April 15, 2026
The first hearing of the criminal case against Samvel Karapetyan is underway in the Anti-Corruption Court.
His supporters are in the court yard.
Chairman of the “United Armenians” party, Nairi Sargsyan, speaking about the expectations, mentioned that it is necessary to achieve the final victory by combining forces.
“We have repeatedly stated that we have pursued the short-term priority goal of removing the number one obstacle to Armenia’s development on June 30. Nikol Pashinyan’s justice should be treated the way they treat the country, the Armenian people and the judicial bodies, that is, with fingers crossed.”
He added that justice and the period of Nikol Pashinyan have no relation to each other. “The 3 member parties of the alliance have set a new congress, and, I think, mergers are still possible.”
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Armenia, Qatar to deepen cooperation in investment sector
Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia Vahe Hovhannisyan received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Qatar to Armenia Mansour Abdulla Al Sulaitin, the ministry said in a readout.
During the meeting, the parties reaffirmed the importance of strengthening friendly and mutually beneficial relations between Armenia and Qatar, which is among the priorities defined in the program of the Government of the Republic of Armenia.
The sides discussed prospects for expanding bilateral economic cooperation. In this context, they emphasized the Agreement between the Government of Armenia and the Government of Qatar on the Avoidance of Double Taxation, which creates favorable conditions for fostering and expanding business ties between the two countries.
According to the ministry, the two countries plan to deepen cooperation in the investment sector, as well as ensure the exchange of knowledge and experience in the areas of energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and digital transformation.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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Davit’s condition is critical at the moment: a group of mothers are staging a
A group of mothers are staging a sit-in in front of the Prosecutor General’s Office, demanding the release of Davit Minasyan, who was detained in connection with the incident at the St. Anna Church.
One of them, Marianna Zargaryan, told reporters that she has a son the same age as Davit and came to support him. “I learned about the sit-in from Facebook. I was supposed to be at that church on Palm Sunday, but plans changed – we went to a different church – and then I learned that such a provocation had occurred.”
One of the parents said the action is scheduled to last a week, from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. “I am starting the sit-in alone and I call on all mothers who are not indifferent to Davit Minasyan’s life to join and support him. Even a few minutes will be enough.”
She noted that they are demanding an impartial investigation from the Prosecutor General and that Davit be allowed to receive treatment at home: “Davit’s condition is critical at the moment.”
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Armenian History Month kickoff features heartfelt words, historical perspectiv
The third annual event in Hahn Central Plaza honored legacy of survival and resilience.
USC’s third annual Armenian History Month opening ceremony brought lively dancing, music and heartfelt words to Hahn Central Plaza on the University Park Campus on Tuesday.
The ceremony, attended by students, faculty and staff, was presented by the USC Armenian Student Association and the Institute of Armenian Studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Both organizations are dedicated to honoring Armenian excellence, culture, history and contributions to the USC community and beyond. They have partnered for a monthlong celebration that offers opportunities to learn about Armenian history and culture while fostering inclusion and dialogue across campus.
Los Angeles County is home to more than 200,000 Armenians. When the county’s Board of Supervisors declared April to be Armenian History Month in 2022, students and the institute began a grassroots effort to mark the occasion at USC.
https://today.usc.edu/armenian-history-month-kickoff-features-heartfelt-words-historical-perspective-and-traditional-dances/
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Armenian PM Pashinyan says Kazakhstan among key countries taking interest in T
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday that Kazakhstan, like many other countries, is interested in the TRIPP connectivity project, ARMENPRESS reports.
A new route for international communication is opening, and Kazakhstan is one of the major players in the international transport sector, particularly in terms of the flow of goods to and from China, Pashinyan said at a press briefing on April 9, when asked about the Kazakh Foreign Minister’s visit to Armenia.
“Our Kazakh partners, with whom we also discussed this issue during my visit, are trying to gain a more concrete understanding of the transport opportunities that are opening up and how this will affect them,” he added.
Kazakhstan is not the only country interested in this topic; many countries are. The process is public, and we do not intend to hide it from our partners. Naturally, we should invite Kazakhstan to be prepared to consider using transit routes through Armenia as part of their export, import, and transport service chains, Pashinyan said.
The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) is a connectivity project in Armenia, envisaged under the U.S.-brokered Armenian-Azerbaijani joint declaration signed in Washington, D.C. The project is expected to unlock strategic economic opportunities, create long-term benefits by promoting infrastructure investment, and enhance regional connectivity. An Armenian-American joint enterprise is expected to develop the route.
On April 8-9, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister, Yermek Kosherbayev, will pay an official visit to Armenia. The delegation also includes Kazakhstan’s Minister of Transportation, Nurlan Sauranbayev.
Previously, Qazinform News Agency reported Kazakhstan approves an intelligence cooperation deal with Armenia.
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Armenia, France discuss upcoming COP17 and Jeux de la Francophonie
Armenian Ambassador to France Arman Khachatryan met with Éléonore Caroit, the Minister Delegate to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, responsible for Francophonie, International Partnerships, and French Nationals Abroad.
The Armenian Ambassador also serves as the Armenian Prime Minister’s Personal Representative on the Permanent Council of La Francophonie (OIF).
The Ambassador and the French official discussed the Armenia–France agenda, as well as the active cooperation established between Armenia and France within international organizations, particularly in the framework of La Francophonie, the embassy reported.
The Ambassador presented the progress of preparations for the 10th La Francophonie Games (Jeux de la Francophonie), to be held in Armenia in 2027, reaffirming Armenia’s commitment to hosting the event at a high level. Both sides emphasized the importance of the Jeux de la Francophonie as a significant event contributing to the promotion of Francophone culture and values, as well as the development of the French language.
Views were exchanged on the preparatory work and possible cooperation ahead of the 17th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), to be held in Armenia this year. Ambassador Khachatryan presented Armenia’s vision for organizing the conference, aimed at ensuring the full and meaningful participation of all stakeholders in discussions related to biodiversity.
Ambassador Khachatryan also presented the peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan, highlighting the importance of its further consolidation.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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Prime Minister Pashinyan receives Kazakh foreign minister
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has received a delegation led by Kazakh Foreign Minister Yermek Kosherbayev, who is on an official visit to Armenia.
Pashinyan welcomed the minister’s visit and underlined the strategic nature of the partnership between Armenia and Kazakhstan, his office said in a readout.
He said that recent high-level bilateral visits have given fresh momentum to the development of broad-based cooperation between the two countries, adding that this is also reflected in the substantive bilateral agenda.
Pashinyan also said that regional developments are having a positive impact on cooperation between Armenia and Kazakhstan, particularly through the railway connection established via Azerbaijan, Russia and Georgia, which he said is creating new opportunities to expand trade and economic ties.
Kosherbayev conveyed the warm greetings of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to the Armenian prime minister and said he had held productive discussions with Armenian partners on all issues of mutual interest.
He expressed confidence that the newly established rail link would significantly expand bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
Kosherbayev also stressed the importance of unblocking regional transport routes and reaffirmed Kazakhstan’s support for both the TRIPP initiative and the Armenian government’s Crossroads of Peace project.
He said Kazakhstan is also interested in the implementation of those initiatives and in the expansion of regional trade and economic connectivity.
Pashinyan and Kosherbayev also discussed the development of cooperation in infrastructure, construction, agriculture, technology, air connectivity and tourism.
In that context, the two sides highlighted the launch of direct flights between Armenia and Kazakhstan, which is expected in the near future.
They also welcomed the upcoming visit of an Armenian business delegation to Kazakhstan, saying it would give further momentum to economic cooperation and business ties.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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Land was illegally withdrawn from the balance sheet of Abovyan community without a legal basis
According to the preliminary investigation carried out in the criminal proceedings examined by the RA Anti-corruption Committee, it was found that the person occupying the position of the head of the territorial division of the Cadastre Committee, using the official position against the interests of the service, in the absence of legal grounds, carried out the process of illegal registration of land ownership rights.
In particular, it was found that the said official registered the ownership right of a citizen in violation of the procedure established by the RA Land Code and in the absence of relevant documents to the land area of 0.2200 ha allocated by illegal decision with the right of indefinite use from the section adjacent to the Yerevan-Sevan highway, citing the non-existent decision of the head of the village of Arinji on October 1, 1996 as the basis.
As a result of the criminal actions of the above-mentioned official of the Cadastre Committee, the land with a market value of AMD 15,900,000 was illegally removed from the balance sheet of Abovyan community.
In addition, based on the outlines of buildings with an area of 3965.65 square meters presented by another employee of the Cadastre Committee, the above-mentioned official included false data in the ownership certificate and without legal grounds registered the same plot with an area of 0.08 ha more.
As a result, land with a market value of 9,760,000 AMD was illegally removed from the balance sheet of Abovyan community, without any legal basis, and the community was deprived of the opportunity to use this land according to its intended purpose and to serve the interests of the public.
During the preliminary investigation, a criminal prosecution was initiated under Article 308, Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code adopted on April 18, 2003, and Article 314, Part 1 of the same Code (corresponding to Article 441, Part 2, Clause 5 and Part 2, Article 445, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code adopted on July 1, 2022).
The preliminary investigation in the criminal proceedings has been completed, and the materials of the proceedings have been sent to the RA Anti-Corruption Court with an indictment.
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168: Real Armenian man against “Real Armenia”
April 9, 2026
There is still no opposition to the idea of ”Real Armenia” of the government, which would be able not only to crush that fiction that reduced the measure of existence to the level of gastric juice production, but to make its discussion shameful. Even for CPs. At least those who ever had a brain, nevertheless agreed to the Pashinyan degradation of replacing it with organs in the middle parts of the body.
And meaning is not contradicted, because unlike the government, the oppositions do not create new meanings, but are busy countering the ones invented by the government, that is, they create not meanings, but anti-meanings. The power’s ability to create meanings should not be confused with meaning-making in the substantive sense of the concept. Satanic curses can also, especially with today’s technology, be imposed as meanings, which is what the government does. Or all those who, through the government, are engaged in the new engineering of Armenianness, putting natural the antithesis.
And the oppositions, either due to the inability to create more meanings, or guided by the primitive principle “everything new is the old that is well forgotten”, contrast “Real Armenia” with the stories of the past, both real and pathos-filled texts quoted from legends and toasts, which are exciting only in ethnographic songs, but as a political text, they are roughly similar to the curse addressed to a child in response to the curser’s great-grandfathers. to be late.
The story of “Real Armenia”, with all its cheapness and simplicity, is about today’s Armenia, not the new Armenia, as a country risen from the ashes, as the government represents, but about the former Armenia, the broken country left from the Armenian world, which has a different citizenry, people living in different dimensions, for three years now, also lost from Artsakh.
Here, the opposition’s semantic response to “Real Armenia” should be not only and not so much (and maybe it should not be) a mechanical reminder of the previous victory, which hurts in the conditions of today’s humiliation, but a message that unites people, of a new person living in a depressed country, who did not become new by his own will, which will be opposed to the march of “Real Armenia”. But it will be opposed not just as a simple reflection, as a reaction, but as a new content, a new meaning, on which a new social and state structure with a chance to return the previous victory can ever touch.
The antidote to “real Armenia” is a real Armenian person, without quotation marks. But the Armenianness of that person, not even a hair’s breadth denying the codes of the past, should still be anchored on new realities, today’s reality. In this battle of ideas and meanings, the time factor is key. The government is selling the dream of “Real Armenia” as today’s project, but more so as tomorrow’s project. Oppositions are contrasted with archetypes from the past. And in the competition between the time dimensions of the past and the future, the past will always lose due to the nature of human beings. He will lose, with all his heroism.
Will the oppositions, individually and collectively, find the algorithm to contrast “Real Armenia” with a real Armenian person in the next two months? This is the most important question of this election cycle, but also of the times to come. Many times more important than the measurements of sociological polls and the decibels of inopportune voices that are presented as political speech, emitted by the self-satisfaction of those being measured.
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Avoiding the army and conscription. A hot debate in the RA parliament
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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