Author: Kanayan Tamar

A sharp debate took place between the deputies of the ruling faction in the Armenian parliament over the demographic situation in the armed forces and the conscription mechanisms. While the leadership of the sectoral commission announces the increase in the number of conscripts and the improvement of service conditions, there are also alarms about the catastrophic reduction of staff due to the mass renunciation of citizenship by young people.

Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly Andranik Kocharyan harshly criticized the legislative initiative of his colleague, Hayk Sargsyan, which offered a mechanism to get rid of the army in exchange for money. Kocharyan emphasized his principled position against such practice, noting that the draft was so problematic that not only the faction voted against it, but also the author himself. Turning to the demographic question, the head of the commission assured that the military conscription indicators have been steadily increasing in the last two years.

He attributed this positive trend to the stabilization of the peaceful environment and legislative reforms, which allowed to reduce the death rate and increase security in the troops, thereby restoring the confidence of mothers in the army system.

The parliamentary opposition also joined the debate, categorically rejecting the initiative to get rid of the service on a paid basis. As Gegham Manukyan, deputy of the Hayastan faction, stated, such an approach is not only unconstitutional, but also carries the risk of deep division within the society, even individual families, due to financial inequality. According to the opposition figure, the problem of the lack of conscripts requires a complex analysis, not commercialization of debt to the state.

Manukyan denied the argument that young people avoid military service en masse only because of the danger of military operations, citing Israel and Iran as examples, where the number of volunteers in times of escalation exceeds the real requirements of the army many times over. At the same time, the deputy agreed with the existence of the problem of serious social disparity in military conscription between the capital and marzes, stressing, however, that it should be solved by methods that unite citizens, not separate them.

A deputy presented a diametrically opposite picture Hayk Sargsyanpublishing alarming statistics on the downsizing of the army. According to his data, in the last 14 years, the number of conscripts has decreased more than three times, from 44 thousand in 2010 to 14 thousand in 2024. The parliamentarian claims that the armed forces lose about 30 percent of potential draftees every year because wealthy families en masse change their sons’ citizenships before they reach adulthood.

Sargsyan warned that more than 2,800 young people refused their Armenian passports in 2025 alone, stressing that his rejected project was directed against this “loophole” intended for the rich. In addition, the politician pointed out acute social injustice. according to his statistics, the main burden of the country’s defense falls on the marzes, where 50 percent of the conscripts go to serve, while in the capital, this figure is only 10 percent.

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The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a $200 million (€170.3 million) Economic Transformation Development Policy Operation to support Armenia’s transition to a more competitive and globally integrated economy that will also have an emissions control and management system. In addition, the OPEC Fund intends to provide up to USD 92.8 million equivalent (EUR 80 million) of financing in parallel, bringing the total support package to approximately USD 290 million (EUR 250 million).

“Armenia’s Economic Transformation Development Policy Operation” supports a multi-sectoral reform agenda aimed at modernizing Armenia’s investment and business environment, strengthening competition and consumer protection, as well as strengthening resilience in the country’s fiscal and regulatory systems.

“Armenia has an ambitious reform agenda, and we support the country’s efforts to build a more open, competitive and sustainable economy,” said Fabrizio Dzarcone, head of the World Bank’s Armenia office. “The transition to a more diversified and resilient economy will create growth conditions that will be favorable for every citizen.”

The operation is based on two pillars. The first focuses on realizing investment and trade potential and promoting competition. The reforms include modernizing the legal framework for investment, increasing the efficiency of customs processes, reducing import processing times by 20 percent, as well as strengthening the consumer protection system and curbing unfair trade practices. The reforms also support the adoption of fundamental laws for the digital economy, including improving cybersecurity governance.

The reforms carried out within the framework of the Second Henasian aim to contribute to the creation of a more resilient economy and complement the agenda of the First Henasian reforms by contributing to the introduction of a responsible emissions management system. Key measures include the adoption of a new “Climate” law that supports the use of climate budget “labelling” in the state budget, the creation of a national greenhouse gas emission permit system, and the introduction of a green taxonomy to standardize a system for defining and classifying actions for sustainable economic growth in the economy, which will help attract private investment for them.

The development of the operation was supported by the Climate Support Fund and the PROGREEN Trust Fund, which provided technical and analytical support for the climate reform components. The implementation of the operation is the RA Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Environment, the State Revenue Committee, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Ministry of High-Tech Industry act as the main supporting agencies.

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The Armenian Prime Minister’s casual language fight with a forcibly displaced woman from Artsakh in the Yerevan subway turned into a high-profile political scandal. Nikol Pashinyan’s public outburst, the accusations against people who lost their homes and the hasty apology that followed revealed the deep crisis in the relationship between the government and society, turning the political agenda into a stage of social hostility.

The scene unfolding in the Yerevan metro carriage seemed to become a regular episode of a politician’s interaction with the people. However, the polite refusal of the woman, who was forced to leave Nagorno-Karabakh, to take the pre-election booklets, caused an unexpected harsh reaction from the Prime Minister. Waving a finger in front of a small child and being surrounded by a dense circle of bodyguards. Nikol Pashinyan went on a rant, accusing the refugees of having spent “billions” on them, and throwing categorical words; “Don’t try to say that I gave away Karabakh with those who escaped.” Just hours later, realizing the scale of the outrage on social media, the Prime Minister released a video message apologizing and calling for a new meeting.

To independent observers and political opponents, however, this gesture was not so much a sign of genuine remorse as a clumsy attempt to minimize the damage done to his reputation. As a political commentator notes Hakob Badalyan, this apology is more like a carefully calculated urban-technological trap. The woman’s consent to the meeting will instantly turn the state propaganda machine in favor of the prime minister, and her refusal will give a legitimate reason for a new wave of persecution. The vocabulary chosen by the head of the government also deserves special attention. The use of the term “Karabaghtsi” instead of “Artsakh citizen” is an obvious attempt to balance internal resentment and the fear of provoking the anger of the president of neighboring Azerbaijan.

It was this sharp contrast between the behavior of the Prime Minister of Armenia in the international arena and within the country that made him the leader of the Wings of Unity alliance, a candidate for the Prime Minister. Arman Tatoyan the target of harsh criticism. In his address, the politician noted that the metro incident finally tore Pashinyan’s mask of pacifism. According to Tatoyan, the man who lavishly distributes “pachiks and hearts” to the public every day showed his true face, trying to humiliate the Armenian mother in the presence of his entourage. The opposition figure pointed out the astonishing metamorphosis. In meetings with Ilham Aliyev, the head of the government smiles, obligingly offers coffee and shows extreme obedience, but when he returns to his homeland, he “cuts a lion” and unleashes his aggression on defenseless citizens. Instead of fighting against an external threat, the government itself becomes a generator of internal hatred, Tatoyan emphasized, promising to become a leader who will heal wounds and unite society, not divide it for the sake of keeping the seat.

In the background of such uncompromising and harsh criticism of the former ombudsman, the acting Human Rights Defender of Armenia Anahit Manasyan the response was too restrained and abstract. In his official statement, he never directly mentioned either the name of the prime minister or the actual incident in the subway. Instead of giving a specific legal assessment to the actions of the first person of the country, the existing HRD was satisfied with general statements that political rhetoric is activated in the electoral processes. Manasyan only called on “officials, all political and public actors” to show the necessary sensitivity when communicating with forcibly displaced people in order not to deepen their vulnerability. This evasive call to create an “atmosphere of solidarity”, which carefully avoids direct criticism of the outrageous behavior of the head of state, only emphasizes the depth of the existing institutional crisis in the country.

The problem is actually much deeper than a politician’s personal intemperance. Political scientist Tigran Grigoryan diagnoses the consequences of this incident very accurately. such behavior of the first person of the state legitimizes hate speech at the household level. When the prime minister publicly announced that he was giving financial aid to the people who lost their homeland, he gave a green light to the extremist elements of his electorate. The wheel of aggression launched in the metro will inevitably move to social networks, kitchens and streets, destroying the already fragile fabric of Armenian society.

The actions of the information resources affiliated with the ruling “Civil Pact” party became the absolute confirmation of this political hypocrisy. While Pashinyan was publicly apologizing, the party’s Civic.am periodical began purposefully publishing angry posts on the same woman’s personal social pages. This is a classic method of political reprisal, which, according to experts, is aimed at marginalizing any voice that dares to criticize the government.

“Instead of acting as a guarantor of the nation’s unity in this difficult historical period, the state machine directs huge resources to driving a wedge between the people of Armenia and those forcibly displaced from Artsakh. This dangerous course does not solve any of the country’s institutional problems, but creates new, deep lines of division, which will no longer be possible to heal with the occasional apologies in messengers,” the experts say.

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