Category: News

A motion has been submitted to the court to remand nine people in custody, including businessman and Tashir Group founder Samvel Karapetyan.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee announced this.

Karapetyan’s arrest had been reported earlier. Criminal prosecutions have been initiated against him and 35 others in a case involving particularly large-scale financial damage to Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), embezzlement of entrusted property and money laundering.

According to the Investigative Committee, the total damage caused to the company exceeds AMD 64.585 billion.

A fake Telegram account has been opened in the name of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The prime minister’s press secretary, Melanya Harutyunyan, announced this on her Facebook page.

“Dear citizens and media representatives, we would like to inform you that a fake Telegram account has been opened in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s name.

“Messages may be sent from this account requesting various information or asking recipients to take action.

“Please remain particularly vigilant: do not respond to such messages; do not provide any personal or work-related information, including passwords, codes or bank details; and do not make transfers or take any other action in response to such requests. If necessary, block the account and report it as fraudulent or spam,” Harutyunyan wrote.

Since the launch of the new biometric data collection system, HayPass had received 7,700 applications as of 3 November, with 2,700 applicants having already submitted their biometric data.

HayPass Director General Regis Bouchier announced the figures during a press conference at Armenia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs on the launch of the new system.

Nelli Davtyan, head of the ministry’s Migration and Citizenship Service, said queues at service centres were short and, as of 3 November, citizens who booked in advance had been able to receive services the following day.

“Yesterday, we also made a brief tour of the regional offices. There were no queues, and services were running smoothly. However, this does not mean that the volume of services provided is low. It means that we can handle a much greater number of people,” Davtyan said.

She said that accepting an application for a minor’s documents had previously taken 25 minutes, whereas registration under the new system took three to five minutes.

“None of the 2,700 citizens already served spent more than five minutes being attended to,” she said, adding that the advance booking platform was operating normally, as demonstrated by the thousands of bookings.

Davtyan did not rule out brief technical problems, which she said were quickly resolved.

“A change on this scale inevitably creates new situations. Moving a paper-based process entirely into a digital environment is full of challenges. This is a good opportunity for us to digitise all our processes as well,” she said. She added that work was under way to ensure that the State Population Register held complete and accurate information on everyone required to submit biometric data.

Biometric data collection began on 1 November, when HayPass service offices opened in two shopping centres in Yerevan: Yerevan Mall and Mega Mall. The company’s 12 regional offices opened the following day.

Patrol officers’ preliminary assessment suggests that a possible braking problem in one of the vehicles may have caused the fatal crash on the bends near Ushi. However, the causes have yet to be established through the criminal proceedings.

Armenian Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan said this during a briefing with journalists on 4 November, commenting on the crash the previous evening, in which nine people died and three were taken to hospital with injuries of varying severity.

The minister stressed that the assessments were preliminary and declined to identify a definitive cause.

“Patrol officers have made a very preliminary assessment that there was a problem with the brakes of one of the vehicles, because there are no marks on the road indicating braking. But I want to stress again that this is preliminary. Please, none of you should interpret the incident on this basis, because we still need to establish the causes clearly through the proceedings,” Sargsyan said.

She said that every such incident, regardless of the overall statistics, was a tragedy from which lessons must be learnt.

Discussing broader road safety issues, Sargsyan highlighted patrol enforcement, road safety infrastructure, the technical condition of vehicles and driver behaviour.

The minister said that ensuring vehicle inspections were carried out properly remained an area of weakness. She also stressed the need to repair faults identified between inspections, noting that failing to repair a vehicle could lead to dangerous situations.

Nine people were killed and three injured in a collision involving four vehicles near Ohanavan on the Aparan–Ashtarak road on 4 November.

The Investigative Committee said criminal proceedings had been initiated under Article 342, Part 3, of the Criminal Code, concerning a breach of road traffic or vehicle operation safety rules that negligently caused the deaths of two or more people. The preliminary investigation is continuing.

Police have submitted a report concerning suspected preparation for murder to the investigating authority after a weapon was found on a young man riding a scooter in Yerevan.

Armenian Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan said this during a briefing with journalists on 4 November, responding to a question about where the armed young man was heading and whether he was preparing to commit a crime.

She said operational work was continuing to establish the full circumstances of the incident.

“We are currently carrying out operational work to establish the full picture. We submitted the report on the basis of preparation for murder, taking into account the overall contents of the bag. But I cannot say anything more at this stage. We will wait until our operational work is complete before drawing any final conclusions,” Sargsyan said.

The minister said the patrol officers who stopped and checked the young man would receive commendations. She stressed the importance of recognising officers’ work in preventing crimes.

“We have recently been uncovering preparations for murder more frequently, meaning that the murder does not take place. All the officers involved should receive commendations because I believe this will provide additional motivation for them to use all the tools at their disposal,” the minister said.

At around 14:50 on 2 November, patrol officers in Yerevan’s Silikyan district spotted a young man riding a scooter against the flow of traffic. He tried to flee when he saw them. The 27-year-old Yerevan resident was arrested. A search of his person uncovered an assault rifle fitted with a suppressor and an optical sight, a magazine containing 20 rounds, communications equipment and other items. The young man and the accompanying paperwork were handed over to the investigating authority.

A rise in the number of applications for Armenian citizenship has meant that, in some cases, the required checks have not been completed within the statutory deadline.

Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan said this during a briefing with journalists on 4 November, responding to a question about delays in processing applications.

She said citizenship service staff had worked Saturdays and Sundays at various stages to speed up the processing of the backlog.

The minister said the launch of a digital platform for submitting citizenship applications on 1 January 2027 had made the service more accessible, significantly increasing the number of applications.

“We began receiving a substantially larger number of applications, and this is why we often could not meet the statutory deadline and complete all the checks. At various stages, I designated Saturdays and Sundays as working days for citizenship service staff to ease our workload,” Sargsyan said.

She said all applicants underwent the same checks and no exceptions could be made.

“The time limits are there to allow for checks, and we need to know whom we are granting citizenship of the Republic of Armenia to. Our procedure is standard and applies to everyone, to all individuals, and we cannot make exceptions,” the minister stressed.

Sargsyan expressed hope that the situation would improve by the end of the year.

Armenia’s Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Zhanna Andreasyan, has met World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Director General Olivier Niggli and Director of the WADA President’s Office Rafal Piechota on the sidelines of the 19th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers Responsible for Sport, which has opened in the Principality of Monaco.

The minister thanked the agency for its continued cooperation and expressed her appreciation for its support for Armenia.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Andreasyan presented Niggli with details of the international sporting competitions planned in Armenia in 2027. She emphasised the importance of the agency’s support in ensuring that the necessary processes are organised properly and to a high standard, in line with WADA requirements.

The participants discussed opportunities to expand cooperation, particularly by incorporating anti-doping education into school curricula. They stressed the importance of raising awareness of the anti-doping agency’s work, doping prevention and knowledge in this field from school age.

In this context, the minister presented the Healthy Lifestyle education programme introduced in Armenian schools. The discussions also covered the development of the infrastructure needed to carry out anti-doping activities in Armenia.

The agency’s representatives expressed their willingness to support Armenia by providing expert advice and guidance on establishing licensed laboratories that meet international standards and conducting the relevant tests.

Khoren Zargaryan, Director of the Sports Management Centre, and Arpine Gevorgyan, adviser to the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, are also attending the Council of Europe conference of sports ministers.

Camera traps installed in the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge (CWR), managed by the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), have once again recorded the presence of the Persian/Caucasian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana), which is critically endangered in the region. This is the eighth individual documented within CWR.

According to a statement issued by the foundation, camera traps recorded the leopard’s movements at three different sites within CWR, covering its entire migration route. The most recent recordings were made in the refuge’s Urtsadzor section.

“Successive recordings of the same individual in different parts of the refuge demonstrate the safety of CWR’s migration corridors, the comprehensive protection of the area and the stability of the ecosystem. The data indicate that CWR continues to serve as one of the key areas for leopard conservation and for sustaining a viable leopard population in the South Caucasus,” the statement reads.

There is no talk of expelling Armenia from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

CSTO Secretary General Talatbek Masadykov made the statement during a briefing on the sidelines of the fourth Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security.

Masadykov also said Russia had already prepared a specific proposal concerning Armenia, which would be put to CSTO member states.

“This year, if the agenda is approved, the issue will be discussed at the Collective Security Council meeting on 10 November.

“The issue concerning Armenia relates to its failure to pay membership contributions and its non-participation in CSTO activities for two years,” Masadykov said.

He explained that Article 25 of the CSTO Charter could be applied to Armenia, meaning the country could lose its right to nominate candidates for CSTO posts allocated under its quota, as well as its voting rights, until it paid its outstanding membership contributions.

Armenia has frozen its participation in CSTO activities since February 2024.

Direct flights between the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, and Yerevan will resume on 7 November. The flights will be operated by Bulgarian airline GullivAir in cooperation with Bulgaria Air.

GullivAir announced this in a statement.

The route will operate twice weekly, every Thursday and Saturday. The winter schedule will remain in effect until 25 March 2027, with the airline considering extending operations into the summer season, subject to passenger demand.

The inaugural flight on the reinstated route will take place on 7 November. It will be officially welcomed at Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan by Bulgaria’s Ambassador to Armenia, Nikola Nikolov; the Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Vassilis Maragos; and representatives of Armenian government institutions.

The reinstatement of the Sofia–Yerevan–Sofia route will improve air connectivity between Armenia and Bulgaria. Direct flights will facilitate travel for citizens of both countries and create new opportunities for tourism, business relations and cultural exchange.