Author: Emil Lazarian

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.

—

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.

—

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.

—

In recent years, Kyrgyzstan is gradually moving to a new path of development, forming the image of a country open to innovations, investments and modern financial technologies. Against this background, the growing interest of global business representatives and technology billionaires attracts special attention.

In particular, the country has already been visited several times by the founder of the largest cryptocurrency exchange, Changpeng Zhao, whose visits became a signal for the international community that Kyrgyzstan is considered as a promising jurisdiction for the development of the digital economy.

The next expected visit will be the arrival of Justin Sun, the founder of the blockchain platform Tron, one of the most prominent players in the global digital asset market. His participation in the dialogue with the country’s leadership can become an important stage for the development of cooperation in the field of blockchain technology and digital finance.

The interest of such figures is not accidental. Back in 2022, Kyrgyzstan was one of the first in Central Asia to adopt the legal framework for the field of virtual assets, creating legal conditions for the operation of crypto-businesses and digital platforms. Against the background of the global transformation of financial markets, this decision is starting to bring strategic results today.

It is important to note that we are not only talking about cryptocurrencies in the narrow sense, but about the broader ecosystem: blockchain infrastructure, digital payments, asset tokenization and new investment attraction tools. These directions are already actively developing in the world’s leading economies and are becoming part of the new financial architecture.

Kyrgyzstan, in turn, aims to form a regional hub of digital technologies in Central Asia. In the framework of this strategy, initiatives for the creation of specialized centers, the involvement of international partners and the development of digital infrastructures are considered.

At the same time, it is important to emphasize that global players are not coming to a “grey zone”, but to a country with a developing regulatory system and increasing government attention to transparency and control in the financial sector. This creates the basis for a gradual increase in confidence, both on the part of investors and the public.

With competition for investment and technology intensifying in the region, Kyrgyzstan is taking a pragmatic approach to take advantage of the window of opportunity in the era of digital transformation.

And if a few years ago such visits were perceived as an exception, today they become part of the new reality, where Kyrgyzstan acts more confidently as a point of intersection of the interests of global capital and new technologies.

—