Author: Lilit Nahapetian

Pashinyan vows to not allow new war

Lilit Nahapetian

Politics17:12, 11 March 2026
Read the article in: Arabic, Français, Armenian, Russian, Turkçe

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan suggested on Wednesday that if his administration hadn’t made the decision to launch the border delimitation process with Azerbaijan in April 2024, Armenia would have lost its independence.

“In March–April 2024, we reached the brink of Armenia’s statehood. If we had not made the decision in April 2024 to launch the border delimitation process with Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia today would, at most, be under foreign rule,” Pashinyan said in his address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Prime Minister Pashinyan said that making the decision on border delimitation was extremely difficult. “With the encouragement of our church’s de facto leader, an archbishop began a movement in Armenia calling not only to halt the delimitation but, in effect, to revive the Karabakh movement, the conflict, if you will,” he said.

The Prime Minister noted that tens of thousands of citizens, influenced by a disinformation campaign carried out by high-ranking clergymen and their allied opposition forces—who claimed that the government intended to cede Armenian sovereign territory, including ancient churches and villages, to Azerbaijan—took to the streets.

“You can imagine what this meant for our government and political team, which came to power through the 2018 peaceful, non-violent Velvet Revolution. How did we resolve the problem? We spoke to our employer—the people. Today, the village of Kirants in Tavush Province, which the church-opposition leaders had turned into a symbol, warning people that it would be abandoned, has seen nearly a 50 percent increase in households with the support of the government after the delimitation. It is now a completely peaceful, safe, and vibrant settlement. The ancient churches are being restored or renovated,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

Pashinyan added that he personally organizes citizen visits and tours to Kirants to show people what he means by peace and by a “Real Armenia.”

“The symbol I carry on my chest is the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Armenia,” he said, referring to the pin of the map of Armenia he wears on his suit.

“It is also a symbol of peace because we have established peace with Azerbaijan by recognizing each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and political independence based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of December 21, 1991, whereby Soviet Azerbaijan became independent Azerbaijan and Soviet Armenia became independent Armenia. This outlines the map of independent Armenia. I would not normally address the issue of the involvement of certain clergymen in this peace process if I had not seen how their emissaries, together with certain lobby organizations, have attempted to spread claims in the European Parliament and other reputable international institutions that the Armenian government restricts freedom of conscience, that there is tyranny in Armenia, or that there are political prisoners in Armenia. The truth is that some clergymen, who cynically violated all rules of spiritual morality—thereby making themselves vulnerable to foreign intelligence services, and in some cases, documents prove they were Soviet KGB agents—have taken leadership of the war party in Armenia. They gathered around them former Armenian leaders, certain allied forces, and some Russia-based or pro-Belarus oligarchs, attempting to sacrifice Armenia’s independence for the interests of other countries.

“We will not allow a new conflict or a new war. We will not allow the awareness, peace, and independence won at the cost of thousands of lives to be sacrificed for anti-Christian purposes. In the liturgy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the word ‘peace’ is mentioned more than 40 times. This is not only about personal or spiritual peace but also about world peace, for which our liturgical texts contain dozens of prayers to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Today, however, some use the altar of Christ to preach conflict, war, and/or internal violence, violating the laws of the Republic of Armenia. This cannot be tolerated in any democratic country,” Pashinyan said.

Read the article in: Arabic, Français, Armenian, Russian, Turkçe

Published by Armenpress, original at 
—

Armenian Defense Minister visits Brussels

Lilit Nahapetian

Suren Papikyan15:13, 11 March 2026
Read the article in: العربيةفارسیHayerenРусскийTurkish中文

Armenian Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan is leading a delegation to Brussels, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

It did not elaborate.

Published by Armenpress, original at 
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Iranian president’s son says new supreme leader "safe and sound"

Lilit Nahapetian

Read the article in: ArmenianRussian:

Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “safe and sound,” said Yousef Pezeshkian, son of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, on Wednesday, after reports that Khamenei is reportedly injured.

“I heard news that Mojtaba Khamenei had been injured. I have asked some friends who have connections. They told me that, thank God, he is safe and sound,” the Iranian President’s son said on Telegram.

Earlier media reports said that Mojtaba Khamenei was injured in the joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.

Earlier this week Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as supreme leader. Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is the second son of Ali Khamenei, who led the Islamic Republic for 36 years and was assassinated on February 28 in the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes.

Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t made any public address since taking office.

Published by Armenpress, original at 
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RFE/RL – Ter-Petrosian’s Party In Pre-Election Talks With Samvel Karapetian

Lilit Nahapetian
  • Ruzanna Stepanian
  • Satenik Kaghzvantsian
March 10, 2026

Armenia – Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian (left) and businessman Samvel Karapetian.

A top aide to former President Levon Ter-Petrosian said on Tuesday that his Armenian National Congress (HAK) is discussing with billionaire Samvel Karapetian’s opposition movement the possibility of joining forces for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Strong Armenia party spawned recently by the Mer Dzevov (In Our Way) movement is expected to be one of the main opposition contenders in the elections scheduled for June 7. The HAK publicly signaled an interest in forming an electoral alliance with it in late December. According to its deputy chairman, Levon Zurabian, negotiations between the two political groups are still going on.

“Our approaches were presented, naturally to Samvel Karapetian’s team as well,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “The conversation is ongoing, let’s see where we get to.”

Ter-Petrosian has lavished praise on Karapetian in a series of social media posts which observers believe underlined the HAK’s desire to team up with the new opposition heavyweight. The 81-year-old ex-president effectively endorsed the Russian-Armenian tycoon on March 2. He went on to claim that the West will try hard to prevent the Karapetian-led opposition from winning the elections and to help Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian hold on to power.

“Pashinian’s Western masters will consider Samvel Karapetian’s victory as a re-establishment of Russian influence in Armenia, which is not at all part of their long-term plans,” he wrote. “Therefore, they will try to do everything to thwart such a development, ignoring the fact that the exclusive right to choose their own government belongs to the people.”

Karapetian’s political team has reacted cautiously to these overtures. The tycoon’s nephew and right-hand man, Narek Karapetian, said in December that none of Armenia’s former presidents should govern the country again. Zurabian said at the time that the statement “doesn’t apply to us anymore” because the HAK has officially made clear that Ter-Petrosian will not be its top election candidate.

Zurabian said on Tuesday that the HAK will run in the elections on its own if it fails to form an alliance with Strong Armenia or other opposition forces. Ter-Petrosian’s party did so in the last polls held in 2021, failing to win any parliament seats.

Ter-Petrosian, who had led Armenia to independence in 1991, is a vocal critic of Pashinian, having branded the latter as a “nation-destroying scourge” in the wake of Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. He has repeatedly denounced Pashinian’s attempts to depose Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, prompting insults from the ruling Civil Contract party.

Karapetian was arrested and indicted just hours after criticizing Pashinian’s campaign last June. He was moved to house arrest in late December.

—

Armenia has suspended participation in the CSTO: Pashinyan’s loud statements

Lilit Nahapetian
Feb 23 2024
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced that Armenia’s participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is “frozen”. The head of the Armenian government said this in an interview with France 24.
Source: 
“The Collective Security Treaty, in our opinion, has not been fulfilled with regard to Armenia… This could not remain without our attention. We have suspended our participation in this contract. Let’s see what happens next,” Pashinyan said.

At the same time, Pashinyan assured that the issue of preserving the Russian military base in Armenia is not on the agenda.

Nikol Pashinyan also claims that a few months ago, Russia “openly called on the Armenian population to overthrow the government.” According to him, “this propaganda from Moscow against him is not weakening.”
Source:

Pashinyan also expressed his concern about the detention in Armenia of the Russian Dmytro Setrakov, who left the mobilization, calling it a “kidnapping”. “We cannot tolerate illegal actions on our territory,” said Nikol Pashinyan and threatened “consequences” if “Yerevan’s demands remain unanswered.”



Source: 

Yerevan Mayor, Iranian Ambassador discuss programs to be implemented in Yerevan

Lilit Nahapetian

 18:36,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS.  Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Iran to Armenia, Mehdi Sobhani.

Referring to the established cooperation between the two capitals, the parties stated that there is a wide field to use the full potential of bilateral relations and to implement joint projects aimed at the development of urban infrastructures. According to the source, Mayor Avinyan gave special importance to the scope of all the new programs that give fresh momentum to the relations between the two countries and cities, the Municipality said.

Expressing gratitude for the willingness to expand cooperation, Ambassador Mehdi Sobhani, in turn, noted that there are many Iranian companies interested in investing in Yerevan.

The parties also highlighted the interest of Iranian tourists in Yerevan. In 2023, approximately 120,000 tourists visited Yerevan.

A day of love, Armenian style

Lilit Nahapetian
Feb 14 2024
By Mayalie Cieutat

Gyumri, ARMENIA – Newlyweds in Gyumri, Armenia got all fired up about their traditional spring event, Trndez.

The whole town has been preparing for a few days now for the big firelit night held February 13th in celebration of prosperity, love, spring and renewal.

Trndez is an Armenian apostolic holiday, where newlywed couples traditionally jump above a bonfire for a long and prosperous marriage. 

A few hundred people gathered on Vartanants Square, the central square of Gyumri, at 5 p.m. and formed a circle around a big pile of hay. As more people joined, old women, parents and their c

hildren threw flower crowns and other plants on top of the hay. 

“It’s meant for happiness in the family and health for the following year,” said Tamara Hovannissian, an Armenian language teacher in Gyumri, who attended the event.

Hovannissian said the flowers and plants might be a reminder of the olive branches that were brought with Jesus to the temple of Jerusalem 40 days after his birth, according to Armenian apostolic belief. 

She also said that normally, families get those flowers during Easter of the previous year. They keep them in their house all year and burn them on Trndez to keep sicknesses away.

At 5:40 p.m. the crowd was split in half to make way for the priests coming from the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God, on Vartanants Square.

A compact horde of eager old women quickly followed them to get closer to the center of the circle. A few unfriendly looks and irritated Armenian comments later, everyone was ready for the ceremony. 

Children were placed on the inner circle, holding each other by the pinkie. 

Children stand around the haystack. (Mayalie Cieutat/YJI)

The priests sang and read the prayers to the sound of the cathedral bells. Separated into two groups with different attire, they spun around the hay as they recited prayers.

“It does not symbolize anything” about the meaning of the mysterious choreography, said Hovannissian, who is an Armenian and French language teacher in Gyumri.

Women, men and children all made the sign of the cross in unison all throughout the ceremony. In 2011, approximately 92% of the Armenian population claimed to be of the Armenian apostolic faith, according to the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious freedoms.


One of the priests then took a long torch, lit it with a candle and then ignited the hay all over. As it caught fire, the crowd seemed to reorganize itself.

All decked out in green t-shirts made for the occasion, members of Hrayrk, a traditional dance group based in Gyumri, came to the front with loud enthusiastic shouts. Music seemed to start blurting out from the ground. The front-liners of the circle started dancing around a blaze that reached about two meters higher than them. 

Temperature rose as fast as spirits as children and young people started to dance and shout.

But as people kept spinning, they grew dangerously close to the fire and a group of men urged the crowd to keep away.

And then the fire started turning into ashes. The dances stopped and the women rushed to the fire to light candles from the flames and to collect the ashes.

“The light is illumination,” said Varduhi Harutyunyan, a local holding a candle to her heart.

Harutyunyan, who was born and raised in Gyumri, explained that Trndez is celebrated “40 days after the birth of Jesus Christ” when he was, according to Armenian apostolic belief, taken to the temple of Jerusalem and purified.

A man lights a candle to bring some of the fire home with him. (Mayalie Cieutat/YJI)

“We also do it on Christmas Eve,” she said, which in Armenia is celebrated on January 5th.

“The ashes are for under the trees and flowers,” said Harutyunyan, “for blessing the plants and for a good harvest.” They are meant for “unity, no war, and peace in the world.”

Candles like hers – held inside a Coca-Cola plastic bottle cut in half – were sold around the square by local residents.

The crowd, which had scattered across the square, came back together to start the jumping part of the ceremony. Children, couples, grandparents and toddlers started jumping in pairs and creating a human tunnel with their arms for following jumpers.

New couples and newly married people are most likely to jump over the fire, said Arsen Sahakyan, who works at a marketing and creative lab in Gyumri.

Locals believe that the couples who got married that year should jump over the fire to be happy, healthy, blessed and purified.

“During the wedding, it makes it so it brings happiness,” said Hovannissian. She added that “it’s mandatory” for the fire to touch the couple’s legs while they are jumping, for it to bring happiness.

Matthew Elyan, an Armenian American who was present at the ceremony, said he once celebrated Trndez in Los Angeles, where he is from. He remembered jumping over a fire in what was “similar to a marshmallow stove.”

“Actually jumping over the fire is not really common,” Elyan said, of celebrating Trndez in Los Angeles. “We have to change that. We’ll buy some more stoves.”

Trndez wasn’t always celebrated as it is today though, said Sahakyan.

When Armenia became Christian, the church reclaimed this tradition to mark a clear break with pre-fourth century polytheistic customs.

“They had a mission to kill other religion stuff,” Sahakyan said. “They started to jump over the fire to say that ‘we are over that other god.’”

Instead, Trndez used to be a pagan celebration for the god of fire in ancient polytheist Armenia.

Back then, Sahakyan said, there was “no jumping, just celebrating.”

Mayalie Cieutat is a Junior Reporter with Youth Journalism International.



Armenpress: Armenian community of Hungary highlights President Khachaturyan’s visit

Lilit Nahapetian

 09:00,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. President Vahagn Khachaturyan’s official visit to Hungary on February 5-7 was highly important for the local Armenian community, Hungarian lawmaker, national minority advocate at the Hungarian parliament Nikogosz Akopjan told Armenpress.

Nikogosz Akopjan represents the Armenian community in the Hungarian parliament.

“The President’s visit was highly important for the Armenian community of Hungary because there were no diplomatic relations for a long time. We hope that the visit will intensify the relations in culture, science and trade,” he said. “…finally the Armenians living in Hungary understood that the ice was broken after 12 years. We hope that the visit is the beginning of the development of our friendly ties.”

Asked on his opinion regarding the direction of developing the relations, Akopjan said, “It’s no secret that Hungary has very good relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan. We must be able to delicately recover the lost balance. It is very important for us,” the lawmaker said, adding that the community must be actively engaged. 

Hungary was long ready to restore the ties with Armenia, according to Akopjan.

“Very often the Hungarian side would ask the Armenian community to act as a bridge for restoring the relations,” Akopjan said.

In an earlier interview with Armenpress, Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan also attached importance to Khachaturyan’s visit, noting that Hungary’s stance is highly important in terms of strengthening Armenia-EU ties since Budapest will assume the EU presidency in July 2024.

RFE/RL Armenian Service – 02/05/2024

Lilit Nahapetian 
                                        Monday, February 5, 2024


Pro-Opposition Doctor Convicted Over 2021 Elections

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia - Doctor and opposition deputy Armen Charchian gestures to supporters 
after an appeals court's decision to allow his arrest, August 23, 2021


A court in Yerevan on Monday gave a suspended prison sentence to a prominent 
Armenian surgeon and former opposition lawmaker convicted of pressuring his 
subordinates to participate in the 2021 parliamentary elections.

Armen Charchian ran for the parliament on the ticket of the main opposition 
Hayastan alliance while heading Yerevan’s Izmirlian Medical Center owned by the 
Armenian Apostolic Church. He was prosecuted after a non-governmental 
organization publicized a leaked audio recording of his pre-election meeting 
with hospital personnel.

Charchian told them that they must vote in the snap elections or risk a 
different “attitude” by the hospital management. He was charged with coercion of 
voters and arrested three days after the vote won by Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s party.

Both Charchian and the opposition bloc led by former President Robert Kocharian 
rejected the accusations as politically motivated. The doctor insisted that he 
only urged hospital employees to cast ballots. He and two other Hayastan figures 
also arrested in the wake of the elections were set free a few months later 
thanks to being elected to the National Assembly.

Charchian’s lawyer, Erik Aleksanian, said he will appeal against the 
three-and-a-half year sentence and insist on his client’s acquittal. Aleksanian 
said that the controversial phrase uttered by Charchian at the 2021 meeting was 
taken out of context and that the doctor made clear at the end of the same 
speech that his subordinates refusing to go to the polls will not face any 
“negative consequences.”

Charchian, 64, again became the executive director the Izmirlian hospital last 
October after resigning from the parliament and thus enabling Kocharian’s 
arrested son Levon to take up the vacant seat and be released from custody.

Kocharian Jr. was charged with assaulting riot police during September 2023 
anti-government protests in Yerevan. He strongly denies the accusations, saying 
that he himself was beaten up by security forces.




Azerbaijan Arrests Czech Citizen ‘On Armenian Border’

        • Artak Khulian

Azerbaijan -- The State Security Service building in Baku.


Authorities in Azerbaijan arrested at the weekend a citizen of the Czech 
Republic who they claimed illegally entered the country from Armenia.

They said the man not identified by them was first caught by Azerbaijani 
soldiers deployed along the border with Armenia. They did not specify the 
section of the border allegedly crossed by the man.

A website close to the Azerbaijani military speculated that the Czech man may 
work for a Western intelligence service and be connected to the European Union’s 
monitoring mission deployed along the Armenian side of the long and heavily 
militarized frontier.

The Czech ambassador to Armenia, Petr Piruncik, categorically denied any such 
connection on Monday.

“I can only confirm that a Czech citizen was detained in Azerbaijan and remains 
in detention,” Piruncik told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Our embassy in Baku is 
trying to get in touch with him.”

The Armenian authorities did not comment on the alleged border crossing as of 
Monday evening.

The reported arrest came three days after Czech parliament speaker Marketa 
Pekarova Adamova’s visit to Yerevan during which she said her EU member country 
will press Baku to resume Western-mediated talks with Yerevan. The Azerbaijani 
Foreign Ministry responded by accusing her of spreading “Armenian lies.”

A French citizen based in Baku was arrested in December amid Azerbaijan’s 
heightened tensions with France denounced by Baku for siding with Armenia in the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. The French Foreign Ministry accused Baku of 
holding the businessman, Martin Ryan, arbitrarily and demanded his immediate 
release.




Armenia ‘Diversifying’ Arms Suppliers


France - French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his Armenian counterpart 
Suren Papikian sign an agreement in Paris, October 23, 2023.


Armenia is moving away from its heavy dependence on Russian weapons and other 
military equipment, according to Defense Minister Suren Papikian.

In a weekend interview with Armenian Public Television, Papikian said the 
Armenian government decided to “diversify” the country’s arms suppliers after 
Moscow failed to defend its South Caucasus ally against Azerbaijani military 
attacks in September 2022.

“We have made serious progress in this direction,” he said. “This process is 
irreversible, in the positive sense of the word. Current processes and contracts 
will significantly change the quality of our army's weapons in the future.”

“In this process, we have also acquired new partners,” Papikian said, singling 
out India and France.

Since September 2022, Armenia has reportedly signed a number of defense 
contracts with India worth at least $400 million. The Armenian military is due 
to receive Indian artillery systems, anti-tank rockets and anti-drone equipment.

In October 2023, Armenia also signed two arms deals with France. One of them 
entitles it to buying three sophisticated radar systems from the French defense 
group Thales. Papikian and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu also signed 
in Paris a “letter of intent” on the future delivery of French short-range 
surface-to-air missiles.

Yerevan had earlier signed with Moscow contracts for the delivery of Russian 
weapons worth $400 million, according to Armenian officials. The latter 
repeatedly complained last year that the Armenian side has still not received 
any of those weapons. Two senior Armenian lawmakers said last month that Russia 
has shipped the first batch of that military hardware.




Armenian Tech Firms Condemn Businessman’s Arrest


Armenia - Ashot Hovanesian inaugurates his Synergy International Systems 
company's branch in Vanadzor, March 11, 2022.


An association of Armenian tech companies has condemned law-enforcement 
authorities for arresting the founder of one of its leading members, saying that 
the criminal case against him is another serious blow to Armenia’s business 
reputation.

The Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE) said over the weekend that 
foreign and local investors have started viewing Armenia as a “risky country” 
following a spate of “unfounded detentions.”

Ashot Hovanesian, the owner of Synergy International Systems, was arrested last 
week along with two current and former employees of his software company as well 
as several Ministry of Economy officials in a corruption investigation conducted 
by two law-enforcement agencies. Criminal charges brought against them stem from 
a procurement tender organized by the ministry and invalidated by an Armenian 
court last summer.

Synergy won the tender despite setting a much higher price for its services than 
another bidder. According to the Investigative Committee, the latter was 
illegally disqualified by the indicted officials, notably former Deputy Economy 
Minister Ani Ispirian.

The officials have been charged with abuse of power, rather than bribery. It is 
not yet clear what exactly Hovanesian and his two subordinates are accused of.

Armenia - The Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises holds an annual 
conference in Yerevan, February 1, 2024.

Synergy, which is registered in the United States but mainly operates from 
Armenia, on Monday strongly denied the accusations and demanded Hovanesian’s, 
senior company executive Lili Mkrian’s and her former colleague Ani Gevorgian’s 
immediate release from custody. It argued, in particular, that Synergy, which 
employs hundreds of software engineers, did not receive any government funds as 
a result of the invalidated tender.

In a weekend statement, the UATE said Hovanesian’s arrest followed an alarming 
pattern of “business representatives and other prominent persons” being taken 
into custody on dubious charges lately.

“The vast majority of those criminal cases are closed for lack of evidence,” it 
said. “Such treatment not only damages the reputation of these persons, the 
companies run by them or the whole sector, built up over the years, but also 
that of the Republic of Armenia, which has begun to be perceived as a risky 
country for making investments and starting a business.”

“Such a short-sighted state attitude towards business representatives will 
ultimately force not only foreign but also local high-tech businesses to either 
stop their activities or to move to another country where all rights, including 
due process, are respected,” warned the business association.

The information technology industry dominated by software developers has long 
been the most dynamic sector of the Armenian economy, having grown at 
double-digit annual rates since the early 2000s. The sector currently employs 
more than 30,000 people, including thousands of mostly young Russians who 
relocated to Armenia following Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen Simonian (center), his brother Karlen and 
sister-in-law Ani Gevorgian.

Significantly, Gevorgian, the arrested former Synergy executive, is married to 
the brother of Alen Simonian, the Armenian parliament speaker and a key 
political ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. This fact has fueled 
speculation about political motives behind the high-profile case. Some 
commentators claim that Pashinian personally sanctioned the young woman’s arrest 
in a bid to boost his falling approval ratings by showing Armenians that he is 
serious about combatting corruption.

There have also been media reports that Simonian is increasingly at odds with 
other senior members of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. The party’s deputy 
chairman, Vahagn Aleksanian, denied this on Friday.

Pashinian pledged to separate business from politics when he swept to power in 
2018. He claims to have significantly improved Armenia’s business environment.



Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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