Author: Mary Lazarian

The actions of the authorities lead to a fatal increase in public anger

Mary Lazarian Leave a comment

The illegal actions of the authorities, the applied disproportionate measures, the lack of red lines are no longer surprising.


One day they will provoke and, according to their wish, they will arrest people, according to the situation, they will isolate political rivals, and they will apply the law with their own interpretation.


Minors, nursing mothers, clergymen have no difference or significance for this regime.


The problem is that the active opposition forces build their approaches based on the anti-political, anti-legal and anti-moral toolset of the government.


Tigran Abrahamyan, secretary of “I have an honor” faction




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Armenpress: US announces blockade of all Iranian ports

Mary Lazarian
Read the article in: ArmenianRussian:

The U.S. military said it will begin a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas on Monday, after the latest talks held amid the two-week ceasefire failed to reach a deal to end the war with Iran.

“U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces will begin implementing a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports on April 13 at 10 a.m. ET, in accordance with the President’s proclamation. The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports. Additional information will be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice prior to the start of the blockade. All mariners are advised to monitor Notice to Mariners broadcasts and contact U.S. naval forces on bridge-to-bridge channel 16 when operating in the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz approaches,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday U.S. forces would also intercept every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran.

“No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” Trump wrote on social media, adding: “Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”

He added that the U.S. Navy will begin destroying mines that the Iranians had dropped in the Strait of Hormuz.

After Trump’s initial remarks on Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards warned that military vessels approaching the strait will be considered a ceasefire breach ‌and dealt with ⁠harshly and decisively, Reuters reported.

Reuters reported citing a U.S. official that Iran rejected Washington’s call for an end to all uranium enrichment, the dismantling of all major enrichment facilities and the transfer of highly enriched uranium.

Iran also refused U.S. demands that Iran cease funding for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, as well as fully open the Strait of Hormuz, the official added.

Iranian media said there was agreement on a number of issues, but the strait and Iran’s nuclear program were the main sticking points during the talks in Islamabad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran had “encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade” when just inches away from an “Islamabad MoU.”

Read the article in: ArmenianRussian:

Published by Armenpress, original at 
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168: CP party’s security concept. normative illusion and strategy

Mary Lazarian

April 13, 2026

The concept of external security of the Republic of Armenia proposed by the ruling party is structured according to a certain logic and has normative integrity. It is anchored on a combination of international legitimacy, economic interconnectedness, predictability, a peace agenda and defense reforms. However, the proposal’s vulnerability is caused by the largely doctrinal nature of this structure.

First of all, the overestimation of the importance of international legitimacy as a source of strength and a deterrent is noticeable. Undoubtedly, from the point of view of international law, the international recognition of the country’s territorial integrity contributes to the strengthening of the country’s subjectivity and its political and diplomatic resistance. But the practice of modern international relations proves that legitimacy itself does not eliminate the anarchic character of the international environment and, therefore, cannot replace either deterrence mechanisms, allied guarantees, or the state’s self-defense potential. In other words, legitimacy is a necessary but not sufficient condition for ensuring external security.

Against this background, the qualification of the army as a “reserve” tool in the published document, which, according to the authors, is required if the diplomatic and political “means” of containment “did not work” is more than worrying. From a normative point of view, such an approach is perhaps justified, as it emphasizes the defensive nature of military potential and, in general, is consistent with the logic of international law. However, in the theory of security and the practice of conflict resolution, the military potential performs not only the function of forced reaction, but also of strategic deterrence. The state’s effective defense capability itself affects the calculations of a potential opponent even at the stage when the political-diplomatic mechanisms have not been exhausted.

Considering the military component as a “reserve” rather than among the main components of Armenia’s security architecture also creates a logical contradiction.

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On the one hand, the pre-election program describes the army as a tool that should act only when diplomatic, legal and political measures have failed.

On the other hand, state policy consistently emphasizes the importance of large-scale military reforms, development of defense infrastructure, modernization of armaments and introduction of a comprehensive security system. Such duality is difficult to consider consistent. if the power component really only has an auxiliary importance, then it is difficult to explain why it is given so much institutional and financial-material attention. On the contrary, if the state practically proceeds from the irreplaceability of the army as a basic factor of survival, then considering it as a “reserve” is a political-normative record and not a reflection of the real hierarchy of priorities in the field of security. Therefore, it can be concluded that fixing the “reserve” role of the army in the security policy program is primarily a political message addressed to the enemy and, in its essence, is a consequence of the pacification strategy adopted by the current government.

One of the shortcomings of the presented program from the point of view of international security and geo-economics is due to the fact that it is almost entirely built on the logic of cooperation, while Armenia’s external environment is clearly competitive. Thus, in the case of the TRIPP project, it is expressed in the fact that the project ignores the conflict of interests of the competing powers and, instead, proceeds from the assumption that the transport and logistics interconnection itself will form an interest in the stability of Armenia among external actors. However, in the conditions of the conflict of interests of foreign powers, such a route is unlikely to automatically act as a stabilizing factor, since it initially contains elements of not only economic interdependence, but also political influence, strategic competition and external pressures.

Also problematic is the ownership structure of the planned Armenian-American joint venture, which already limits Armenia’s ability to influence the formation of the strategic parameters of the project and effectively control the economic and political processes related to it.

The project relies more on the normative expectation of mutual benefit than on the ability to realistically perceive economic interdependence as a mechanism for leveraging influence. Therefore, it is not clear whether the optimism emphasized in the document towards TRIPP and its strategic role is due to external guarantees unknown to the public, or, on the contrary, to an underestimation of obvious risks.

The next problematic circumstance is related to the emphasis on internal discourse, as well as psychological and cultural transformations, as components of external security. In the long term, such an approach is quite justified, because sustainable peace does require changes in public consciousness, educational policy, and more broadly, political culture. However, here it is necessary to distinguish between the reduction of internal conflict and the external change of Azerbaijan’s strategic behavior. however important the first is, the second does not automatically follow from it.

Moreover, such a transformation implies reciprocity, since its stabilizing effect is possible only if similar processes – softening of hostile rhetoric, abandoning the mobilizing image of the enemy, revising educational and symbolic practices – also take place on the other side of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. In the absence of this reciprocity, the unilateral transformation may not contribute to the reduction of tension, but, on the contrary, may create an additional asymmetry in the perception of threats and political readiness for resistance. Therefore, the effectiveness of this component depends not only on the changes taking place inside Armenia, but also on the extent to which it is combined with tougher deterrence institutions, crisis management tools, and a realistic assessment of the fact that there are no signs of adequate socio-psychological and cultural transformation in Azerbaijan today.

The next problem concerns the correlation between the program’s ideology and rationality, where the peace agenda, predictability, and de-escalation are given an axiomatic status rather than an important one. Meanwhile, in the logic of international security analysis, the state’s behavior is considered rational to the extent that it contributes to the maximum security of the country. Hence, an important warning. considering the normative position not as a means of ensuring security, but as an end in itself, the ideological component inevitably weakens the rationality of strategic behavior. In that case, the state can overestimate the stabilizing effect of its own moderation, underestimating the situations when external actors interpret that moderation not as constructiveness, but as a lack of will to resist. Therefore, the key question is not whether the peace agenda itself is desirable or not, but whether it maintains its instrumental nature, that is, whether it is subjected to the problems of maximum security, or whether it gradually acquires the characteristics of a self-sufficient political doctrine.

Summing up, let’s note that although the presented concept should be considered as a normative framework, its practical viability depends on the extent to which such an ideological structure can be turned into a policy of maximum provision of real security. The vulnerability of the ruling party’s program is, first of all, due to the deep gap between the normative integrity of the model and the reality characterized by power competition, conflict of interests, geo-economic dependencies and strategic uncertainties in the external environment.

The external and security provisions of the 2021 pre-election program of the “Civil Agreement” party were also based on such dreamlike hopes, which brought irreversible human, moral, material and territorial losses. Now the CP, sticking to the same mentality, makes an early claim in the pre-election program that “peace has been established between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and thus, the era of peaceful development has opened for Armenia”, while this is not a peace based on reconciliation, but a “peace” imposed through coercion.

Armen Martirosyan

Deputy of the RA Supreme Council (1990-95)

Deputy of the RA National Assembly (1995-99)

RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary




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Iran will not tolerate an increased Israeli presence, nor American efforts

Mary Lazarian

April 9, 2026

168.amis the interlocutor of Iranian political analyst Ehsan Mohavedian.

– The last few hours were quite dramatic in international relations. Against the backdrop of Trump’s threats, Pakistan started mediation efforts between Iran and the US, as a result of which the parties declared a ceasefire for two weeks. Iran announced that it was opening the Strait of Hormuz, and the United States announced that it was considering the ten points offered by Iran as a basis for negotiations. Both sides present what happened as a victory. Such sharp turns in international relations are not a manifestation of good will, but the result of either the balance of power or mutual fear. In the end, which side fell: Washington, due to the economic consequences of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a major regional war, or Tehran, due to the possible unpredictable and harsh blows of the Trump administration?

– Without a doubt, it is the United States that fears Iran. Trump has acknowledged the fact that Iran has emerged as the world’s fourth superpower. Trump proposed a 15-point program to Iran. Iran rejected it and instead presented its own 10-point plan, and he accepted it. Because he was afraid of the damage caused by the war in America, the increase in gasoline prices, the hundreds of American casualties, the failure of the plot to invade Iran and the inability to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He’s a professional idiot because he’s now trying to solve a crisis that didn’t even exist before the war: the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, rising oil prices, and global shortages of helium, fertilizers, petrochemicals, and steel.

All the experts and analysts in the American and Israeli media admit the victory of Iran and the defeat of Israel and the United States. The list of these wins and losses is as follows.

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America’s defeats in the war against Iran.

  • A waste of more than $40 billion of American taxpayer dollars.
  • Hundreds of Americans killed and wounded,
  • Doubling of oil prices,
  • Destruction of American bases in the region,
  • The petrodollar is dead.
  • Europe has fallen out of line with global trends and has become hostile to America.
  • NATO has weakened
  • Israel and the US are at loggerheads and mistrust, and Zionists feel humiliated and isolated.

Iran’s victories.

  • Iran’s 400 kg of uranium has been preserved.
  • Sanctions will be lifted.
  • Iran will collect tribute from the Strait of Hormuz and has new financing for reconstruction.
  • Iran’s allies have been preserved and strengthened.
  • The Islamic Republic has been strengthened by new, resilient and rational leaders.
  • The Arab allies of the US and Israel have suffered serious losses.
  • Iran’s missile program will be maintained and strengthened.
  • Trump, who talked about the destruction of Iranian civilization, has been humiliated, discredited and broken, repeatedly changing his positions and accepting the 10-point demands.

In short, Iran has become the world’s fourth rising power. This is the “Art of the Deal” of the incompetent and ignorant Trump.

– What actually happened, what did Washington and Tehran agree on, and to what extent will this ceasefire turn into lasting stability?

– The 10 demands accepted by Iran are:

  • A complete cessation of all aggression against Iran and allied resistance groups, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon.
  • Withdrawal of US combat forces from the region, prohibition of any attack against Iran from military bases.
  • For a period of two weeks, a limited daily passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz is established, according to the protocol of safe movement, which is subject to special monitoring and regulation carried out by Iran.
  • The lifting of all primary, secondary and UN sanctions, as well as the release of Iranian assets and property.
  • Compensation for the damages suffered by Iran through the creation of an investment and financial fund.
  • Iran’s commitment not to build nuclear weapons.
  • Acceptance of Iran’s right to enrichment by the US and negotiations on the level of enrichment.
  • Iran’s agreement to negotiate bilateral and multilateral peace agreements with regional countries in accordance with its own interests.
  • Extending the principle of non-aggression to all aggressors against all resistance groups.
  • Termination of all resolutions of the Council of Governors and Security Council, and confirmation of all commitments by an official UN resolution.

Considering the advantage it has in the region, Iran will not back down from its terms. It is the United States that is facing problems and constraints with the World Cup, congressional elections, rising gasoline prices, the threat of impeachment against Trump, and the failure to achieve all of his goals against Iran. In this war, Iran used only 30% of the power of its “missile cities”, and the Iranian people supported the Islamic Republic throughout the war, with millions of street demonstrations. The United States and Israel will pay a high price if they violate the ceasefire. But if they respect it, Iran will also respect it. The choice is theirs.

– As you mentioned, the United States accepted the 10 points presented by Iran. In recent weeks, the media have been constantly reporting on Iranian preconditions and proposals. Do you think these last 10 points are revised versions of previous proposals and what are the “red lines” of Iran that are included in these proposals?

– In the presented 10-point program, all “red lines” of Iran were respected. The United States and Israel wanted to destroy Iran or at least change the regime so that Iran’s behavior would change. However, not only those goals did not come true, but Iran stands firm and strong today. A significant part of Iran’s missile and drone potential remains unused. The Iranian people, unlike the depressed and defeated peoples of the USA and Israel, are ready to continue the struggle.

Iran’s enriched uranium is still inside the country. Arab countries and Israel were hit hard and weakened. The forces of resistance have strengthened. The petrodollar has weakened and the United States has no choice but to withdraw from the Middle East and accept Iranian hegemony.

– According to you, there is no concession on the part of Tehran in this process?

– Iran has not made any concessions to the United States. On the contrary, the United States accepted everything that Iran demanded. The United States sought to destroy Iran’s nuclear, missile, and drone capabilities, force Iran into complete capitulation, annihilate Iranian civilization, destroy Iran’s entire infrastructure, and bring about regime change in Iran and its allies. However, none of them happened, and Trump was embarrassed and humiliated. China and Russia will undoubtedly take advantage of this situation in the future. Iran has dealt a heavy blow to the United States and Israel, and America’s decline has accelerated.

– How was the position of the South Caucasus considered in Iran during this war, is it about Azerbaijan or, in particular, Armenia? In your opinion, will the war, the policy of the RA authorities during the war affect the Armenian-Iranian agenda in any way?

– During this war, Baku supported Israel, and many Israeli and American drones entered Iran from the territory of Azerbaijan. Of course, Aliyev expressed sympathy for Iran on the surface, but in practice he hoped for Israel’s success. After Iran’s power and resilience became apparent, Aliyev and the pro-government media changed their hostile tone toward Iran, and Azerbaijani public opinion also began to support Iran. This made it very difficult for Aliyev to carry out malicious actions against Iran. At the same time, everyone in Iran is aware of Aliyev’s true intentions and the Azeri population of Iran about his interest in splitting the regions. The attack on Iran’s military facilities in Bandar Anzali and the attack on Parsabad on the Iran-Azerbaijani border are other questionable incidents that Baku needs to explain.

The good and dear people of Armenia, as well as some political parties of that country, showed great and strong support to Iran, and we in Iran will never forget that support. Although the Armenian government did not condemn the American crimes and only expressed regret, it did provide some assistance to Iran and, fortunately, bilateral trade was not seriously damaged.

However, there was an expectation in Iran that the Armenian government would come out with a clearer position and condemn the brutal aggression of the United States and Israel. If Armenia seeks stable relations with Iran, it must understand that after the last war, Iran will not tolerate the increase of Israeli presence in neighboring countries, nor the American efforts to create the “Trump Route” and the fake “Zangezur Corridor”. “Trump’s route” does not bring any economic benefit to Armenia. it will only surround the country with enemy states and endanger the Iran-Armenia border. Iran is committed to maintaining these borders and countering any attempts to weaken its geopolitical and corridor position, and expects the Armenian government to understand this important issue and strengthen bilateral relations, as in the past, by investing in joint corridor and economic projects.

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Telling Armenian Stories That Will Leave You Hungry For More: Nadine Takvorian

Mary Lazarian
The Comics Journal
April 8 2026

Gina Gagliano | April 8, 2026

“For a people forced to spread out among so many other cultures, it makes sense this would be the result . . . maintaining our Hye (Armenian) identity while taking in new ideas. That’s how I’d make something special.”

The Comics Journal presents an interview with Armenian-American comics creators Robert Mgrdich Apelian and Nadine Takvorian, both of whom have new graphic novels on sale this spring that reflect upon and explore their culture. 

Robert Mgrdich Apelian’s graphic novel Fustuk is a magical realistic story about food and family. An Armenian American author-illustrator based in Everett, Massachusetts, a primary goal of his work is to celebrate the diversity and cultural excellence of the Middle East and to portray it as something other than tragic and war-torn.

Nadine Takvorian’s graphic novel Armaveni: A Graphic Novel of the Armenian Genocide is an autobiographically-based work exploring her family history. She is a first-generation Armenian-American; from within the Armenian diaspora, Nadine’s family is “Bolsahye”―from Istanbul, Turkey. She is passionate about exploring Armenian identity and history, and battling cultural erasure.

Nadine Takvorian says, “Growing up I was always searching for books and comics that reflected my experience as an Armenian. I wanted to see and celebrate my culture in the pages I read and immersed myself in, but there just wasn’t much to be found. That’s why I’m thrilled that graphic novels by Robert Apelian and myself are out this spring. We are adding our voices to the small and growing collection of Armenian representation in literature. We both celebrate our culture in different ways within our books. I hope it inspires others to dive in, experiment, and share their stories with all of us.”

– Gina Gagliano

interior spread from Armaveni: A Graphic Novel of the Armenian Genocide (Levine Querido, 2026) by Nadine Takvorian

NADINE TAKVORIAN: Congratulations on your huge achievement, Robert! I’m in awe of you because of all the detail you managed to put in your book. You must have been drawing 24/7, that’s incredible.

ROBERT APELIAN: Thanks, I like detail like that. I was going ask you this too. I think I got the book deal in 2021, so it was five years of work. It’s a long time for something that people are going to read in an hour. When did you get your book deal?

NT: I think it was 2022. I joke that it took me a year and a half to complete just the art, but you’ll read it in like an hour. And I’m sure the art-making time was similar in your case, maybe even longer, because of all the detail and intricate patterns. 

RA: That was one thing I noticed. There were so many similarities and stylistic decisions that we both made, which I thought was extremely cool.

interior from Fustuk: A Graphic Novel (Penguin Workshop, 2026) by Robert Mgrdich Apelian

NA: That goes into one of the questions I wanted to ask you, stylistically, about your design work. Every one of your pages is so full of rich decoration and design. I was really excited to see these designs and recognize where they’re from. Like designs from Armenian illuminated manuscripts, designs in khatchkars (carved stone-crosses), mosaic inlays from backgammon boards, not to mention all the rug design and the clothing designs! I wonder if you had any strategies on how to keep your pace going and not get lost in a page?

interior from Fustuk: A Graphic Novel (Penguin Workshop, 2026) by Robert Mgrdich Apelian

RA: For panel borders for each of the flashbacks, they have a visual language—like you mentioned, the khatchkars and the penultimate chapter, the tavli (backgammon) board in chapter six. That’s based on my own board that I love very much. Because I’m reusing it for the whole chapter that was a little easy. I could make it once and then keep it throughout the chapter. Although it was a real pain when I realized that I messed up all of the gutters and I had to resize everything a little bit—that was a nightmare. But I had set a pretty concrete sense, “these are the things that are going to be patterned, and these are the things that I’m going to devote the time into doing.” Like the rugs. 

There were certain things I wanted to draw fully by hand. I don’t generally like copy/pasting the final art. I want everything to be by hand, pen stroke, original on the final result. So that’s the stuff that took longer. But some things I cheated, like the panel borders. I allowed that for myself because those are sort of meta. They’re outside of the real world. Also some of the clothing patterns that were more of a texture that I could just apply onto certain things so that I didn’t have to draw every time. I tried to pick and choose my battles to make sure that it was an achievable scope. The things that are going to have the biggest impact, the things I’m going to make sure are original and drawn by hand.

NT: That attention really shines through in every page, it’s so luscious. That same attention to detail is also with the food which is a prominent part of your story. From your first double-page spread, there was this kitchen with just all these dishes, and I was like, “I am there with all this food,” I felt like I could just pick one and taste it. I could feel the textures, like a dolma that has this moist texture to it. Or like the kadaif which is nice and crispy, and it’s soaking in syrup. I could feel it. I can see it in your detail, you put all of that in there. You can feel the love for the cuisine in your work. I just wanted to talk about that because it was just so striking, the textures. 

RA: I think that’s something monochrome is good at. We both chose to do our books in the monochromatic palette, and that’s something I really like about that “ink” style. I think it can really show texture. 

Before we move on from the ornament stuff I also have a question for you. We both chose the same thing of having our flashbacks denoted by ornamental sort of borders. Was there a particular thing that led you to that conclusion, like a parallel evolution of the same concept?

NT: I didn’t have that right away. As I worked on the book with my editor and my art director, we decided we needed some kind of visual cue. That took some figuring out. It took some experimentation to figure out what that would look like. I looked at illuminated manuscripts because there’s so much ornamentation in there, and I knew I could maybe use some of that as an influence. 

I noticed in your book, in some pages you had a very distinctive banner style that I’ve seen in illuminated manuscripts. I actually tried that banner style, and it didn’t work for me. But we picked and chose what seemed to work, and we landed on what it looks like now. I like that we’re both showcasing our Armenian artistic history in our books, which I think we both really wanted to do.

RA: Yes, absolutely. For me, there were a lot of little choices involved like recontextualizing things I liked, especially from manga. Manga often denotes flashbacks with things like the black gutters, and I mixed that with designs that pay homage to our cultural background. 

NT: So let’s go on a slight detour because you mentioned manga. It was so fun to see how you took this manga influence and made it your own. Could you mention some of the manga influences that inspired you?

Armaveni: A Graphic Novel of the Armenian Genocide (Levine Querido, 2026) by Nadine Takvorian

RA: I do read just a lot of manga. Everything inspires me, what’s on my bookshelf here in terms of my background in comics. One Piece is the one that I’ve always read from. I’ve been reading that for twenty years now. I think my sense of space and using two-page spreads—my favorite thing about all of comics—totally comes from One Piece. Witch Hat Atelier is another favorite. Witch Hat Atelier is, I think, the prettiest comic ever. I love the art style of it so much; it has a lot of very textured patterns in it. It even has expressionistic paneling where it’ll use ornamentation. 

So those are the two biggest influences on me lately. One I grew up with, and one that’s very recent, but they are my biggest inspirations. How about yourself?

NT: I actually don’t have a huge manga influence, only because when I was growing up it wasn’t a big thing here yet. I haven’t read the titles that you mentioned, but I’m familiar with the manga style. 

My dad bought me comic books when I was a kid. He actually bought me a book on Doctor Strange, believe it or not. But also The Smurfs, Mickey Mouse, and Donald Duck. Then there were Sunday comics like Garfield, and Calvin and Hobbes. Later, a huge influence for me was ElfQuest, which is very fantasy, and the artist, Wendy Pini, is a woman. I thought, “Here’s a woman drawing comics and she’s amazing.” 

As I got older I discovered Dave McKean, and his work was a huge influence for me. And then I discovered documentary-style and nonfiction comics. There’s one called The Cartoon History of the Universe which was one of my favorites. Books like Persepolis, Maus, the March Trilogy, and Joe Sacco’s Palestine—these documentary and memoir-style comics were super eye-opening for me, to see how powerful they were as a format in telling these kinds of stories. It’s something I really glommed on to. 

RA: I definitely got that. I feel like the color palette and the brushstroke quality in your book has an intimate quality, like Tillie Walden. It feels very emotional. And then you have the sort of rigorous autobiographical or historical quality of something like Maus or Joe Sacco. A lot of those influences are coming together.

NT: You mentioned Tillie Walden, and I can also mention Jillian Tamaki as a huge influence. This One Summer is probably one of my all-time favorite comics. It’s so quiet and intimate and that deeply resonated with me. I just wanted to capture the feeling of that. 

Going back to food! I loved the way you set apart your chapters and how you decided on a specific food to highlight each chapter. Could you talk about your thought process there?

RA: I don’t know when I decided on titling each chapter a food—especially because that particular food is not always the central part of the chapter. Sometimes it is, but at some point it just felt natural. I definitely wanted to do a full page spread for each chapter title, and that was a good way to highlight and draw a big closeup of food. 

Food is such an important part of the plot that it was easy to pick something for each chapter. A huge part of wanting to write this book was to showcase all of the food that I loved so much—like kufta and kunefe. These are all the things that were so important to me as a kid that I had never seen in media in any capacity. I picked a lot of the foods based on what I loved as a kid. But some of it was Persian food, which is actually not my background. But I chose it because it has such a distinct identity. My actual heritage is Arabic-Armenian, Lebanese-Armenian, Syrian-Armenian. For me to contrast Armenian food with Arabic and Lebanese food, it’s impossible. They’re like same thing. So I wanted to pick something that had its own identity. And also, Armenian-Persian history was easier to pull from in that time period with slightly less conflict.

Fustuk: A Graphic Novel (Penguin Workshop, 2026) by Robert Mgrdich Apelian

NT: I think you did a really masterful job of navigating that and creating this brand new world. I remember the map you drew.

RA: The book started off being set in more of a fantastical world. As I went on and wanted to represent the cultures accurately, it became closer and closer to the real world. I decided to base it on a more ancient understanding of the world, using more ancient maps. So it’s the real Middle East, you can see the map and you can tell. 

NT: I love that. Going into our culture and language, one of the most distinctive parts of your book is using actual Armenian lettering and words for your sound effects. I love that so much! It took me a little bit longer to read your book, because I can only read and write Armenian at a first grade level.

RA: I’m similar. I know the alphabet better than I can speak. I had an editor, a friend of mine who’s way more fluent and is a linguist studying Armenian, and he proofread a lot of this. 

NT: I know a lot of people are not going to understand the sound effects, but I think it’s a great Easter egg for Armenians.

RA: I wanted to make it for two different experiences: one for Armenians who can read the sound effects and more natively understand it, but also intentionally for people who can’t read it. So you just get the effect of the sound effect, as opposed to bothering to parse it in English. Because that was how I read manga growing up. I couldn’t read Japanese, right? I could feel what this stylistic choice in a manga meant, but I couldn’t understand it.

NT: I assumed that was the reasoning behind putting the Armenian sound effects in there, and I love that. It’s also a design element in and of itself that gets incorporated, on top of all the other design elements in there. It’s amazing.

RA: That segues into a question I had for you. You also chose to represent Armenian language in a couple different ways; who is speaking what language and how changes a couple times. There are times where you have the brackets to indicate that this person is speaking in Armenian. Sometimes you present the dialogue with the written alphabet. What were some of the meanings and decisions behind that?

interior from Fustuk: A Graphic Novel (Penguin Workshop, 2026) by Robert Mgrdich Apelian

NT: That’s a good question. I knew Armenians would be reading this book. But I also meant for it to go beyond our Armenian community, for other people to read and understand. I didn’t want it to be too confusing. So I thought for most of it I would just keep it in English and indicate a different language is being spoken. There are a few panels where there is Armenian spoken, and I transcribed it into English so the reader gets a feel for the sound of it. I think I only included one panel with the actual letters in dialogue, and that panel takes place in a more historical context. I wanted to really strike home that this language is different here with a different alphabet. And that one panel is actually the first few lines of a traditional poem, so it’s also an Easter egg for Armenian readers.

RA: That’s something I was going to talk about as well—making the book with two audiences in mind. This is, for me, a difficult thing with talking about heavy subjects like the genocide where Armenians are invested and we can relate. We have our own genocide stories and we want to see them. 

interior spread from Armaveni: A Graphic Novel of the Armenian Genocide (Levine Querido, 2026) by Nadine Takvorian

How much did you feel you had to cater to non-Armenians, to bring them in and make them care about it as much as we do? Or did you just tell the story in the right way just for you? People should hopefully care. How much of that was part of the calculus you had to do?

NT: The main calculus behind that was making it so it wasn’t just a story that took place in the past. I wanted to bridge it to contemporary times, because I had never come across that before in other books that I’d read. They were always stories that were stuck in the past. And the thing is, the Armenian genocide is not stuck in the past. We’ve heard the genocide story a million times, but I wanted to bridge it to a contemporary time where readers would have more of an understanding to relate to and connect to it a little bit more. That was my thought process behind how to get people invested in the story.

RA: I think that was really effective. Including a little bit of a high school drama, showing the Armenian club group on the trip, the relationship with your friend Ani—that was so good. I really think that people from other backgrounds can certainly identify with those kinds of conversations that happen in lots of diasporan communities. 

NT: This will segue into another big question which is a conflict with stories around trauma—if as an author you want to create a story about trauma, or if you don’t want to. I think it was really awesome and trailblazing of you to just reject it and say, “I’m not going to go there.” 

And we don’t have to. I really love that you took Armenian culture and created something fresh and new and fun while celebrating the culture at the same time. I wondered if you could talk about some of your thought process around making that decision. 

RA: I think it’s good for both things to exist, right? And I think that’s how you get to honoring the important stories, as well as just celebrating the simple joys. I think that overwhelmingly, stories of the Middle East are full of trauma and suffering. But joyful stories are the ones I wanted as a kid. Maybe it was short sighted to want to read things that were fun and adventurous, but I also wanted to create that to some extent. I wanted to celebrate Armenian joy. 

I first saw it talked about with Black American communities where there’s a lot of stories about slavery and trauma, but what about the joys of Black American culture? Let’s talk about that stuff and show people what there is. I think that hasn’t happened yet for Armenians, so that was what I wanted to do. Hopefully that will raise up the experience of all these stories for everyone.

NT: Yeah, I think it will be really inspiring for kids in the Armenian community to read this story and see we’re not defined by this one part of our history. Because our history goes back way longer than that, and it’s so rich. I really love that you took it there. 

I have to say I was also really conflicted about going in and telling this story for the same reasons. I thought, “There are so many genocide stories, am I just going to be another one who’s going to talk about the same thing?” But similar to you, I thought of the story that I wanted to see when I was a kid. And this was one that I did want to see.

interior spread from Armaveni: A Graphic Novel of the Armenian Genocide (Levine Querido, 2026) by Nadine Takvorian

RA: I agree that I don’t think I’ve seen an Armenian story that has the presentation your new graphic novel does where it’s about a girl going on a journey to get the stories. There’s a meta layer above just the stories themselves. Your experience was exactly how I experienced it, too—talking to grandparents and that kind of thing. So I think it is unique, and I do think it’s special. 

NT: And also, I wanted to do something in the comics format. I love comics so much and you love comics so much, and we both want to give it a shot and see if we can tell a story that will resonate with people. So I think a central inspiration is also the love of the medium. 

RA: One quote that I wanted to call out is, “being Armenian isn’t some checklist where you tick boxes off. We all want the same thing. To thrive. To be.” 

I think both of our books at the core are about people figuring out what it means for them to be Armenian. And I think as children of survivors, that’s all we want. All our family wants for us, really, is to succeed and to just do what we want to do and live freely. Was there a point where you felt like, “okay, this is what I’m doing. This is how I’m going to be Armenian. This is how I’m going to make a difference for you.” I assume making this book was part of it.

spot illustration from Armaveni: A Graphic Novel of the Armenian Genocide (Levine Querido, 2026) by Nadine Takvorian

NT: Making this book was definitely part of it, for sure.

RA: That was another thing—throughout the book you have Nadine drawing as she goes through all these things in her life, processing the events. And it was fun to read that and be like, “Oh, I’m reading this book.” This is clearly the ultimate version of you doing that, right?

NT: Yeah, that was a fun little meta thing to put in there. Being “Armenian enough” is something I think a lot of us have struggled with here in the U.S. I read another book by an indigenous author where they talk about it as “cultural anxiety,” and I thought that was such an interesting term I hadn’t come across before. 

I speak Western Armenian but I never went to school regularly for it. When it comes to language, I feel like, “I don’t speak as well as I should,” or “I don’t read or write as well as I should.” There’s so much pressure to keep our language alive and there’s a lot of anxiety there.

RA: Yeah, that’s the core. I never learned to speak Armenian growing up. I’ve started taking lessons as an adult, because I realized this is where it ends, right? If I don’t keep it up, then my kids won’t learn naturally. So I am trying to shore that up now. I wish I had cared more when I was young. Language is a really tough thing—it’s a lot of work to learn and keep up, and you have to start at an early age, to some extent. 

NT: Are there other places you felt some of that cultural anxiety?

RA: My family was pretty assimilated, so my Armenian community was just my family. When I went to college, that’s where I found an Armenian club and started meeting way more Armenians. In Boston suburb Watertown, around where I’m based, there’s a big Armenian community. Then I realized how much I had missed out on and how different other people’s experience or relationships with the culture was. 

I felt like, “Okay, I can’t make up for lost time.” But what can I do now to make sure that I’m cementing that identity and passing it on and doing something important in the community? So same as you, my answer was this book. Let me take the things that I’ve absorbed and present something that I hope will mean something to someone.

NT: I think you were beyond successful with this book. You say that you didn’t really grow up with Armenian culture so much, but I could never tell from reading your book. It just shines with our culture and the language. 

interior spread from Armaveni: A Graphic Novel of the Armenian Genocide (Levine Querido, 2026) by Nadine Takvorian

Let’s go to something fun. If you were to throw a dinner party for your friends, what would be on your menu?

RA: I do that a lot. If it’s summer, I’m making a bunch of kebab and khorovats (barbecue). I love mutabal (grilled eggplant). Sarma and dolma is my other classic go-to, with some madzoon (yogurt) to dip it into. That’s more winter-time. 

I learned some dishes while doing this book. The pivotal dish in the book that they finally end up using is one that I didn’t know before working on this book. But now I’ve cooked it a lot and it’s really flashy and cool. Other Persian dishes like tahdig are great, as well. I practiced cooking a lot while doing this book—dishes that are really fun to cook and to eat, and that I think taste fantastic.

NT: That’s a great revelation that you practiced your dishes for the book! I didn’t think to ask that, but I’m glad you mentioned it. There are a few places where you included a recipe card, and you made a panel out of it. It was so cool to come across that. 

RA: How about you? I don’t know a lot of classically Bolsahye (Istanbul Armenian) recipes. Are there ones that stand out?

NT: Getting into food, some people will argue with you about food ownership, how a dish is from a certain region. We all grew up eating this cuisine that we love, and that’s shared throughout a large region. 

I just got together with my family last week, and we made mantı together. That’s one of our favorite winter dishes. For springtime, we’ll start making midia dolma, which is stuffed mussels. And that’s a very Bolsahye—Istanbul Armenian—thing. Then the last one I’ll say, is su borek, which is basically like an Armenian lasagna. It has layers of dough and gooey, melty cheese and butter and just like the best thing you’ve ever eaten.

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Yerevan mayor moves to revoke licenses of littering urban developers

Mary Lazarian
Yerevan12:33, 6 April 2026
Read the article in: Armenian:

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan told City Hall staff on Monday to develop a method for revoking construction licenses for developers who litter.

Avinyan made the suggestion after a report revealed a large quantity of construction garbage in the area of the Luyser Residential Complex in Yerevan’s Malatia-Sebastia district.

A City Hall staffer informed the mayor that 60 cargo trucks have been removing the garbage from the site over the past three days, but much still remains. The volume of waste was so great that nearby construction companies offered their assistance to City Hall.

However, Ruben Khojoyan, Deputy Director of the Department of Urban Development and Land Supervision, told the mayor at Monday’s executive meeting that the construction waste was not left by the nearby developers, and that other “entities” were responsible.

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan stated that it is first necessary to identify the “careless” developers and hold them accountable. “Once identified, we need to find a way to completely revoke their building permits—let them go bankrupt. If they are so careless that they dump construction waste wherever they please, their permits must be canceled. I ask that legal methods be studied—I am confident such methods exist. If we decisively cut off a few of them, I am certain this problem will disappear,” Avinyan said.

Khojoyan also reported that one of the developers near the Luyser neighborhood offered to install cameras so that, in case of recurrence, the responsible parties can be identified.

“Mr. Khojoyan, I am instructing you to identify the specific developers who are dumping construction waste in unauthorized locations. Present their names to me, and we will decide how to handle them,” Tigran Avinyan concluded.

Published by Armenpress, original at 
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Pashinyan chairs meeting on 8th European Political Community Summit preparatio

Mary Lazarian
Politics17:10, 6 April 2026
Read the article in: العربيةFrançaisHayerenРусский中文

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired a meeting with officials to discuss organizational matters related to the upcoming 8th European Political Community Summit in Yerevan.

“Nikol Pashinyan stated that the European Political Community summit, to be held in Yerevan on May 4, is a large-scale event with significant political importance for Armenia’s international standing,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout.

The Prime Minister “emphasized that tremendous work has been carried out to ensure the summit is organized and conducted at a proper level, and that today’s meeting is aimed at reviewing the work already completed and discussing the tasks ahead.”

Arayik Harutyunyan, Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister’s Office and Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the 8th European Political Community Summit, noted that the preparatory work is approaching its final stage. He said the purpose of the meeting is to present the work already completed and to hear the Prime Minister’s observations and suggestions in order to summarize the efforts.

Following this, details were provided regarding the development of the event’s concept and conceptual planning. Attention was also given to other substantive and organizational issues, including infrastructure and technical readiness, logistical accessibility, and more. A discussion took place on these matters.

The Prime Minister once again emphasized the importance of organizing and conducting the summit at a high level, providing specific instructions on further tasks in various areas. Nikol Pashinyan also requested a briefing on the process.

Published by Armenpress, original at 
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Action in front of the Ministry of Defense. Parents demand that their sons serve another 1.5 years

Mary Lazarian

A large number of parents of servicemen undergoing mandatory military service gathered today, April 3, near the building of the RA Ministry of Defense. They demand that the provision of 1.5 years of military service should be extended to their sons serving in the army.


It should be reminded that with the adopted legislative amendments, the mandatory military service period has been reduced from 24 months to 18 months, starting from the winter draft of 2025, but these changes do not apply to servicemen who are already in service.

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NATO Secretary-General to visit Washington next week

Mary Lazarian
Read the article in: FrançaisՀայերենRussian

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will visit Washington next ‌week for what a spokesperson for the military alliance called a “long-planned visit” that comes after U.S. President Donald Trump blasted European allies over differences on the Iran war, Reuters reported.

“I can confirm that the Secretary General will be in ⁠DC next week for a long-planned visit,” Reuters quoted NATO spokesperson Allison Hart as saying. A White House official also confirmed the visit, according to Reuters.

Trump said he was considering pulling the U.S. out of the Western military alliance due to the refusal of European members to send ships to unblock the Strait of ‌Hormuz.

In ⁠remarks on Wednesday to allies gathered for an Easter lunch at the White House, Trump criticized France and the United Kingdom, among other U.S. allies, as a “paper tiger.”

“We’ve had some very bad allies in ⁠NATO,” Reuters quoted Trump as saying. “Hopefully, we’re never going to need them. I don’t think we will need them.”

Published by Armenpress, original at 
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Putin warns Armenia it can’t be both a member of EU and Russia-led economic b

Mary Lazarian
Associated Press
Apr 1 2026

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned Armenia, which aspires to join the European Union, that it won’t be able to be part of both the EU and a Moscow-led economic alliance.

Armenia, which signed a U.S.-brokered agreement last year ending decades of hostilities with Azerbaijan, has increasingly sought to forge closer ties with the U.S. and the EU. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has declared an intention to join the EU and his government has suspended the country’s participation in a Moscow-dominated security pact, the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Speaking at the start of talks with Pashinyan in Moscow, Putin said Russia is “absolutely calm” about Armenia’s efforts to forge closer ties with the EU, but he noted that for Armenia ”it’s impossible to be in a customs union with the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union.”

The Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, created in 2015 and also including Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, is a single market allowing the free movement of goods, capitals and labor.

Putin’s statement appeared to send a warning signal as prospects for Armenia’s EU membership look distant and no prospective tariff-free deal between Armenia and the EU has been discussed yet.

The Russian leader noted that the two blocs have widely different market regulations regarding various groups of goods and that reaching common ground is unlikely any time soon. He said that it’s up to Armenia to set its course, but he emphasized that the country is currently getting Russian natural gas at a much lower price compared to the European prices.

Pashinyan, in turn, said that he realizes that Armenia can’t simultaneously be a member of both blocs, but for now it can combine its membership in the Eurasian Economic Union with developing cooperation with the EU. “Ties with Russia are very deep and important for us,” he added.

Armenia’s relations with its longtime sponsor and ally Russia have grown increasingly strained after Azerbaijan fully reclaimed the Karabakh region in 2023, ending decades of ethnic Armenian separatists’ rule there.

Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, busy with the conflict in Ukraine, has rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

Putin argued Wednesday that Pashinyan’s decision in 2022 to recognize that Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan made it impossible for Moscow to intervene. He noted that a U.S.-mediated peace deal signed last year between Armenia and Azerbaijan and a prospective transport corridor promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump opened up new prospects for regional cooperatiion.

Putin also voiced hope that pro-Russia forces will be allowed to freely compete in Armenia’s parliamentary elections set for June, noting that some of their representatives have been put in custody – an apparent reference to Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, a critic of Pashinyan who was arrested last year after calling for the ouster of the government.

Pashinyan, who has been in office since 2018, responded thatArmenian law bans holders of Russian passports from taking part in elections.



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