Author: Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS

Armenia’s foreign trade rises 4.6% in Q1 despite March slowdown

Emil Lazarian
Economy15:37, 27 April 2026
Read the article in: EspañolPersian

Armenia’s foreign trade turnover recorded growth in the first quarter of 2026, even as March figures showed a noticeable decline, according to data released by the country’s Statistical Committee.

Foreign trade turnover in January–March 2026 exceeded the figure for the same period of the previous year by 4.6%, reaching $4.705 billion.

In March, trade turnover decreased by 13.1% compared to February and by 6.8% compared to March of the previous year. In the first month of spring, trade turnover amounted to $1.58 billion.

Exports in the first three months of the year exceeded the same period of the previous year by 4.5%, totaling $1.76 billion. In March, exports dropped by 19.9% compared to February and by 12.6% compared to March 2025. The value of exports in March stood at $564.6 million.

Imports in January–March exceeded the same period of 2025 by 4.6%, amounting to $2.94 billion. In March, imports decreased by 8.7% compared to February and by 3.2% compared to March of the previous year. The volume of imports in March was $1.02 billion.

The decline in foreign trade turnover is most likely due to factors stemming from military tensions in the Persian Gulf region since February 28, primarily disruptions in logistics.

The average exchange rate of the Armenian dram against the US dollar was 378.30 in January–March and 377.36 in March.

Published by Armenpress, original at 
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The USA is changing the format of the dialogue with Iran. meetings have been cancelled

Emil Lazarian
Լուսանկարը՝ DW

The United States administration is radically changing its approach to negotiations with Iran, abandoning long foreign trips by diplomats amid new proposals from Tehran and its active consultations with Moscow.


President of the USA Donald Trump announced the end of the practice of sending American negotiators to Pakistan to meet with Iranian officials. In an interview with the Fox News channel, the American leader emphasized the pointlessness of eighteen-hour flights, noting that Washington has a complete strategic advantage.


According to him, if the Iranian side is interested in the dialogue, it can use protected telephone communication or come to the United States in person. This decision followed the failure of the first round of direct bilateral contacts held in Islamabad on April 11, after which the planned visit of US envoys Steven Wittkopf and Jared Kushner was cancelled.


At the same time, according to information from the Axios periodical, Tehran conveyed a new initiative to Washington, offering to unblock the Strait of Hormuz and stop military operations.


At the same time, the Iranian leadership insists on postponing the discussion of its nuclear program, as there is still no unified position on possible compromises within the country. In the context of these diplomatic maneuvers and disagreements with the US, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Russia, where he will hold talks with President Vladimir Putin on April 27.

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Baku Confirms it Demolished Stepanakert Cathedral

Emil Lazarian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 April 27, 2026

 

in Artsakh, Featured Main, Latest, News, Top Stories

The before and after of Stepanakert’s Holy Mother of God Cathedral


The Azerbaijani government-affiliated Caucasus Muslims Board issued a statement Monday confirming the state-planned demolition of the Mother of God Cathedral in Stepanakert as well as a the St. Jacob church—a smaller edifice also in the occupied Artsakh capital.

The statement was a direct response to the condemnation voiced by the Holy See of Etchmiadzin last week. The Holy See accued Baku of continuing to “target Armenian Christian holy sites with the aim of erasing the Armenian trace from Artsakh.”

“This state-level vandalism once again proves that Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy has not changed, which makes statements about establishing a stable and lasting peace with Armenia questionable,” Etchmiadzin.

Satellite image of Holy Mother of God Cathedral Satellite image of St. Jacob Church

The Azerbaijani religious group accused Etchmiadzin of politicizing the issue saying the last week’s statement was “a manifestation of hostility and disinformation.”

The Baku group rationalized the demolition of the two churches by saying that they were “illegally” constructed during what it termed as “the occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories,” and adding the demolition “cannot be distorted in any way as the destruction of religious or cultural heritage.”

The Caucasus Islamic group claimed that Azerbaijanis who returned to occupied Stepanakert in recent month have appealed to Baku authorities urging them “to demolish all structures that did not exist in these territories before the occupation.”

Lernik Hovhannisyan, the chairman of the Artsakh Diocesan Council, questioned Azerbaijani claims of “indigenous” Azerbaijanis having ever lived in Stepanakert in droves and especially not in the area of the city where the demolished churches were located.

“Specifically, in Stepanakert, the Armenian population has always been predominant, that is, Stepanakert has always been a city with a majority of Armenians. Azerbaijanis lived to a certain extent in the upper Krkzhan district. They were brought in from different regions in the 1960s to change the demographic situation of the NKAO [Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast]. So, the statement of the Union of Caucasian Muslims has nothing to do with reality,” Hovhannesyan told Azatutyun.am in an interview on Monday.

The Azerbaijanis also claimed that the demolition was in line with international laws, without mentioning any such precedent.

Baku speaks of international humanitarian law, justifying the destruction of churches. The Azerbaijani group claimed that the chruches were not built with the consent of Azerbaijani authorities, and by demolishing them they are restoring legality, which was violated during the years of the what they claim to be Armenian “occupation.”

Hovhannesyan contended that what Azerbaijan has destroyed the culture of indigenous Armenians of Artsakh.
“It does not stand up to any international law, because the right of the Armenian population of Artsakh to self-determination as residents of Nagorno-Karabakh has long been recognized in all statements and documents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. If Armenians were occupiers then why did the Soviet Union create the NKAO within the Azerbaijani SSR?” Hovhannesyan said.

The Muslim Board of Azerbaijan presents grounds for the destruction of churches built in 30 years, but still does not mention anything about why they demolished the Green Hour and Mokhrenes churches—built in the 18th and 19th centuries—in occupied Shushi.

Baku praises itself as being “tolerant,” and claims that in that country “a church, a mosque, and a synagogue operate side by side.”

“If they are so tolerant and preserve, among other things, Armenian churches, citing the example of Baku, then where are the 27,000 monuments of Nakhichevan, the monuments of northern Artsakh?” Hovhannesyan said in the interview.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Prague headquarters researched Google’s satellite maps of where the two churches were located and observed that there white pavement where the huge Holy Mother of God Cathedral once stood and black soil is covering where the St. Jacob Church was erected.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan categorically stated that his government will not seek international condemnation of the cathedral’s demolition, nor would he condemn Baku for the destruction of this and other holy sites in occupied Artsakh.

“We need to be careful about these topics, especially now, because such topics are a double-edged sword,” Pashinyan said.

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CC: Artsakh Armenians appeal to ECHR over property loss

Emil Lazarian

· APRIL 27, 2026


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Iran-US negotiation impasse deepens. What has Iran offered to the US?

Emil Lazarian

April 27, 2026

Iran-US negotiation impasse continues. Although neither the US nor Iran are in favor of resuming hostilities, due to which the conditional ceasefire continues, the negotiation process is failing. Despite this, behind-the-scenes negotiations and offers to each other continue.

Axios The online periodical, referring to two anonymous informed sources, writes that Iran offered the US to unblock the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, moving the negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program to a later stage. According to the publication, diplomacy has reached an impasse, and there is no unified opinion within the leadership of Iran regarding the possibility of making concessions on the issue of the nuclear program. “Iran’s proposal would have allowed to bypass that problem on the way to a faster conclusion of the deal,” the journalists note. “However, lifting the blockade and ending the war would deprive US President Donald Trump of leverage in further negotiations aimed at getting Iran to move its stockpiles of enriched uranium abroad and stop enriching it.” According to Axios sources, Trump intends to hold a meeting with the national security and foreign policy team on the issue of Iran on April 27. During the meeting, deadlocked negotiations and possible further steps will be discussed.

Pan-Arab Al Mayadeen according to the TV channel, the program proposed by Tehran looks like this:

  • First stage: agreement on the cessation of war and the provision of security guarantees for Iran and Lebanon.
  • Second stage: issues related to the management of the Strait of Hormuz.
  • Third stage: Iran’s nuclear program.

According to the publication, Tehran refuses to discuss the last point until an agreement is reached on the previous two.

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  • NICOLE, NEITHER MOSCOW BELIEVES YOUR TEARS, NOR THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE. THEY JUST SAY: YOU HAVE AN AGREEMENT. From Suren Surenyas

On April 26 to Fox News in an interview, Donald Trump made it clear that he intends to continue the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, due to which Iran’s oil exports have stopped. He hopes that this will force Tehran to make concessions in the coming weeks. Trump also announced that American envoys will no longer go to Pakistan for negotiations on Iran.

“If they want, we can talk, but we will not put people on the road for 18 hours for the meeting,” the US president summed up. A day ago, he canceled the visit of his envoys Steven Wittkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad. On the same day, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also left Pakistan. However, today IRI Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is on a visit to Moscow.

According to mass media, in Moscow he will discuss regional issues, including the Iranian-American conflict. Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian President, confirmed that Aragchi will also have a meeting with Vladimir Putin to discuss the progress of negotiations and the prospects of a ceasefire. Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi announced today that negotiations with the US have reached a dead end due to exaggerated demands and wrong approaches.

“Wrong approaches and exaggerated demands by the US have led to the fact that the previous round of negotiations, despite the recorded progress, could not achieve the set goals,” Araghchi said.

Russian analyst Vladimir Yevseyev 168.amtold that the difficult confrontation continues, none of the parties wants to make a big concession.

According to him, the main issue of the negotiations is the future fate of the enriched uranium, regarding which there were various proposals in the past, and now the US has made some proposals, offering to transfer it to another country.

“Tehran, most likely, before possible agreements on the nuclear issue, wants to get certain guarantees, that is the reason why a proposal consisting of three stages has been presented.

It is possible that the Iranian Foreign Minister’s visit to Moscow is directly related to all of this. I would like to remind that sometimes the issue of transporting enriched uranium to Russia was on the agenda of discussions, and Russia was ready to accept it. I think it is no coincidence that one of Iran’s main negotiators is visiting Russia during these discussions. Another important issue is that the US wants Iran to stop enriching uranium for 20 years, and Iran is not ready for this either. One of the problematic negotiation issues between the parties is the unblocking of Iranian assets. It is clear that the parties have set themselves the task of maintaining their own political red lines and “face”, but there is no war either desire to continue,” said Vladimir Yevseyev.

However, he believes that in case of failure, the US may try to use other pressure mechanisms.

“However, it should also be taken into account that domestic political developments are expected in the United States in the coming months, which limits the possibility of the US president’s long-term planning. Understanding this in Iran, they are trying to build their tactics,” he said.

Speaking from the South Caucasus, the analyst said that as long as the current situation continues, the South Caucasus will continue to be in a predictable geopolitical environment.

“Nevertheless, Iran’s tougher stance gives caution to all its neighbors, including Baku and Yerevan in the South Caucasus direction. It is still difficult to ignore Iran’s positions,” said Vladimir Yevseyev.

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168: Remember, all of you, we are talking about partitioning Armenia. Pashinyan is dirty, man

Emil Lazarian

April 27, 2026

Nikol Pashinyan’s April 24th address on the occasion of the 111th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide is “dirty, bloody manipulation”. About this 168 TVof Revue mentioned on the air of the program RA First Defender of Human Rights, Executive Director of “Against Legal Arbitrariness” NGO, Specialist in International Human Rights Law Larisa Alaverdyancommenting on Nikol Pashinyan’s idea that “The Great Genocide is a consequence of involving the Armenian people in international intrigues”.

The specialist with long-term experience in lecturing emphasizes that he is very suspicious of all those people who could not even graduate from university.

“We know that the person holding the post of prime minister could not pass the relevant exams and graduate from the university, and I attribute many, many of his statements to that. Even if he quotes something, I always doubt whether he understood what he was quoting correctly.

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Second, it has already been expressed to the top level addressee that he can get 10 diplomas in the specialty of political manipulation.

Not having a university education diploma, he is a great master of manipulative technologies. If there was such a university, he would definitely graduate with honors. Now it is manipulation and that manipulation has a name. It is dirty, bloody manipulation. You know, Genocide scholars are among the most serious scholars. Most of them have historical, philosophical or political education.

Genocide studies are not done by random people. Genocide experts have one mission: to warn and prevent new genocides, and it is no coincidence that they already call the persons who try to come up with such statements to be processed. It’s called ‘victim targeting’, putting the blame on the victim.” commented Larisa Alaverdyan.

The human rights defender added.

“Nikol Pashinyan’s statement as one of the proud citizens of RA and one of the 3 million prime ministers is null and void. It speaks only about the political power he leads and his own delusions or purposeful manipulations, which are full of bloody consequences. I myself completely condemn, I do not agree with anyone who tries to revise the 111-year work of genocide scholars.

The first ombudsman of Armenia reminds that the organizers of the Armenian Genocide, Taleat, Enver, Cemal, were tried by the Turkish court, and it is not Nikol Pashinyan who should explain today what happened in 1915.

Larisa Alaverdyan also reminded how the Entente powers – England, France, Russia – fought in 1915. on May 24 The joint declaration about the massacre of Armenians, where for the first time mass murders of Armenians are given the wording “crime against humanity”, as well as the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which clearly defines the crime of genocide.

“It is very clearly written in that judgment that it was for the purposeful destruction and depatriation of Armenians and other Christians by nationality. So many things can be remembered from the events of those years, but it is known that the Armenian community of the Ottoman Empire participated in the First World War by the Ottoman army, and such a statement has a premeditated nature, and to reason here that he is illiterate is very little.

He does not like to work with documents and judges from the position of Turkish denial policy. Today, the person who cannot publish the surnames of the soldiers who died during the Forty-four Day War demands to print the surnames of one and a half million killed victims, what do you want after that? It is a form of dirty manipulation. This is dirty, bloody manipulation. Why bloody?

Genocide experts make it clear that such attempts, as well as denial and concealment of crimes, and this is such an attempt, are also a crime because it contributes to the realization of new genocides. In other words, the genocidal act that took place in Artsakh in 2020-23 is not enough for that person. He is clearly ready to serve other genocides against Armenians.” Larisa Alaverdyan mentioned.

According to the human rights defender, Pashinyan’s statement is a dirty and bloody manipulation, because it is fraught with great danger, that is, it encourages Azerbaijan and Turkey to continue the genocide with the old or new “hybrid” methods.

In this context, Larisa Alaverdyan warns: “we have been invaded from the inside”.

“Our task is to fight to get rid of this occupied state. This is a liberation struggle. Remember, all of you, we are talking about partitioning Armenia.” declared the human rights defender.

Let us remind that on April 24, Nikol Pashinyan with a message spoke on the occasion of the 111th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, expressing a number of controversial thoughts and trying under the title of commemorating the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, in fact, to advance his well-known propaganda views on the revision of history, national issues being an instrument of influence in the hands of great powers, “peace” being a guarantee of not allowing the repetition of the Genocide, the identity of the state and the homeland, putting forward ideas reminiscent of the Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide. theses and evaluations. To put it more simply, in Nikol Pashinyan’s message there is no mention of Turkey’s responsibility or guilt for the crime of the Armenian Genocide.

In particular, at the beginning of the text, Nikol Pashinyan says that on April 24, “we commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide, the Great Genocide, and pay tribute to our compatriots who were massacred, deported and starved in the Ottoman Empire for being Armenians”, but it is not mentioned who were the organizers of the genocide and who are their successors today. And the mention of famine, epidemics, and diseases in itself reminds of Turkish denialism, attempts to attribute the deliberate killing of more than 1.5 million Armenians, the genocide, to some “unfortunate accidents” or “diseases”.

Secondly, referring to the volume of Armenian history published by the NAS History Institute, Nikol Pashinyan claims that it is well documented that “the Great Genocide is a consequence of the practice of involving the Armenian people in international conspiracies”. Nikol Pashinyan himself insists that “we have understood that the Great Genocide cannot be allowed to become a tool for international players to fight against each other.” From this, a logical question arises, whether Nikol Pashinyan is trying to lead the issue of the Armenian Genocide to his excuses, that it was “a noose around our necks”, and therefore, we should get rid of it.

In addition, Nikol Pashinyan claims in the address that the greatest desire of the Armenian people is to have a state and peace, which has been realized, and the state and peace are the guarantee that the Armenian Genocide will not happen again. In this context, he calls to “stop the search for a homeland outside the internationally recognized 29,743 square kilometers of our state, the Republic of Armenia.”

Full interview in the video.




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RFE/RL – Another Karapetian Ally Arrested

Emil Lazarian
  • Naira Bulghadarian
April 27, 2026
Armenia – Artur Avanesian, a senior member of the opposition Strong Armenia Party.

Yet another political ally of billionaire Samvel Karapetian was arrested 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.

The Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) charged Artur Avanesian, a senior member of Karapetian’s Strong Armenia alliance, with illegally promising “a number of citizens” jobs and other benefits if they vote for it.

Nicknamed Kandaz, Avanesian is a retired senior army officer and a prominent veteran of the wars in Nagorno-Karabakh. The ACC publicized the audio a wiretapped phone call in which he purportedly tells another Karabakh-born man that he will be hired by the Armenian military if Strong Armenia comes to power. The law-enforcement also detained three other persons. It did not identify them.

Another Strong Armenia figure, Arega Hovsepian, said Avanesian denies vote-buying accusations levelled against him.

“For 30 years, [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev failed to arrest Kandaz,” she said. “Now that is done by Armenia’s authorities.”

“This is making us even stronger. They can’t break us,” added Hovsepian.

In her words, investigators did not confiscate anything during a search conducted at Avanesian’s Yerevan apartment. It was not clear whether the ACC will seek court permission to hold him in detention pending investigation.

Another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, said earlier in the day that it has charged four members of a family in a village in the northern Shirak province with paying local residents cash to attend a Strong Armenia rally held in Yerevan on April 11. One of them was placed under house arrest. Karapetian’s bloc did not comment on that case.

The arrests were the latest in a series of criminal proceedings targeting Karapetian’s allies and supporters in the run-up to the June 7 parliamentary elections. They come amid speculation that the Armenian government is preparing the ground for Strong Armenia’s disqualification from the 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.

Karapetian, 60, has mostly lived in Russia since the early 1990s and has a dual Russian nationality. Pashinian’s political allies have accused the tycoon of plotting to topple the Armenian government on the Kremlin’s orders ever since he entered politics following his controversial arrest last June.

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Pashinian’s Wife Rails Against Vote-Buying Claims

Emil Lazarian
April 27, 2026


Armenia – Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his wife Anna Hakobian walk in Gyumri ahead of a pre-election concert, April 19, 2026.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s wife, Anna Hakobian, on Monday threatened to seek criminal proceedings against civic groups that have accused her of illegally engaging in benevolent activities ahead of Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections.

Armenian law bans such activities by not only politicians running for office or members of their parties but also their close relatives and other individuals linked to them. Three nongovernmental organizations making up the election-monitoring Independent Observer coalition took Hakobian to court last Thursday, accusing her My Step charity of violating the ban.

Hakobian was quick to deny any wrongdoing, saying that My Step’s activities are not connected with the upcoming elections in any way. She went on to hold a news conference to announce that her lawyers are considering demanding criminal charges against the Independent Observer and its well-known leader, Daniel Ioannisian. She said he is also planning to file a defamation suit against them.

My Step has, among other things, been organizing free English-language and physical training courses and handing out material aid to people. Hakobian made clear that she will not put these activities on hold despite the vote-buying claims also made by the Armenian opposition.

“There is no reason to postpone these programs because the My Step Fund’s activities do not violate any Armenian law,” she told a news conference.

A journalist pointed out that her public engagements are widely associated with Pashinian and the ruling Civil Contract party that are expected to face an uphill battle for political survival on June 7.

“You are violating my constitutional right,” replied Hakobian.

She went as far as to claim that the Independent Observer lawsuit against her violates an article of the European Convention on Human rights that prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment of individuals. Ioannisian scoffed at the claim.

“I think Ms. Hakobian does not have a good idea of what torture is and who can torture and who, even theoretically, cannot,” the Independent Observer leader said in a Facebook post. “In any case, we continue to insist that the My Step Fund is associated with Civil Contract.”

Armenia – Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his wife Anna Hakobian attend a public discussion of his book in Artashat, February 14, 2026.

Hakobian said she may be prosecuted soon for violating the ban on pre-election benevolence when she unexpectedly announced the breakup of her de facto marriage on February 27. Critics of the Armenian government dismissed that announcement as a political ploy. Some of them said it is designed to end opposition claims that Hakobian is breaking the law.

Pashinian made a joint public appearance with Hakobian just before his party’s pre-election concert in Gyumri on April 19. He said on April 23 that he has reunited with her.

Armenian law-enforcement authorities are known to have prosecuted only opposition figures on vote-buying charges. The head of the Anti-Corruption Committee, Artur Nahapetian, said on April 24 that Hakobian is not under investigation.

Hakobian, 48, is believed to have exerted a strong influence on Pashinian during his almost eight-year rule. Some observers have even regarded her as the premier’s closest political confidante.

In a barrage of social media posts, Hakobian resorted last May to personal insults to attack opposition activists, public figures and other citizens critical of her. She said she is finally responding to slanderous claims about herself and her family. She also made clear that the insults are part of her government-funded campaign purportedly aimed at helping Armenians become more educated.

Hakobian toured towns and villages across Armenia last year as part of the “Getting Educated Is Fashionable” campaign launched in late 2024. Pashinian spoke during some of those meetings attended by many local government officials and other public sector employees.

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Media rights violations decline in Armenia in Q1 2026, watchdog reports

Emil Lazarian
Press centre15:59, 27 April 2026
Read the article in: Armenian:

According to a report by a media watchdog, violations of the rights of journalists and media outlets in Armenia decreased in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025.

Ashot Melikyan, chairman of the Committee to Protect Freedom of _expression_, a Yerevan-based NGO, noted a decline across all categories, including physical violence, various forms of pressure, and especially violations of the right to access and disseminate information.

“There has been a noticeable decrease in physical violence, various forms of pressure, and especially in violations of the right to receive and disseminate information. There were 2 cases of physical violence in the first quarter of last year, compared to 1 during the same period this year. Incidents of pressure stood at 25 in the first three months of 2025, and 22 in the first quarter of 2026. A sharp decline has been recorded in violations of the right to access and disseminate information: 7 cases were registered this quarter, compared to 29 in the first quarter of last year,” Melikyan said at a press conference.

Referring to the sharp drop in violations related to access to and dissemination of information, Melikyan said there are two main reasons for this.

“These issues were widely raised, prompting state bodies to take action, as they also recognized the shortcomings. In addition, there is a growing trend toward making more information available on digital platforms. This could help improve the situation,” he said.

The number of lawsuits against journalists and media outlets has remained unchanged. In the first quarter of this year, 14 new cases were filed. This figure reflects a consistent trend compared to both the first quarter of 2025 and other quarterly data. The lawsuits were filed by officials, business representatives, journalists, opposition figures, and private individuals, and in all cases were based solely on claims of insult and defamation.

Summarizing the figures, Melikyan noted that the first quarter of 2026 was relatively calm.

Published by Armenpress, original at 
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Taleat’s exclusive cables on how the Armenian Genocide was orchestrated

Emil Lazarian

April 26, 2026


In 1921, the book “The Great Crime” of the Diaspora Armenian writer-publicist Aram Antonyan, in the documentary genre, was published in Boston. Aram Antonyan (1887-1952) was one of the few people who managed to leave the Deir-el-Zor desert alive during the Armenian Genocide, where Armenians were massacred or starved to death.

The book presented for the first time important documents related to the Armenian Genocide: testimonies, official orders, codes, telegrams, letters and other written sources. The book contains Naim Bey’s memoirs, some secret documents belonging to him, and Talaat Pasha’s telegrams.

Naim Bey gave those documents to Aram Antonyan. By reading those cables, secret documents, we get a complete picture of how Ottoman Turkey organized the Armenian Genocide, what orders Talaat gave, and what method they used to carry out the massacres of Armenians.

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In Talaat’s secret cables, we notice that he openly talks about Armenians, who should be sent to massacre the deserts. We read about it in Talaat’s December 1915 telegram.

N 801

“Party of Aleppo.

To every individual.

The Armenians working in railway and other constructions have also been decided to be sent to their places of deportation, and the army commanders have been informed about this by the Ministry of War. Report the result.

26 Dec. 915. “Home Secretary Tallead.” (Antonyan A., “The Great Crime”, Boston, 1921, p. 58).

Already in one of the telegrams of 1916, we read about the removal of the Armenians of Western Armenia from their settlements, taking them to the desert and massacring them.

N 840

“Party of Aleppo.

“We heard that there are 40-50,000 Armenians, most of them women and children, along the roads of the lines extending from Intil, Ayran to Aleppo. The most severe punishment will be given to those persons who will be the cause of a concentration of misery on those positions which are of great importance for military deployment. Therefore, after negotiating with the government of Atana, send those Armenians on foot to their places of exile (deserts) immediately, without going to Aleppo. I am anxiously waiting for you to report the result within a week.”

   

16 January 916: “Interior Minister Tallead”. (Ibid., p. 59).

In the telegrams, we also find facts about how women, children and the elderly were convinced that their husbands, husbands and fathers would join their families during migration or immediately after moving to a so-called “safe place”.

N 860

“Party of Aleppo.

“Answer to January 27 916 summons. –

Convince us that the men will eventually join them, and send them to the places of exile.

2 February 916: “Interior Minister Tallead”. (Ibid., p. 61).

Aram Antonyan’s “Great Crime” is one of the first important documentary works of the Armenian Genocide, which is based on real documents and testimonies. Secret materials and Talaat Pasha’s cables reveal the planned and coordinated nature of the genocide. Those documents clearly show how the Ottoman authorities organized the deportation and massacre of Armenians, deceiving and misleading the Armenians.

These facts show the real mechanisms of genocide as a crime organized by the Turks.

Z. Sh:i was late



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