Another large batch of diesel fuel is transported to the territory of the Republic of Armenia via Azerbaijan.
According to the information disseminated by Azerbaijani media sources, it is expected that a total of 16 wagons loaded with diesel fuel will arrive in Armenia from Azerbaijan today.
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Ruben Vardanyan has made a statement regarding his current detention, addressing Armenia’s Human Rights Defender, Anahit Manasyan. In a message conveyed during a telephone conversation with his family, Vardanyan cited circumstances that he believes warrant the attention of Armenian authorities. The content of his appeal, shared publicly, indicates growing concerns about the conditions or legal context of his detention. Details regarding the specific circumstances referenced by Vardanyan have not been fully disclosed at this time.
Details are being clarified.
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By Jirair Tutunjian
More than a decade ago it was reported that the Ankara University was offering Eastern Armenian classes. Political commentators said the students were probably being groomed for foreign affairs and to spy on Armenia: With the looming Armenian elections, Turkey has sent 24 of these students to Armenia to agitate, misinform, provoke, and foster dissent. For ease of communication, the agents were provided with alliterative Armenian pseudonyms…Jivan Jivanyan…Hagop Hagopian, Harut Harutunyan, Sarkis Sarkisyan, LevonLevonyan…Kevork Kevorkyan…Each pair had a different agenda: pro-Pashinyan…anti-Pashinyan…Tashnag…anti-Tashnag…Pro-EU…and pro-Russian. Before spreading across Armenia, the putative agitprop members attended a Q & A conducted by a Moscow-educated Turk professor going by the name Jivan Jivanyan.
At a secret Yerevan basement…
JJ: Until we meet at Ankara ministry of foreign offices at the end of our mission, this will be the last time we meet. This is your chance to ask questions about your mission.
HH: How do we pronounce the name of their Vatican?
JJ: Euch-mee-ad-zin…like magazine.
KK: Is the president’s correct name Nikol? Nicol? Nichol? Nicola?
JJ: Nikol. He is not the president. He is the prime minister.
SS: Why do all Armenian men give themselves the noble title Baron?
JJ: I don’t have time for such silliness. You should have learned all this at the spy school. Ask me about your mission. Your job is to spread disinformation, start controversy, depress voters, make them cynical and divide the electorate into a thousand different voices.
TT: Can you give us an example of how to agitate and create argument?
JJ: Join a group of idle people who are, say, sitting in the park and tell them Pashinyan is worse than Vasag. Then watch them argue. Or say that it’s a tragedy that Russians have withdrawn from Armenia.
HH: How about Dish Nags?
JJ: Dish what?
HH: The treacherous political party which tried to kill our Sultan Hamid.
JJ: You mean Dashnags. To start an argument, say that the only time Armenia was truly independent was in 1928 when Tashnags ran Armenia.
HH: You mean 1918.
JJ: No. I deliberately said 1928. I wanted to measure your knowledge. There are many venues where you can operate…newspapers’ letter to the editor section, radio call-in shows,people in cafes and in parks. Lit their fuse and watch them argue. Remember what Ermeniler say: “One Armenian … two churches, two Armenians… three political parties.”
KK: What do we do when we blunder and raise suspicion about our identity?
JJ: Finally, a good question. You tell them you were raised as a Turk and upon discovering your roots you settled in Armenia.That’s the reason your command of the Godforsaken language is inadequate.
KK: What do we do about having intimate relationships with Armenian women?
JJ: Your chances are almost nil. You have to restrain yourself. You are not on a cruise.
SS: Since we are already here, why don’t we sabotage, burn some factories and harm people?
JJ: You are not good enough to manage something like that.
SS: I still say that it’s a shame that we are not taking advantage of our stay and do some serious damage.
KK: I agree. Why don’t we set Pashinyan’s electoral office on fire?
SS: Ummm.
KK: When we set Pashinyan’s office on fire, he would get lots of sympathy vote and get re-elected.
JJ: Ummm.
SS: What is “Ummm”?
JJ: Listen carefully and then forget what you heard. It’s top secret. I will deny saying it. As you know, our Forever-for-Life head of state has indicated he would like to see Pashinyan re-elected. In fact, what he wants is Pashinyan’s defeat. With Pashinyan gone, the new prime minister will be openly anti-Turkey…sort of the reverse of Pashinyan. With luck, he would turn out to be a hot head. That would provoke Turkey. We and Azerbaijan would then move in and slice gavur Armenia into two.
All the spies applaud.
LL: You are living in fool’s paradise. At least four states—China, Russia, the United States, and France will not allow it. Besides, Turkey is now pre-occupied by Israeli expansionism.
SS: So, what are we doing here? Why don’t we go home?
Middle East Eye
Iran’s hold on the Strait of Hormuz has shunted energy markets onto a roller coaster since the US and Israel war began almost a month ago.
Several measures have already been deployed to address soaring oil and gas prices. Saudi Arabia has been using its East-West Pipeline to bypass the strait, pumping oil through the Red Sea. Iraq has been exploring the possibility of exporting oil overland.
Turkey, a regional crossroads for several international oil and gas pipelines, sees the crisis as an opportunity and has been offering an alternative: building more pipelines.
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar last week proposed several new projects during a live interview with Anadolu Agency.
Bayraktar has long advocated connecting Basra, Iraq’s oil-rich southern region, to the north, where the Iraq-Turkey pipeline carries oil from Kirkuk to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The pipeline, which has long been underutilized, has a capacity of more than 1.5 million barrels per day.
Bayraktar did not stop there. He also revived the idea of building a gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkey, crossing several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria.
QatarEnergy declared force majeure on some of its long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contracts last month, including for customers in Italy, Belgium, South Korea, and China, after Iran targeted its facilities.
“So, you have no LNG exports. You already cannot move through Hormuz. Now imagine that a certain amount of gas is being sent to Turkey and Europe through a pipeline,” Bayraktar said. “We are opening an alternative export route for you.”
Turkey’s energy minister is also eager to advance another long-discussed project: the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, which would take gas from Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and on to Europe.
Turkmenistan is a major gas exporter, with annual export capacity of 80bn cubic metres. Turkey already imports some Turkmen gas through Iran using swap arrangements.
“But the proper solution, one of the most ideal solutions, would be for that gas to cross the Caspian and come to Turkey via Azerbaijan and Georgia,” Bayraktar said.
Another option Ankara is considering is connecting Syrian oil fields to the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline.
In electricity, the minister has another proposal: building a power interconnector between Saudi Arabia and Turkey via Jordan and Syria.
Middle East Eye reported in February that Saudi Arabia envisions an electrical cable project with Greece bypassing Israel in favour of Syria. This project would link the Gulf state and Europe via a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) interconnection.
Turkish officials say they are ready to help build all of these projects. “But unfortunately, what we have been saying has not found a response up to now,” Bayraktar said. “Hopefully, this crisis will lead everyone into a process where they pause, think more seriously, and we can implement these projects.”
Energy experts paint a mixed picture. While some projects, such as the Trans-Caspian pipeline and linking Syrian oil fields to the Turkish pipeline network, are seen as relatively feasible, others, such as the proposed Qatari gas pipeline, appear far harder to complete.
Umud Shokri, a senior visiting fellow at George Mason University specialising in energy, said that while the Trans-Caspian pipeline linking Turkmen gas to Azerbaijan is now politically more likely than in the past, it is still constrained by unresolved regional issues.
“The project would require a roughly 300km subsea pipeline across the Caspian Sea from Turkmenbashi to Baku, where it could connect to existing export infrastructure, including the South Caucasus Pipeline and the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline,” he said.
“The economic case is far less straightforward. Even conservative estimates place the subsea segment at around $2bn, while scaling volumes to a commercially meaningful level of 20–30 bcm per year would require additional upstream development, compression capacity, and downstream expansion.”
Shokri said the project also faces demand constraints, as European markets are increasingly supplied by LNG. Without long-term purchase agreements and clear price competitiveness, securing financing remains difficult.
Relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have improved, but they still need to approve the 2018 Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, which sets the rules for subsea pipelines and reduces the scope for Russian and Iranian attempts to block the project.
The Qatar-Turkey pipeline, another long-pursued project, also faces major challenges.
Although Turkish and Qatari leaders publicly suggested as far back as 2009 that they had agreed to build a pipeline connecting Qatar’s North Field to Turkish infrastructure through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria, the scheme reportedly faced opposition from former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, under Russian pressure.
With Assad’s downfall, Turkey would like to revive the idea. Qatar’s foreign ministry said in January 2025 that it was not considering it, suggesting that the LNG model remains a better option for Doha because it offers greater flexibility in sales.
“The project is technically feasible, but economically and politically fragile,” said Justin Dargin, a senior fellow at the Doha-based Middle East Council on Global Affairs. “Historically, the pipeline was estimated at around $10–12 bn, but in today’s environment, factoring in security, inflation, and political risk, you’re realistically looking at $15bn or more.”
Dargin told MEE a 1,500-km pipeline crossing multiple borders is not just an energy project but a geopolitical commitment carrying a very high-risk premium, because guaranteeing stable gas flows for decades would be a major challenge.
He said the current crisis affecting Hormuz is increasing the pipeline’s strategic appeal despite Qatar’s highly efficient LNG system, which gives it global flexibility and access to spot markets. A pipeline, by contrast, would tie volumes to a single corridor and reduce that flexibility.
“As seen with Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline and the UAE’s Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, bypass capacity is something Gulf producers are increasingly focused on and will likely expand once the conflict subsides,” he said. “However, this would not be a clean bypass like those systems, which operate entirely within national borders.”
Dargin pointed out that the proposed Qatar-Turkey pipeline would be vulnerable to disruption from both state and non-state actors, including Iran-aligned groups and militant organisations targeting energy infrastructure.
“On the political side, Qatar has historically avoided transit dependency,” he said. “A multi-country pipeline would expose Qatar to exactly the kind of political leverage it has spent decades minimising.”
The project would require sustained alignment among Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey – an “exceptionally high bar” in the current environment, Dargin said.
An easier fix might be Turkey’s proposal to connect Syrian oil fields to the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, which has substantial unused capacity.
Current Syrian oil production is estimated at roughly 100,000 to 120,000 barrels per day. Before the 2011 civil war, Syria was producing nearly 400,000 bpd.
Wael Alzayat, executive director of the US-Syria Business Council, said both Syrian and Turkish officials could support the project, but there are still obstacles, including low Syrian output and unresolved questions over control of the oil fields.
“Some areas are still under the Syrian Democratic Forces, and the handover is not really complete there,” he said, adding that elements in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or Islamic State cells “could still pose a threat”.
Alzayat nevertheless believes the project is more feasible and realistic than a Qatar-Turkey pipeline crossing Syria.
He said a few billion dollars would be needed to develop Syria’s oil fields, and since Damascus is struggling to finance such projects, outside support would likely be necessary. After that, he told MEE, connecting the fields would be relatively straightforward.
The Turkish government has also repeatedly raised the possibility of extending the Iraq-Turkey pipeline from Kirkuk to Basra. But the absence of political consensus in Iraq has left the project unresolved.
Previous Iraqi governments backed what they called the Development Road project, which would connect the Basra region to Turkey through highways, railways, and pipelines.
Salam Jabbar Shahab, an Iraqi energy expert, said political willingness to connect Basra to the Iraq-Turkey pipeline has increased substantially since the Hormuz crisis. The Iraqi government needs monthly oil revenue of $6.3bn to cover its expenditure, including public sector salaries, Shahab said, adding that government losses in March alone were estimated at more than $5.5bn.
“The current situation requires Iraqi policymakers to secure daily oil exports of around 3.5 million barrels to maintain flexibility in paying the inflated monthly payroll,” he said. “Currently, the country exports only 200,000 barrels per day through Kirkuk-Ceyhan, an amount insufficient to cover salaries, social welfare, and other operational expenses.”
Shahab said the Basra pipeline could open a new outlet for southern Iraqi crude to European and Asian energy markets, bypassing the now-closed Strait of Hormuz.
“However, the main obstacle will be securing the necessary financial and security resources for the project’s execution and operation,” he said.
“Iraq currently lacks the funds required to finance this proposed pipeline and the associated facilities needed to pump crude oil. The project may require billions of dollars – potentially $6bn to $10bn – and may necessitate borrowing from international lenders.”
The pipeline would also face serious security risks, since it would run across multiple regions from south to north, leaving it vulnerable to threats from armed groups and potentially to political bargaining amid Iraq’s fragmentation, he said.
Still, he added, the current situation has given Iraqi decision-makers a pragmatic reason to move quickly on the project and push for implementation.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Armenia’s import of Azerbaijani petroleum products has saved consumers “tens of billions,” describing the move as a breakthrough in dismantling entrenched monopolies in the domestic fuel market.
Speaking in parliament, Pashinyan argued that access to Azerbaijani fuel — transported via Georgia — helped shield Armenia from external shocks, including instability around the Strait of Hormuz. He described the development as the “final factor” in ending an eight-year monopoly. “Why eight years? Because we are fighting the mafia,” he said, adding that such networks can extend beyond national borders.
Pashinyan also confirmed that Armenia is entering the implementation phase of the U.S.-backed “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP), a regional connectivity initiative. According to him, Armenia, the United States, and Azerbaijan all view the reopening of regional communications as a shared priority, with the project expected to become “an important pillar of long-term, stable, and reliable peace.”
Presenting his government’s 2025 report, Pashinyan said Armenia has moved beyond a phase of “survival and struggle” and entered what he described as a historic period focused on state-building, economic development, and long-term prosperity. “Our historical mission is to… develop the Republic of Armenia… and pass it on to future generations as an independent, peaceful, secure, developed, and prosperous state,” he said.
He acknowledged that this transition came at a significant cost, but argued that the country has now shifted onto a “constructive and peaceful path.” Pashinyan also offered a reassessment of past national narratives, suggesting that earlier perceptions of control masked deeper structural weaknesses in statehood. “The reality is that the Republic of Armenia was not ours and is now ours,” he said.
He concluded that Armenia is entering a new phase in which “the state is both the goal and the means,” with public support — particularly from the 2021 elections — enabling this transition.
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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took part in a discussion on the future of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), organized by the SME Cooperation Association NGO with the support of the Democracy Development Fund, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout.
The meeting was attended by Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan, representatives of the association’s regional offices, and SME representatives.
Pashinyan congratulated participants on Taxpayer’s Day, highlighting its importance for state-business relations. He stressed that the existence of a functioning state is directly linked to tax collection, noting that taxes enable the resolution of public issues and the implementation of development programs.
The Prime Minister said tax policy should encourage higher productivity and increased tax payments, as this reflects economic development.
“There is tax, there is a state; there is no tax, there is no state. When there is tax, issues are resolved or are being resolved; when there is no tax, no issues are resolved,” the PM said.
Speaking about the development of SMEs, Pashinyan emphasized that sustainable economic relations cannot be achieved without a change in attitudes toward taxation. He highlighted the importance of properly presenting the tax system, noting that recent amendments have created broader opportunities, including reduced tax rates of 1% and 1.5% depending on the sector.
Pashinyan also underlined the need to establish an institutional system, suggesting that SMEs should have an advocacy organization. He said the Government is ready to co-finance such a body together with businesses.
According to the Prime Minister, this would help coordinate efforts and create a non-state institution working closely with the Government to collect and present sector-related issues.
Participants also discussed issues related to SME development, the continuous improvement of tax administration, available support tools, existing challenges in the sector, and possible solutions.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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Armenia plans to build 100 additional combined playgrounds in the near future, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during the awarding ceremony of the “Schoolchildren’s Basketball League” sports games.
The playgrounds will include both mini-football and basketball courts, he noted.
Pashinyan said that for the second consecutive year, Yerevan teams have shown clear dominance, but added that the regions are also receiving important motivation. He emphasized that large-scale investments are being made in both Yerevan and the regions under the school construction program.
Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan said such tournaments also serve as a unique assessment of the work of physical education teachers.
She added that more schools will be involved in the tournament each year, noting that it is not only about sports but also about developing important personal qualities.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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Armenian Ambassador to the United States, Narek Mkrtchyan, hosted Riley Barnes, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, at the Armenian Embassy.
According to the embassy’s readout, the Ambassador emphasized the importance of U.S. support for strengthening democratic institutions and ensuring the continuity of this assistance.
“The parties exchanged views on the implementation of the TRIPP initiative, as well as on hybrid threats, countering disinformation, and a number of issues related to religious freedom. The interlocutors reaffirmed their readiness to deepen cooperation in areas of mutual interest,” the embassy added.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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How Armenian heritage shaped Sev Ohanian’s path to Hollywood
by: Jacqueline Sarkissian, Marc Sternfield
During Armenian Heritage Month, KTLA is spotlighting local voices making a global impact. That includes Sev Ohanian, the award-winning producer behind Sinners, the four-time Oscar-winning film with deep roots right here in Southern California.
For Sev Ohanian, storytelling started at home.
“My mom would take me to the library every week, and my dad would take me to Blockbuster Video every week, and that really instilled in me the love of storytelling,” Ohanian told KTLA.
But growing up Armenian American, Ohanian wasn’t always sure Hollywood was a realistic path. He says there weren’t many role models he could point to, and for a long time, he thought about pursuing an entirely different career.
“I generally wasn’t sure if I could do it growing up just as an Armenian American immigrant,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of examples, at least that I knew of, of other Armenians doing this kind of thing. So, for a long time, I thought of pursuing another career path, which was journalism, believe it or not.”
That uncertainty shifted in college, when a few homemade videos about his family found an audience online.
“I started making YouTube videos poking fun of my Armenian parents and culture out of love,” Ohanian said. “And when those videos started getting a big following, it really empowered me to start making films for real.”
From the very beginning, Ohanian says his community was part of the journey, from casting friends to using local spaces, to premiering his first film for Armenian audiences.
“Those two identities of mine, filmmaker and Armenian American, are 100 percent linked and one in the same for me,” he said.
When asked about his biggest influence, Ohanian didn’t hesitate.
“I would say my father, Suren Ohanian,” he said. “He immigrated to this country in his 30s. Classic American dream story, coming with very little and over the course of the past few decades, building a lot. In addition to my mom, who happened to do the exact same thing right by his side.”
When Ohanian screened his first film, his parents were right there helping make it happen.
“My mom sewed the screen herself,” he said. “My dad built the scaffolding. To me, that was a very physical representation of how much of themselves they were investing in me and my dreams. Like so many Armenians, I owe everything to them.”
Now more than a decade into his career, Ohanian is a well-established screenwriter and producer, and the founder of Proximity Media. He works closely with director Ryan Coogler and Coogler’s wife, producer Zinzi Coogler.
Together, they brought the Oscar-winning film Sinners to life, a project that exceeded every expectation.
“I’d be lying if I said that I did, or any of us did,” Ohanian said, when asked if they anticipated the film’s success. “At no point did we ever think about awards. At no point did we think about box office success. And then when the awards happened, I don’t know if I’ve ever processed it fully. It’s beyond anything we ever imagined.”
Ohanian says when he first read the script for Sinners, he connected deeply to his Armenian heritage, seeing joy and strength in the face of hardship.
“What makes me feel most proud to be Armenian right now,” he said, “is the resilience of Armenians. Not just Armenian Americans, but Armenians everywhere. We’ve had a challenging couple years, and beyond the obstacles we’ve faced as a people, you cannot deny there’s a real resilience.”
“So, to me, the power of our small people is exactly what this is,” he added. “Finding ways to support each other in what we do.”
Ohanian says success doesn’t come from Hollywood connections alone, but from community. When one person succeeds, everyone succeeds. And now, he’s focused on bringing even more Armenian stories to the screen, on an even larger scale.
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April 16, 2026
On April 15, in the National Assembly, the government’s 2021-2026 on the progress and results of the project in 2025. During the discussion of the report, Nikol Pashinyan mentioned several things related to the army statement did, which we will look at separately. And so.
The different numbers presented by the military academy cadets Pashinyan and Papikyan
Pashinyan said in the parliament. “Last year, the number of people admitted to the Vazgen Sargsyan Military Academy increased 2.7 times compared to 2018.” Then he continued.
“Nobody notices that in 2018 the Military Academy was on the verge of closing due to the lack of cadets, they don’t talk about it, they don’t talk about it. It has increased 2.7 times, and students receive a scholarship of 175,000 drams, moreover, when they graduate, they will be considered certified and have the opportunity to receive a salary of up to 750,000 drams as an officer. Starting from 2026, those admitted, graduates who have completed their service will receive an apartment.”
Here we consider it necessary to recall several episodes.
On April 17, 2025, Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly, Armen Khachatryan, speaking about the changes recorded in the field of military education, made unacceptable statements in the parliament.
“Until 2021-2022, what was the military academy? It was some kind of institution between a colony and a military unit. There was almost no physical education chair, everything was destroyed inside, there were no normal lecture chairs. There was a year when the number of applicants to the academy was only 16 people, and under these conditions, did we want to have an army without basic education officers, without a military academy?” he said.
We not only argued we have responded to the claims and inadmissible wording of the former “Gaishnik”, but immediately, on April 19, 2025, we sent written requests to the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia with the following questions:
– Before the April war, starting from 2010, and during the period after, RA Defense Minister V. When was the highest and lowest number of applicants to the Sargsyan Military University recorded, specify the specific year, until 2018? the change of power.
– After 2018, RA Defense Minister V. When was the highest and lowest number of applicants to the Military University named after Sargsyan recorded, specify the specific year, including 2022?- Before the April war, starting from 2010, and during the period after, when was the highest and lowest number of applicants to the Military Aviation University named after Marshal Armenak Khanperyants recorded, specify the specific year, until 2018. the change of power.
– After 2018, when was the highest and lowest number of applicants to the Military Aviation University named after Marshal Armenak Khanperyants of the RA Ministry of Defense recorded, specify the specific year, including 2022?
– Please submit to RA Defense Minister V. The number of applicants to the Sargsyan Military Academy for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years.
However, about 20 days later, in its reply, the RA Defense Department provided the information requested by us had refused provided by reference to the State Secret of the law to Article 29 (Service information of limited distribution), According to Article 8, Clause 1, Clause 1 of the RA Law “On Freedom of Information” and the Government of the Republic of Armenia dated 11.01.2024. to the requirements of paragraph 8 of the N5З-Н decision.
In other words, the government deputy publishes the number of applicants to the Military Academy, regardless of specifying a specific year, and when we try to find out when this happened, how valid this accusation is, the RA Ministry of Defense considers it not subject to publication.
Moreover, let’s note that, for example, for the 2006-2007 academic year, digital data related to 2016 and 2020 were published, so the question arises: why did the RA Ministry of Defense not want to show the digital data, especially when it is for the benefit of the current authorities and the Minister of Defense? After this, of course, we again tried to get digital data from the defense department, but to no avail.
And since already in April 2026, Nikol Pashinyan again raised the issue of the number of applicants to the Military Academy, this time we once again asked the structure headed by Suren Papikyan to provide already public digital data. Will they give it or will they avoid it again, even though they think the statistics are in their favor?
Note that in 2023 By the decision of the RA Government No. 914 A of June 8, the “Military University named after Vazgen Sargsyan” and the “Military Aviation University named after Marshal Armenak Khanperyants” were reorganized and the state institution of the Ministry of Defense “Military Academy named after Vazgen Sargsyan” was reorganized and created.
Therefore, taking this fact into account, and also if we accept that due to the small number of applicants, according to Pashinyan, the Military University was on the verge of closing in 2018, then under the conditions of the privileges granted in recent years, the Military University and the 2018 2025 A comparison of the number of applicants to the Military Academy and the claim that 2,7 even increased, is it a very significant figure?
Moreover, 5 months ago, on November 13, 2025, RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan from the NA podium had announced.
“The number of academy cadets increased by 26% compared to 2018. which proves that the attitude of our public towards military education and the attitude of our young people towards this profession has changed significantly.
Let’s admit that the numbers presented by Nikol Pashinyan and Suren Papikyan are different.
By the way, Pashinyan “taught” the generals in January this year had forgotten that the Military University named after Vazgen Sargsyan has the status of an academy from June 2023, and that those studying in military institutions are not students, but cadets, there were no mistakes in this regard yesterday in the National Assembly. Positive record.
And we will wait for the response of RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan and the structure he leads, to provide at least the number of cadets of the Military University in 2018 and 2025, and then the academy, and to confirm or deny whether it was on the verge of closure.
On May 28, Pashinyan will only give a pre-election report at Republic Square
Yesterday, April 15, Nikol Pashinyan claimed in the National Assembly that they are on the way to a professional army, capable of retaining both conscript and non-conscript soldiers. And from this there is a transition to fortified regions.
“When we talk about additional six and six billion dollars, where is that money?” Go to fortified areas and see where the money is. Go to the fortified regions and see how the security and the comfortable and comfortable service of the soldier is. Fortified regions – we are asking the opposition, we are begging, we are saying: listen, come, we invite you, let’s go and look, let’s go and look, and you show me anything even close to 73 km, just show me one. Because they were allegedly opposing us, saying: our fortified regions… you did something with canned coconuts, your alternative was canned coconuts, they were upset here…” he stated, presenting some things done for the army as “aldage”, not as a duty and responsibility.
By the way, in 2022 we are in the positions of the Tavush sector we recorded “canserva coconuts” and a photo we took later Nikol Pashinyan’s Deputy Chief of Staff Taron Chakhoyan presented: as a photograph of former positions. Moreover, the representatives of the ruling power at the time they were mocking the presence of tires in positions, but even today you can see tires in positions.
Of course, no one ignores the works of furnishing the army positions engineering the solutions about which Suren Papikyan shared a video again the other day, but when you have lost a war, when you have had significant human and territorial losses during positional conflicts, and you constantly remember the “can-bottle” of the former, is it honest or correct? Maybe it was possible to do more in the past, but is it moral to make fun of former Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan, from whom, one month after the April 2016 war, he went to dig a ditch and received a certificate and a medal for it…
And at the end, Pashinyan couldn’t help but remember from the podium of the National Assembly the expected display of weapons on Republic Square on May 28, which we talked about much earlier. to report.
“Well, what about the acquisition of weapons, which, yes, including due to a number of objective and subjective circumstances, was also acquired with funds from external sources. Do you remember that I constantly responded to those speculations about Armenia’s foreign debt, national debt, I am not talking about weapons now, because as they say, it is better to see once than to hear 100 times, and we, I want to emphasize again, we absolutely did not have such an intention, nor did we have such a desire, especially since there is a lot of secret information, that is, there are some things, one thing, all countries do, of course, and, one way or another, international what we have acquired has been circulated in the press, but in any case, we want to be accountable to our people for what weapons we have acquired in recent years. On May 28, on the occasion of the Republic Day, we will display in the Republic Square, by the way, only the weapons that we have acquired after 2022 and we just want to be accountable to our people, so that we can hope that the issues will be closed, and also produce them”, on April 15 in the National Assembly, the government’s 2021-2026 on the progress and results of the project in 2025. Pashinyan said during the discussion of the report, adding that on that day what needs to be covered will be covered.
In other words, this is not so much a demonstration of the army’s fighting ability, or, as they say, defensive ability, but a report for its own name. In other words, the hero of the day will not be the army, but Nikol Pashinyan and his government.
Let’s add that recently Suren Papikyan announced that during his tenure “5.4 times more was spent on armaments than during the years of the previous two presidents”.
Of course, any achievement related to the army is positive, but the combat capability of the army is not determined only by weapons, there are a number of components, including the number of personnel, the degree of its combat training, etc., not to mention that the state is judged by the results of the war.
And before this announcement, we sent a written request to the Minister of Defense to find out from which countries, apart from Russia, Armenia acquired weapons and military equipment before the 2018 revolution, and what exactly, and what percentage of the increase in the state debt goes to the purchase of new weapons, but Suren Papikyan had refused provide us with that information.
168.amthe wrote also that before the 44-day war, the former head of the RA Armed Forces General Directorate, Onik Gasparyan, presented an arms development project worth 8 billion dollars to Pashinyan, which, in fact, was not implemented, even if it was not rejected at the time.
It is interesting that Nikol Pashinyan and his government are somehow forgetting the period between 2018-2022, when in 2019 they were proud of the unprecedented acquisition of weapons at every opportunity. Shouldn’t there also be a report on expenses and war losses in this regard…
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