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

European Parliament discusses hybrid threats to Armenia ahead of elections

Emil Lazarian
Politics20:03, 21 April 2026
Read the article in: العربيةفارسی FrançaisՀայերենRussian

A discussion on hybrid threats facing Armenia ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections was held at the European Parliament.

According to an Armenpress correspondent in Brussels, the event, titled “Hybrid Threats and Disinformation: The Role of Civil Society in the Armenian Elections,” brought together European officials and representatives of Armenian civil society. Participants noted that Armenia remains an important, yet still vulnerable, example of democratic development in the region.

Miriam Lexmann, European Parliament’s Standing Rapporteur on Armenia, MEP Miriam Lexmann, said EU-Armenia relations are currently closer and that Armenia stands out as a positive example in the region. At the same time, she warned of Russian interference and various threats to democracy.

Participants noted that Russian influence is manifested through disinformation, emotional manipulation, anti-peace narratives, and efforts to undermine trust in electoral processes.

According to Daniel Ioannisyan, head of the “Union of Informed Citizens” organization, sufficient mechanisms are in place in Armenia to safeguard elections, but pro-Russian groups are attempting to create a perception among the public that the elections will be rigged.

Lawyer Lusine Hakobyan emphasized that Armenian civil society operates in a highly polarized environment, where some actors defend democratic processes, while others promote pro-Russian narratives.

At the end of the discussion, participants stressed that the 2026 elections will be crucial for Armenia’s democratic future and that greater support from the European Union could play an important role in strengthening the country’s resilience and democratic institutions.

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Published by Armenpress, original at 
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Spain opens honorary consulate in Yerevan

Emil Lazarian
Armenia22:00, 21 April 2026
Read the article in: العربيةفارسیFrançaisՀայերենRussianTürkçe

The Honorary Consulate of the Kingdom of Spain has officially opened in Yerevan.

Ashot Parsyan, who also serves as Guatemala’s honorary consul in Armenia, said the consulate’s mission is to support Spanish citizens, strengthen economic and cultural ties between Armenia and Spain.

He noted that the consulate will act as an active bridge between the two countries, building on more than two decades of work by the Spanish Center in Armenia, which he founded. The center, along with a Spanish cultural space and restaurant, already operating at the same location and regularly hosts cultural events and exhibitions promoting Spanish heritage.

Parsyan emphasized that visa liberalization would boost Armenia’s economy, facilitate travel, and encourage business activity. He added that growing interest from Spanish investors is already evident, citing a recent visit by a large delegation of Spanish business representatives exploring Armenia’s economic potential.

Spain’s Ambassador to Armenia, Ricardo Martinez Vazquez, described the opening as an honor and highlighted the strong relations between the two countries, based on shared values in culture and education.

He also praised Parsyan’s long-standing efforts to deepen Armenian-Spanish ties, particularly through the Spanish Center, where free language education has been offered for years.

The ambassador noted increasing interest among Armenians in visiting Spain and announced a new direct flight between Yerevan and Alicante to be launched this summer, expressing confidence that it will further strengthen bilateral relations.

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Published by Armenpress, original at 
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Armenpress: Armenia’s Malkhas Amoyan wins fifth European championship title

Emil Lazarian
Sports21:59, 21 April 2026
Read the article in: ArabicFrançaisՀայերենРусскийTurkçe

Olympic bronze medalist and multiple world and European champion Malkhas Amoyan has claimed his fifth European Championship gold medal.

In the 77 kg final at the European Championship in Tirana, Amoyan faced Georgia’s Ramaz Zoidze.

The bout ended 1:1, with victory awarded to Amoyan for scoring the first point.

Malkhas Amoyan  has become a five-time European champion.

Read the article in: ArabicFrançaisՀայերենРусскийTurkçe

Published by Armenpress, original at 

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The privatization of the Baghramyan Avenue plot was recognized as illegal

Emil Lazarian

The Administrative Court satisfied the request of the Prosecutor’s Office of Yerevan City for the protection of state interests and recognized as illegal the state registration of the property rights made in 2013 for the plot of land with an area of ​​0.01884 ha located at 21/6 Baghramyan Avenue.


The prosecutor’s office claimed that the administrative act on the plot of land is subject to recognition as illegal.


“On October 6, 2023, the Prosecutor’s Office of the city of Yerevan submitted a claim to the Administrative Court against the Cadastre Committee with the request to declare invalid the state registration of the right made on June 27, 2013 in the name of a natural person regarding a plot of land with an area of ​​0.01884 ha located at 21/6 Baghramyan Avenue, Yerevan.


Taking into account the Court’s proposal on changing the type of claim, the Prosecutor’s Office filed a recognition claim on February 20, 2025, asking to recognize the intervening administrative act, which no longer has legal force, as invalid.


The Administrative Court, in its judgment of March 23, 2026, satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor’s Office of the city of Yerevan. it is illegal to recognize the state registration of the ownership rights of an individual over the plot of land,” said the message.

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Tatoyan called on the European Union to counter Armenia’s real threats

Emil Lazarian

The European Union, which has announced its readiness to counter Russian influence in the RA elections, should respond in the same way to the threats coming from Azerbaijan. Prime Minister Arman Tatoyan wrote about this in a letter addressed to Ambassador Vasilis Maragos, head of the European Union delegation in Armenia.


The latter presented facts, which, according to him, testify to the direct and veiled threats from Azerbaijan, related to the possible change of power in Armenia.


“Among the documented cases are the following: A deputy of the ruling party of Azerbaijan made a public statement, warning that the victory of the opposition in Armenia may prompt Azerbaijan to make official territorial claims against Armenia. The newspaper under the control of the Azerbaijani presidential administration stated that the “revanchist” government in Armenia “will have nothing to govern”, and the media under the control of the Ministry of Defense stated that it is “especially important” that power in Armenia remains in the hands of forces that are in line with Azerbaijan’s strategic goals. Taken together, these statements represent a systematic attempt by actors representing the state power in Baku to influence the results of the Armenian elections through intimidation,” the letter states.


Arman Tatoyan called on the EU mission in Armenia to:


publicly condemn the mentioned statements and record the existence of this intervention as illegal and unacceptable attempts to influence the electoral process of Armenia from outside.


to expand the mechanisms they use, as the EU stated, “to counter Russian disinformation.” Also include the disclosure, publication and countermeasures of Azerbaijani interference attempts in a transparent and consistent manner.


He also emphasized that the fight against foreign interference cannot be selective and must be carried out regardless of its source.

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Trump must call the Armenian genocide by its name

Emil Lazarian
Washington Times
April 20 2026

It’s a credibility test amid the Iran conflict

By Stephan Pechdimaldji – Monday, April 20, 2026

OPINION:

With Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on Friday, President Trump faces a decision that transcends mere historical housekeeping.

In the shadow of the escalating conflict in Iran and instability in the Middle East, the administration’s annual statement on the Armenian genocide — traditionally a moment of rote commemoration — has been transformed into a high-stakes test of American moral leadership and strategic credibility.

For decades, the Armenian American community has sought a simple action from the White House: Officially recognize the 1915 systematic annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as a genocide.

It is an event that the Turkish government continues to deny. Although Congress moved to recognize the genocide in 2019 and a formal presidential acknowledgment was made in 2021, the current administration has spent the past year retreating into the linguistic fogginess of “great calamity” and “historical tragedy” to describe this dark chapter in world history.

This rhetorical departure is no longer just a localized disappointment for a diaspora. Rather, it has become a liability for a nation currently engaged in a volatile and unpopular war.

The administration’s conduct in the Iran war is under intense global scrutiny. With debates over the proportionality of strikes, including the attack on an Iranian school that killed more than 100 children, the United States is fighting a two-front war. One is on the physical battlefield, and the other is for the moral high ground.

Our leaders frequently invoke international norms and human rights to justify military actions, but those invocations ring hollow when those same officials refuse to apply the standards to the clear, documented facts of history.

More important, the president’s choice this Friday will determine whether his administration is serious about orchestrating a lasting and sustainable peace in the South Caucasus. The region has become a key sound bite for Mr. Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments.

A durable peace in the region cannot be built on a foundation of historical denial or strategic silence. By refusing to use the word genocide, the U.S. inadvertently signals to aggressive regional actors that historical revisionism is an acceptable tool of modern diplomacy. It emboldens those who view Armenian sovereignty as a negotiable commodity rather than a red line.

We have seen how silence about 1915 creates a vacuum that aggressive regional powers are all too happy to fill with modern-day threats against Armenian sovereignty. It is one of the reasons Azerbaijan was able to ethnically cleanse more than 120,000 Armenians from their ancestral homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023, making it the largest forced displacement of Armenians since the Armenian genocide.

If Mr. Trump wants to be the architect of a new deal for regional stability, then he must first recognize the fundamental crime that continues to haunt the region’s underpinnings.

Recognition is the currency of credibility. If the president expects the international community to trust the American narrative regarding justice and stability in a postwar Middle East, then he cannot simultaneously cave to foreign pressure regarding the crimes of the past.

Despite his “America First” rhetoric and his reputation as a disruptive dealmaker who defies the Washington establishment, Mr. Trump has become the latest leader to allow foreign capitals to effectively ghostwrite American human rights policy while contradicting the sovereignty-first doctrine he champions.

As a grandson to survivors of the Armenian genocide, I know that for my family, this isn’t about an abstract vocabulary choice. It’s about whether the United States still possesses the moral clarity and fortitude to call evil by its proper name.

Mr. Trump has a chance to close that credibility gap. By using the word genocide, he can prove that his administration’s commitment to international order is not a matter of convenience but rather a matter of conviction.

• Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a first-generation Armenian American and the grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide. His work has been featured in Newsweek and Foreign Policy. You can follow him on X: @spechdimaldji

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/apr/20/trump-must-call-armenian-genocide-name/

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Asbarez: EU Foreign Ministers Approve New 2-Year Mission to Armenia

Emil Lazarian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 April 21, 2026

 

in Armenia, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas meets with Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Brussels on Apr. 14


The foreign ministers of the European Union on Tuesday approved the establishment of a new “Partnership Mission” to Armenia, which the bloc said “is a further contribution in the efforts to enhance Armenia’s democratic resilience and its ability to manage crises.”

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry was quick to welcome the announcement. The assistance from the EU was requested from Yerevan to counter what it termed as “hybrid threats” prior and during Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary election on June 7. The Armenian government implicitly alleged that Russia was interfering in the election process.

”The decision on the deployment of the civilian mission, adopted upon the request of the Republic of Armenia, ahead of the first Armenia-EU Summit scheduled for May 5, is one of the joint initiatives stemming from the strategic agenda of Armenia-EU partnership,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The EU already decided last month to send a separate “hybrid rapid response team” to Yerevan for the upcoming elections.

The mission approved on Tuesday will have an initial mandate of two years and will be separate from the so-called “hybrid rapid response team” and the current EU Monitoring Mission in Armenia, which has been in place since 2022.

According to a statement from the EU, the mission will support Armenia facing multi-layered threats such as foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), cyber-attacks and illicit financial flows. EUPM Armenia will provide strategic advice and capacity building to various ministries and national institutions on the development of policies to address threats faced by society and national institutions, and support the development of a horizontal, whole-of-government approach.

The mission will also provide operational advice and feature a project cell responsible for identifying and implementing concrete actions in the areas covered by the mandate of the mission, in close coordination with like-minded partners, according to the EU statement.

“Armenians are facing massive disinformation campaigns and cyber-attacks. Over the next years, a new EU civilian mission will provide expert advice, capacity building for government departments and a team monitoring areas for urgent action. When Armenians go to the polls in June, they alone should choose their country’s future. The EU helps to protect Armenia’s resilience,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief said in a statement.

The mission will be part of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy and will be led the Managing Director of the Civilian Operations Headquarters within the European External Action Service – Stefano Tomat – who will be the Civilian Operation Commander.

“He will exercise command and control of EUPM Armenia at the strategic level under the political control and strategic direction of the Council’s Political and Security Committee, and the overall authority of the High Representative,” the EU statement said.

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168: The last stop of “Armenia without EITA” is the Shangyala state

Emil Lazarian

April 21, 2026

Instead of politics, what is being ordered in Armenia is time trading due to the lack of even a superficial understanding of the cause-and-effect relationship of political processes.

2026 Before the elections, instead of entering the ground, CP enters people’s brains because in 2021 he implemented one of his slogans in the elections one hundred percent. CP did not de-occupy Shushi and Hadrut, as it promised to Armenian voters, but de-Armenianized Artsakh as a whole, as they probably promised to non-Armenians.

The KP did not realize the right of self-determination of the people of Artsakh, as it promised, instead, in the form of rewards and mortgages given to mentors, it realizes the opportunity to sell the rights of the same people as small coins and sell cheap gasoline instead. But a promise made by CP 5 years ago has been fully fulfilled, becoming the main premise of today’s gasoline happiness. KP in 2021 not in pre-election leaflets, but in the moments of hysterical fits pouring out from the podium, announcing the “fight against the elites” through the lips of the supreme hysteroid. Today, that goal of the CP can be considered irrevocably fulfilled.

Neither then, nor today, those with the mandate and responsibility to understand that dangerous statement did/do not understand that it was a statement about the ultimate dissolution of the state. For the simple reason that without elites, there can be no state according to the textbook rule. The Communist Party, occupying the nominal role of the elite, not only did not try or tried but failed to become a real elite in the past years, but also, possessing the propaganda and financial resources, destroyed not only and not so much the more or less existing elites, but the very idea of ​​the elite.

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The propaganda, “die to our king’s kyaftar jan”, has convinced the self-deluded section, which is quite a large section, that the elite is a mass of rich people and “lying intelligentsia” who look down on the common people. He convinced by presenting again that here came someone who “came not from the people’s bosom, but from the dirty land”, who saves people from the wealthy and arrogant elite. This persuasion was achieved because the existing elites, starting from the political, professional and cultural ones, were not particularly elite-like and easily succumbed to the dictates of the government to destroy them. And the new elite? it never happened, not only with wealth, but above all with the ability to think, due to the government declaring it a class enemy.

Furthermore, all those who could theoretically qualify for association with one of the elites, having the intellectual capacity to do so, were more opportunistic than intellectual and rolled as far down the social ladder as possible under the name “need to be with the common people.”

All kinds of elites are necessary for the existence of the state, from political to professional, scientific and cultural, because without these elites, decision-making turns into a process in which some top hat shows heartbeats every morning, and depending on the folds of the fingers and the impulses sent from them to the brain, makes vitally important decisions.

The fight against the elites could very conditionally not curse the state, if it was replaced by egalitarianism, equality, where horizontal connections, separation of the branches of power work so strongly that through a system of mutual restraints, they provide the necessary control over the quality of the decisions made.

But Egalitarianism, not egalitarianism, has been established in Armenia, based on the same ego, which five years ago declared “Armenia without elites” and today has reduced the state to the level where decisions are made by “dogs” occupying positions with various names.

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Schoolteachers ‘Forced’ To Attend Pashinian’s Concert In Gyumri

Emil Lazarian
  • Satenik Kaghzvantsian
April 21, 2026

Armenia – Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian plays drums during a concert in Gyumri, April 19, 2026.

An Armenian civic group has accused the ruling Civil Contract party of forcing schoolteachers and kindergarten workers to attend a pre-election concert in Gyumri organized by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Sunday.

Joined by professional musicians, Pashinian and his self-styled pop band performed at the open-air concert in the city’s central square in a clear effort to drum up and/or showcase public support for him ahead of the parliamentary elections slated for June 7.

The premier arrived in the capital of Armenia’s northwestern Shirak province in a motorcade of hundreds of cars carrying his loyalists. The square was only about half full during the show, however, leading Pashinian’s political opponents and some media to conclude that most Gyumri residents ignored the publicity stunt one year after voting to end Civil Contract’s control of their municipality.

An RFE/RL correspondent saw many local government officials from other parts of the country in the crowd. According to Akanates (Witness), an independent group specializing in election monitoring, the spectators also included staff from public schools and kindergartens in Akhurian, a small town just east of Gyumri.

Akanates claimed that they were ordered by Civil Contract’s Gyumri branch to attend the event. Its coordinator, Meri Minasian, on Monday based the claim on the groups “direct monitoring” as well as information received from multiple sources not disclosed by her.

“We have information from several sources about people’s organized participation in the event,” Minasian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Davit Arushanian, the Shirak governor and the ruling party’s regional election campaign manager, flatly denied the Akanates claims. He argued, in particular, that the Civil Contract chapter in Gyumri does not cover Akhurian.

“There was no such coercion or pressure,” insisted Hayk Rushanian, who runs one of Akhurian’s three schools.

Rushanian admitted that he went to Pashinian’s concert together with his schoolteachers, students and their parents.

Pashinian and his party have for years been accused of illegally forcing public sector employees to attend their campaign rallies or other gatherings. They have always denied that.

Armenian law-enforcement authorities are only known to have prosecuted opposition figures on corresponding charges. Billionaire Samvel Karapetian’s opposition movement, which is expected to be Civil Contract’s main election challenger, has been on the receiving end of such criminal proceedings in recent months. As recently as on Monday, police rounded up 22 people in the northern Lori province on suspicion of attending or having others attend a pro-Karapetian rally in Yerevan for money or under duress. They all were set free without charge.

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RFE/RL – More Armenian Churches In Karabakh Feared Destroyed By Azerbaijan

Emil Lazarian
  • Susan Badalian
April 21, 2026
Nagorno-Karabakh – A view of the Holy Mother of God Cathedral in Stepanakert. (Photo by Artsakh TV)

Azerbaijani authorities appear to have demolished Nagorno-Karabakh’s main Armenian cathedral and another church in Stepanakert, according to online imagery cited by exiled Karabakh activists in Yerevan.

One of them, Sergei Shahverdian, showed on Monday fresh videos of central Stepanakert posted by Azerbaijani social media users. The Karabakh capital’s imposing Holy Mother of God Cathedral was not visible in them.

“Artsakh’s Mother Cathedral at the top of Nelson Stepanian Street is missing. The same video also shows it missing from another angle,” said Shahverdian, who had served as Karabakh’s culture minister and now runs a nongovernmental organization campaigning for the preservation of the depopulated region’s cultural and spiritual heritage.

“It’s obvious that the Azerbaijanis have destroyed it,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

The information could not be confirmed from independent sources. The Azerbaijani government has blocked independent media access to Karabakh since its recapture of the territory in 2023. Shahverdian said he is now awaiting satellite images to conclude definitively whether the cathedral has been demolished.

Nagorno-Karabakh – People shelter in the basement of the Holy Mother of God Cathedral of Stepanakert, October 4, 2020.

The cathedral was consecrated in 2019 after almost 13 years of construction. Its underground section was used by many Stepanakert residents as a bomb shelter during the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

News of its apparent disappearance came just days after Armenian media published photographs suggesting that another, smaller Armenian church in Stepanakert has been razed to the ground. According to Lernik Hovannisian, who heads the Diocesan Council of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Azerbaijani government has been demolishing buildings in Karabakh on the grounds that they were “illegally” constructed after 1994.

“Under this guise, it was only natural that after the destruction of the Church of St. Jacob, they will also move on to the Holy Mother of God Cathedral,” said Hovannisian.

Nagorno-Karabakh — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (C), Karabakh President Bako Sahakian (R) and Archbishop Pargev Martirosian leave a newly built cathedral in Stepanakert, May 9, 2019.

Several other Karabakh Armenian churches were already reportedly torn down after the 2020 war. Also, Baku announced in early 2022 plans to erase Armenian inscriptions from medieval Karabakh churches. The then head of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Nadine Maenza, expressed serious concern over the decision. The European Parliament likewise condemned “the elimination of the traces of Armenian cultural heritage in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.”

The Armenian government essentially stopped accusing Baku of systematically desecrating or destroying Armenian monuments in Karabakh in 2023. It did not react to the latest indications of more church demolitions there, drawing criticism from Armenian opposition figures.

By contrast, the Armenian Church has remained vocal about the destruction of its properties in Karabakh. Its supreme head, Catholicos Garegin II, decried that during a conference hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Switzerland last May. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian launched his controversial campaign to oust Garegin shortly after that conference.

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