate in the elections and cast their vote on June 7. Even those Armenian citizens who live in the Diaspora should travel to Armenia to vote.
In terms of campaign strategy, the opposition political parties should prioritize their campaign efforts on reaching out to those who are not planning to vote, rather than wasting time and resources trying to win over Pashinyan’s dwindling supporters. His followers will continue to support him because their livelihood depends on him, as they are either government employees who receive large bonuses or are granted monopolistic business contracts.
Against this background of political urgency, the Paris conference took on added significance. Most of the participants, not unaffiliated with any political party, collectively sensed the immediate dangers facing Armenia and were committed, after returning home, to doing everything in their power to mobilize members of their local communities. Impressively, among the conference participants were three former prime ministers of Armenia, Vazgen Manoukian, Khosrov Harutyunyan, and Hrant Bagratyan.
Bishop Krikor Khachatryan, the Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of France, read the statement of the Catholicos of All Armenians, Karekin II. The Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, Aram I, addressed the conference via video. Ashot Danielyan, the Acting President of the Republic of Artsakh and Speaker of Artsakh’s National Assembly, addressed the conference in person.
At the conference, there were 19 speakers who were divided into four panels:
1) Diaspora’s strategic role in the resolution of key national problems; what is the Diaspora’s political agenda?
2) The importance of national values and the Armenian Church in preserving Armenian identity in the Diaspora; challenges under new circumstances.
3) Key issues and horizons in Armenia-Diaspora relations.
4) Diaspora mobilization and revitalization to accomplish pan-Armenian goals.
In my remarks as one of the speakers at the conference, I expressed regret that successive Armenian governments have not fully utilized the Diaspora as a valuable asset. After the Pashinyan regime shut down the Diaspora Ministry, Diaspora-Armenia relations have sunk to their lowest level since Armenia’s independence. Pashinyan frequently disparages and antagonizes the Diaspora, thereby distancing his government from Diaspora concerns.
Pashinyan’s views and positions represent a profound departure from Armenian values and priorities. He has openly criticized enduring national symbols such as Mt. Ararat, the coat of arms, and the national anthem, has renamed “History of Armenians” textbooks to “History of Armenia” that diminish the historical breadth of Armenian identity, has questioned the veracity of the Armenian Genocide, and wears on his lapel a map of “Real Armenia,” attempting to consign historical Armenia to oblivion.
On matters of security and sovereignty, Pashinyan has handed over Artsakh to Azerbaijan, relinquished 220 square kilometers of territory from the Republic of Armenia to Azerbaijan, considers the Artsakh issue closed, while Artsakh’s leaders remain in a Baku jail, and compiled a blacklist of Diaspora Armenians who are not allowed to visit Armenia simply because they disagree with his policies.
Furthermore, he has taken confrontational steps against the Armenian Apostolic Church, including the detention of senior clergy, and his political party, Civil Contract, has announced plans to organize an official conference exclusively for Diasporans who are “pro-government.”
Concluding my remarks, I proposed a mechanism that will unite millions of Diaspora Armenians in a single structure, by forming the Diaspora Armenian Parliament, which would be elected by members of Armenian communities throughout the Diaspora.
At the conference was coming to its end, I was surprised when Ashot Danielyan, the Acting President of the Republic of Artsakh, handed me a “Certificate of Appreciation” from the Republic of Artsakh, stating: “I express my deep gratitude to you for your great contribution to protecting the rights of the forcibly displaced Artsakh Armenians and ensuring their safe and dignified return to their historical homeland.”
Article 18
A memorial service for the assassinated former Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, was held in a Tehran church last week.
The service at the Armenian cathedral of St Sarkis marked 40 days since Khamenei’s death, and was attended by officials including the former Minister of Intelligence, Mahmoud Alavi, and Iranian-Armenian MPs.
Christians of Armenian and Assyrian descent are a recognized religious minority in Iran who have long been used as propaganda tools by the Islamic Republic, which seeks to present a message of inter-religious harmony and tolerance while cracking down on Christian converts and any Armenians or Assyrians who associate with them.
One of the most high-profile recent propaganda wins came last October, when a metro station just outside the St Sarkis cathedral was named after the Virgin Mary.
More recently, Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref posted on X last week that “Iran has been, for centuries, a safe haven for the sound of Christian bells and Jewish prayers alongside the call to prayer”.
Meanwhile, parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Galibaf described the death during the war of an Armenian Christian in Isfahan as a sign of “the unity of all Iranians in defending the homeland”, and wished his soul “eternal rest and peace in the loving embrace of Jesus Christ”.
However, at least five Armenians are among the at least 48 current Christian prisoners of conscience in Iran – all detained on charges related to their religious beliefs or activities.
Among them are Iranian-Armenian church leader Joseph Shahbazian, who was last year handed a second 10-year sentence related to his leadership of a house-church, and Hakop Gochumyan, an Armenian citizen who was arrested while holidaying in Iran three years ago and also sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges related to his visit to a house-church and possession of seven Persian-language copies of the New Testament.
Meanwhile, at least seven Armenians were among the tens of thousands of protesters massacred by Iran’s security forces in January.
According to Iranian-Armenian journalist Fred Petrossian, even though harassment of religious minorities is “institutionalised in the very fabric of the Islamic Republic … representatives of religious minorities find themselves almost forced to defend the interests and discourse of a government that has deprived them of many of their rights, in an attempt perhaps to regain those lost rights or to prevent their further deterioration”.
He added: “The persecution of unrecognised minorities such as Baha’is and Christian converts is so severe that there is less talk about violations of the rights of the minorities ‘recognised’ in the Constitution.”
Article18’s director, Mansour Borji, has also noted that Armenian and Assyrian church leaders were among the first to welcome the Islamic Republic’s founding father, Ayatollah Ali Khomenei, when he arrived at the airport, and “in so doing ensured their protection under the new Islamic state”.
The messaging from the Armenian representatives at last week’s memorial service was in keeping with messages past, with an archbishop hailing Khamenei’s “wise leadership” and an MP saying “the people of Iran of every religion, ethnicity and sect have shown during the past 40 days that they support our beloved Iran and the regime”.
The incident occurred on April 5 at Yerevan airport. As before, blogger Alexander Lapshin was detained at passport control, but this time he was informed that entry to the country was completely closed for him and he had to leave. However, he was not provided with any official documents explaining the reasons, writes “Radio Svaboda”.
Prior to this, Lapshin tried to obtain an electronic visa using his Israeli passport, but for the first time received a refusal. Therefore, he decided to fly without it and apply for a visa upon arrival, but he was denied there too. He still has friends in Armenia, as well as an apartment and personal belongings, as he had lived there for several years before.
Officially, the blogger was told the ban was due to his publication of an interview with a former Armenian prisoner of war who spoke about torture in Azerbaijani captivity. According to the Armenian side, such materials could harm relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The blogger himself considers this explanation illogical.
Unofficially, however, he was told that the problem might be that he had been repeatedly detained in Armenia at the request of Belarus, and this simply annoyed local services. In total, there were seven such detentions.
Lapshin’s problems with Belarusian authorities began in 2016 when he was detained in Belarus and extradited to Azerbaijan due to a criminal case for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh. There, the blogger was convicted, but later pardoned. After this, he filed a complaint with the UN, which recognized that his rights had been violated.
In subsequent years, Belarus continued to accuse Lapshin, and in 2024 he was for the first time detained in Armenia at the request of Belarus, but not extradited. Later, such detentions recurred. Lapshin even appealed to an Armenian court, which recognized that Belarus’s accusations did not comply with local laws, but this did not stop the detentions.
Following the 2018 revolution, the most significant criticism directed at the government and the ruling majority has been their inability to achieve results in the field of justice that could be considered satisfactory, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated at the 8th meeting of the Armenia-EU Civil Society Platform.
“In the Republic of Armenia, the judicial and justice systems, as well as the broader sense of fairness, lack an organic connection with the highest source of power – the people. This is one of the most important issues we must address in the near future, including through the adoption of a new Constitution,” he said.
According to the Prime Minister, the justice system in Armenia is administered by institutions that remain isolated and lack sufficient accountability and responsibility to the public.
Jerusalem exhibit highlights little-known stories of Armenians recognized by Yad Vashem, revealing acts of courage and shared history between two persecuted peoples
“In this capacity, he founded a hospital that treated wounded Hungarian soldiers as well as Hungarian civilians free of charge and used this hospital to hide over 400 Jews,” said David Eisenstadt, who translated the placards of nine Armenians declared Righteous Among the Nations for a unique exhibit on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday.
“He even managed to equip 40 Jewish doctors and other medical personnel with forged certificates stating that they were Aryan.”
When an informant told the authorities that Jews were being hidden in the hospital, Jeretzian showed up – in a Nazi uniform – and brandished a forged document stating that the hospital was protected territory.
“He was a genuine hero and a tremendous improviser,” Eisenstadt told ALL ISRAEL NEWS.
Another Armenian family, Grigori and Pran Tashchiyan, hid the children of a Jewish family in their home in Crimea during the war. They recruited their teen children, Hasmik and Tigran, to guard the younger Jewish children, ages 4 and 7, and rush them to hiding whenever the Germans came around.
Hasmik was quoted as saying, “After having experienced the Armenian Genocide, we decided we must help them survive.”
These are just some of the 24 Armenians recognized by Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center as “Righteous Among the Gentiles” for saving Jews across Europe just 30 years after their own horrors.
Yisca Harani, a Jewish scholar on Christianity, organized an exhibit in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter to honor these heroes on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day – a day she said touches Jews more deeply than any other.
“If I want to deliver the news that anyone can be compassionate and that survivors of the Armenian Holocaust helped Jewish people to survive their Holocaust, this is something that can penetrate the heart of anyone on that day,” she told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. “So to hear that there were Armenians who risked their lives to save Jews is very strong.”Harani, who established the Religious Freedom Data Center, an organization that monitors violence against Christians in Israel, has long worked to create positive relations between Armenians and Jews.
The exhibit was displayed at the Armenian seminary in the Old City, culled together by Harani and other Jewish volunteers.
On the road, as many Jews walked toward the Western Wall, volunteer Binyamin Klugger, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, stood outside the seminary inviting religious visitors to view the exhibit. Many were hesitant.
Klugger explained that Israelis generally lack understanding of who Christians are – and that they are not hostile.
“Overseas, Jews live among all cultures, they have Christian neighbors, Christians friends,” he said. “Here, they don’t know anything about Christianity or Christians. They only [know] stories of their childhood: the Inquisition, pogroms. Christians are enemies.”
Klugger engages in conversations on his Facebook page, writing about Christian communities and churches. He was once criticized by his community for being photographed with the Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who was wearing a large cross.
“I told them, ‘I thought he was a math professor and that was a plus sign,’” he said. “I laughed it off, but I asked them, ‘What is your issue with this symbol?’ It opens up conversations and I have the opportunity to explain, there are different communities here in Israel, and it is worth getting to know them.”
Arek Kahkedjian, a tour guide who is Armenian – born and raised in Jerusalem – said Armenians and Jews share many historic and religious parallels.
“We are both very ancient nations, we have a lot of history. We are even mentioned in Titus Flavius Josephus’ book (War of the Jews),” Kahkedjian said. “Armenians are mentioned in the Bible and have a lot of connections to the Jewish people.”
The parallels carry a tragic tone as well – including the Genocide and the Holocaust – while modern-day geopolitics make for tense diplomatic relations between the two nations: Armenia has ties with neighboring Iran, while Israel has relations with Azerbaijan, a hostile nation on Armenia’s border.
“It’s all very connected and it’s all too complicated for a regular person to understand, but events like this that emphasize the similarities between the Jewish community and the Armenians – trying to introduce these to each other – could make things better,” he said.
Despite the connections and because of the geopolitics, Israel does not formally recognize the Armenian Genocide.
“It’s important to inform and educate people over here on the role that Armenians played in saving Jews during the Holocaust,” said Kegham Balian. “If I’m not mistaken, they saved the most Jews per capita, so that’s information that should be shared widely.”
Balian emphasized the importance of events like this and advocated for expanded public discussion and educational efforts.
“To bear in mind, this was after Armenians suffered their own genocide,” he said.
While the Nazis never reached Armenia during World War II, Armenians living in Europe – many of them refugees – saw the signs of genocide.
“For very altruistic, humanitarian reasons, they helped Jews in distress,” Eisenstadt said. “Sometimes they were Jews that they knew and in some cases they didn’t know them at all.”
Harani described such cases, including a 15-year-old Armenian boy who saw an elderly Jewish man outside and brought him into his home to hide, and an Armenian woman who went to the ghetto to demand the release of her neighbors.
“Every Jewish person should ask him or herself, ‘If I was there back then, would I risk my life? Would I risk my children?’” Harani said.
YEREVAN — Armenia’s Prosecutor General, Anna Vardapetyan, received a delegation led by David Allen, the Chargé d’Affaires of the United States in Armenia, during a meeting that focused on ongoing legal cooperation between the two countries.
A key issue discussed was the repatriation to Armenia of the majority of the proceeds from the sale of a mansion in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles that belongs to the family of former Armenian Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan.
The case stems from a civil forfeiture settlement reached by the U.S. Department of Justice involving the luxury property. In 2011, the mansion was purchased through a trust benefiting Khachatryan’s sons using funds provided by an Armenian businessman. At the time, Khachatryan was the highest-ranking official overseeing taxes and customs in Armenia. His sons maintained that the funds were loans, while U.S. authorities alleged that the repeatedly extended, unpaid loans were in fact a cover for bribe payments. Those same payments are also the subject of ongoing criminal proceedings in Armenia.
Under the terms of the settlement, the mansion will be forfeited to the United States and sold at the highest obtainable market value. Following the sale, 85 percent of the net proceeds will remain with the United States, while the remaining portion will be delivered to Khachatryan’s sons and a corporation they own. At the same time, the U.S. Attorney General has discretionary authority to transfer forfeited assets to foreign countries that directly or indirectly participated in the seizure or forfeiture process. The offices involved in the case have indicated that they intend to recommend transferring some or all of the forfeited proceeds to the Republic of Armenia.
According to Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office, the outcome reflects effective cooperation between the Armenian prosecution authorities and their U.S. counterparts within the framework of the criminal case launched in Armenia. The office emphasized that the Los Angeles property, recognized by a competent U.S. court as an asset of criminal origin, will be sold at full market value, with the majority of the proceeds expected to be returned to Armenia.
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