Category: News

The next parliamentary elections in Hungary took place the other day, becoming one of the most anticipated and competitive political events in recent years in that country and on the European continent. As a result of the elections, the opposition bloc was able to register a victory, collecting about 51-53% of the votes, while the force led by Viktor Orbán, who has been in power for many years, received about 44-46% support. This result effectively ended Orbán’s long political dominance, opening a new phase in the country’s political life.

62-year-old Orban has been in power since 2010. A potential opposition candidate, 45-year-old Madyar, emerged in the current elections. Formerly a member of the Fidesz youth wing, Madyar became the leader of the Tisa party just two years ago. Citizens dissatisfied with Orban’s government point to the poor state of public infrastructure, healthcare and education, as well as the level of corruption.

Madyar, however, says he intends to fight corruption, implement “systemic changes” and introduce a new constitution. Unlike Orbán, who has built positive relations with Russia and created many problems for the EU in recent years, Madyar is also in favor of the idea of ​​removing Hungary from Russia and returning the EU member state as a reliable NATO ally. The elections were marked by high turnout and intense campaigning.

The elections held in Hungary can be considered not only as an episode of internal political reorganization, but also as an important impulse for the entire European political system. The decline or removal of the influence of Viktor Orbán, who has shaped the political face of the country for years, perhaps symbolizes the end of an entire political era. That era was characterized by enhanced executive power, Eurosceptic rhetoric, and multi-vector foreign policy experiments that often clashed with the European mainstream.

In the European context, the results of these elections are important, according to experts, because Hungary has long been a “rebellious” actor within the European Union, often inhibiting joint decisions or demanding exceptional conditions.

By the way, at the request of Azerbaijan, Orban’s government has also created difficulties regarding EU decision-making regarding Armenia. Weakening or removing Orbán could contribute to a more unified policy within the EU. However, perhaps there is no need to wait for a turnaround. a part of the Hungarian political elite continues to share the idea of ​​the priority of sovereignty in the EU.

The possible revision of Hungary’s policy towards Russia is particularly noteworthy. During the years of Orbán’s rule, Budapest maintained relatively mild and pragmatic relations with Moscow, even in the conditions of the Russia-Ukraine war. The new political situation may lead to a more cautious but not drastic anti-Russian position. it is more likely that Hungary will try to integrate into the common European line, while maintaining a certain flexibility due to energy and economic calculations.

It should be noted that these results of the Hungarian elections are important for Russia, the EU, other actors, and the South Caucasus, where Orban had especially built warm relations with the leader of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and for the sake of which Orban’s government has implemented a number of noisy anti-Armenian steps in the interest of Azerbaijan.

Years ago, Orban easily extradited to Azerbaijan Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani who brutally killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan, who was hailed as a hero upon his return to Azerbaijan and glorified for his crime. With this move, Orban received a sharp political response from the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people.

In 2012, RA severed diplomatic relations with Hungary, which Nikol Pashinyan’s government has already started taking steps to restore unconditionally.

From the photographs of the corridors of the European political community, one can remember warm contacts in the format of Pashinyan-Orban-Aliev-Erdogan. As we have already mentioned, in recent years, Hungary also blocked the provision of funds from the European Peace Fund to Armenia. Therefore, for Armenia, this change should be considered not only as a distant European process, it may change the position of the Hungarian state in relation to Armenia. By the way, several political actors noticed and analyzed these elections in Armenia.

Considering that elections are expected in Armenia in the near future, the Hungarian experience can offer a number of important consequences, especially from the point of view of the reproduction of the ruling forces.

• Long-term government, even if it provides stability, accumulates systemic dissatisfaction, which can be manifested not gradually, but in a drastic electoral change.
• Strengthening media and institutional control in the short-term process strengthens the government, but in the long-term it reduces the sense of legitimacy.
• Foreign policy “multi-vectoring” can be effective, but if it is perceived as value uncertainty, it can undermine trust in different directions.
• Strained relations with external partners (such as Hungary-EU) can become an important factor in the domestic political agenda.

The end of the Orbán era shows that even the most stable political systems are subject to change, and these changes are often caused not only by external pressures, but also by internal accumulated demands.

The end of Viktor Orbán’s era shows that the combination of foreign policy maneuvers, domestic control and electoral technology does not guarantee endless reproduction. In the context of the upcoming elections in Armenia, this means that the fate of the ruling power may be determined by the level of public trust.

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On April 10, during a joint press conference with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, RA Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, in particular, declared.

“Unfortunately, there are still prisoners and detainees in Baku, and we think our position is the same. days ago, these people should be released, and we are sure that their release will only strengthen the established peace.

We continue our dialogue with Azerbaijan on this topic. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most important issues on our agenda. We continue to talk about this with international partners as well.

Yes, as you noticed, the end of the Red Cross activities in Azerbaijan has made the situation even more complicated in this regard, that is, we agree that the problem exists, and we continue our efforts in that direction. There is no news, this is the question that when there is news, immediately the whole society knows. The only news here might be the release of a new band.”

On April 10, the day of the 34th anniversary of the Maragha Genocide, so to speak, a 20-member delegation of Armenian civil society went to Azerbaijan through the demarcated and demarcated part of the land border (Kirants) and had a two-day discussion with Baku “civil society representatives” in Gabala, once again met Aliyev’s aide. Born in Ganja With Hikmet Hajiyev, we will refer to him later.

By the way, let us remind you that for 6 years, under the pretext of fighting against the coronavirus, Azerbaijan has been fighting with its neighbors keeps land borders closed. At the moment, there is a decision to keep it closed until July 1, 2026. Naturally, the reason is regional events, and it turns out that the Armenia-Azerbaijan land border along the Kirants section is the only one that is open, or is being opened if necessary.

And the members of the Armenian delegation that returned from Azerbaijan in Yerevan, in particular, the director of the Democracy Development Fund, Naira Sultanyan, said at the press conference that they talked about the prisoners and the people held in Baku in Azerbaijan.

“We emphasized that this issue does not fit into the logic of the peace process, that the peace process has progressed much further, and these issues must be resolved in order to guarantee the progress of the process.“, he noted.

Days after this, one of the Azerbaijani propaganda media, minval.az, published an article to publish in which, as a matter of fact, the official position of Aliyev or Baku was recalled, which was recently detailed we have touched on. 

What does Baku remind Yerevan and answer especially the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan?

“Their (former military-political leadership of Artsakh – M.P.) legal status is determined by court decisions based on “evidence”, not by political statements or diplomatic gestures.

Historical and international experience unequivocally confirms that “serious crimes” (quotes: MP) cannot become an object of political “trade”. Let’s remind that After the Nuremberg trials, the international community established the principle of inevitability of punishment as a basis for sustainable peace. And here it should be noted that the convicts were not released for the sake of reconciliation, but on the contrary, it was their punishment that became the cornerstone of the post-war legal system. Thus, the peace agenda cannot be built on the neglect of crimes and the release of convicted persons. It is possible only in the case of maintaining a balance between humanity and justice, where the key role belongs not to political expediency, but to the inevitability of punishment and respect for court decisions.” wrote the Azerbaijani media, noting that the release of the representatives of the former military-political leadership of Artsakh can be considered not humanism, but a refusal of the principle of justice.

Of course, Baku is lying when it does not attribute this issue to political expediency, it will be resolved according to political expediency. That is another question today the release of the former military-political leadership of Artsakh is considered as an internal political or internal issue of the country, and tries to assure that the release of non-ordinary Armenians held in Baku can undermine the faith of the citizens of Azerbaijan in the state institutions of the country, otherwise, the fabrication of accusations against the former leaders of Artsakh can come to light, which is definitely not beneficial to Aliyev at the moment, nor does he have a problem of looking “good” today. Let’s not say that the manifestations of good will in the world today do not have a serious character role, when international law is destroyed and force gives birth to law, or economic interest.

According to that, can we say that at this moment Aliyev does not see the need to show “good will” in order to maintain his own power within his country, and indirectly puts the responsibility of his “Nuremberg trial” on his own citizens as well, so that for political convenience, if he decides to release the former military and political leadership of Artsakh in exchange for something, he will condition it also on the wishes of ordinary Azerbaijanis. That is, everything is not as smooth as it is presented, including at the level of societies. On the other hand, so that ordinary Azerbaijanis stop seeing Armenians as enemies, here, of course, Pashinyan logically, the Armenian society has to do it first.

Does Aliyev put pressure on his people to become extremely peace-loving, does he force them to forget “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing”, like Nikol Pashinyan, of course not. Instead, Aliyev always has something to say to the Armenian society and Nikol Pashinyan in this context. For example, Aliyev’s assistant Hikmet Hajiyev, like him reported At the meeting with the members of the Armenian delegation that went to Azerbaijan, he again spoke about the Armenian “revanchist” forces.

“During the meeting, it was noted that the presence of “revanchist” forces in the internal political “landscape” of Armenia, along with their calls for war, creates a risk of returning the region to the turbulent state of the late 1980s and early 1990s,” Hajiyev emphasized, adding that the Armenian society wants peace, which creates a basis for them to hope that “the forces that assumed the role of “spoilers” will eventually fail to achieve peace.” in their attempts to undermine the agenda.”

It is a familiar phrase that we hear almost every day in this pre-election period, as they say, without comment.

If we return to Aliyev’s compulsion on his own people, in most cases it refers to the resettlement of Azerbaijani citizens in the occupied Artsakh territories. On one occasion, we wrote that many people return to Baku after a short time from their assigned places. This is a separate discussion topic.

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On April 10, lawyer Ara Zohrabyan informed that the criminal court of the first instance of general jurisdiction of the city of Yerevan (judge: Ani Danielyan) made a decision to satisfy the appeal of the defender of the Catholicos of All Armenians. Based on the court’s decision, the restraining order applied to the Catholicos of All Armenians is subject to cancellation.

Let’s remind that RA Investigative Committee (investigator Ara Avagyan) on 14.02.2026 made a decision and applied the prohibition of absence to the Catholicos of All Armenians as a preventive measure.
Due to that ban, as well as the refusal of permission to travel to Georgia by the investigator, the Catholicos of All Armenians could not participate in the holy ceremony of the funeral of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II.

Now, the judge of the Kentron seat, Ani Danielyan, has ordered the investigator to remove the restraining order against Vehapar.

Earlier, on April 1, it was lawyer Harut Aklunts informed that Judge Arman Hovhannisyan of the Yerevan General Jurisdiction Criminal Court, Avan and Nor Nork seat, satisfied his complaint against the actions of the investigator and the prosecutor, recognized the fact of the violation of the right of His Holiness Father Haykazun Archbishop Najarian and obliged the investigator to remove the restraining measure applied to Haykazun Srbazan, the ban on absence.

In general, according to the information of 168.am, 5 complaints were submitted against the reverends, three of which were rejected, and the complaints brought by two of them, the Reverend Hayrapet and the Reverend Haykazun, were satisfied, and first Judge Arman Hovhannisyan, then Judge Ani Danielyan recognized the violations of their rights and obliged to eliminate them.

Moreover, by the decision of Judge Arman Hovhannisyan, the issue of eliminating the violation of the right was examined and the legal idea that the preventive measure of absence cannot be recognized as a violation at that stage was overcome.

Arman Hovhannisyan’s decision was actually not problematic, because Ani Danielyan acted in exactly the same way, recognizing the fact of violation of Catholicos’ rights and obliging to eliminate them.

By the way, at the end of yesterday, it became known that the General Prosecutor’s Office is not backing down, and the RA General Prosecutor’s Office will file an appeal against the removal of the restraining order applied to Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II.

Probably, for Anna Vardapetyan, Vehapar’s non-traveling status is a matter of principle.

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The possible outcome of the war against neighboring Iran can change the entire geopolitical picture, as well as the balance of power in the Middle East and the Eurasian region as a whole. Until then, it is interesting to understand what deep, centuries-old religious and ideological roots the Iran-Israel conflict has in general, and why US President Donald Trump is trying to add religious shades to the US-Iran war. On topic 168 TVof Revue is the guest of the program Religious scholar Vardan Khachatryan։

The religious expert considers the image of the US president in the image of Christ, published on Trump’s social network page and later deleted, created by artificial intelligence, as blasphemy.

“If you say, ‘I play the role of a sanitarian,’ then what is that light in his hand?” Yes, brothers, we understand, 3 percent of the American society can believe that, well, 10 percent, but the rest can’t believe it all. It is clear that it is not Jesus, because if Jesus approached, laid his hand, that person must stand up, and that’s it. But the light in the other hand also indicates that it is attributed to divinity. We have seen Trump in the clothes of the Roman Pope, we have seen him in the clothes of a Viking, now he has become clean, there is no workman, we have to discuss the pictures created by this AI. After all, who needs them, what do we serve, that someone is the replacement of Jesus on the face of the Earth, can such a thing be? We consider Jesus as God. Can there be a substitute for God among mortals? Not that it cannot be, it is blasphemy. We have our faith, we have our confession, and we are waiting for the Savior who must come as God, not as a man, to declare: “I have come to save you all.” There is no such thing in the world. Christianity rejects this,” said the religious scholar in relation to the topic.

Vardan Khachatryan is skeptical about the two-week ceasefire announced between the United States and Iran and the negotiation process, predicting new military clashes between the conflicting parties.

“It is clear that the parties are preparing for a new conflict, that is, there will inevitably be a new conflict,” believes the religious expert.

Vardan Khachatryan also drew attention to the fact that Russia and China, which provide shadow support to Iran, are coming out of the shadows.

According to the interlocutor’s assessment, the United States did not succeed in the war against Iran and is now trying to organize a “crusade” against Iran.

According to Khachatryan, the American army does not consider this war a just war. Speaking about the religious roots of the Iranian-Israeli conflict and the US president’s attempts to add religious tones to the war against Iran, the religious expert noted that the current geopolitical developments and the threat of nuclear war show that the world is approaching Armageddon. Vardan Khachatryan sees a real danger of a nuclear conflict.

“At the moment, the only thing we can report is that the war is getting closer and closer because the sides are spending huge resources to bring weapons, new units, etc. closer to the war zone. You will not hide it. it is visible all over the world. Both the United States and Israel are increasingly leaning toward a new phase, meaning that this ceasefire is a time to prepare for the next phase. On the other hand, it appears that it is possible to form an alliance. I simply believe that if we proceed with conventional weapons, the exhaustion of the parties is such that the peace will last longer than expected. But if the situation becomes extreme, and there are great chances of it becoming extreme, then the war can happen much faster, immediately increasing the level of escalation to a nuclear conflict,” the religious expert added.

Vardan Khachatryan notices the exhaustion of the parties as a result of military operations that lasted for more than 40 days. He especially mentions the exhaustion of Israel, which cannot resist even the rockets of the opposition forces operating in Lebanon.

“It means that a war with conventional weapons is no longer in their favor, moreover, they will suffer if the war with conventional weapons continues, because the number of Iranian missiles will indisputably be enough for a much longer time. This war can also have such a course, but as they say, God forbid that all this, as an incendiary degree, rises to a nuclear conflict,” added Vardan Khachatryan.

To the question: when will be the second coming of Christ, and how close is the world to Armageddon, the religious scholar answered: “Everyone is waiting for the coming of Jesus. When will it come, when God will bend the sky and come down… Based on what we have talked about, it is probably very close, because in the conditions of huge nuclear arsenals, incomprehensible games are going on, which can turn into applied conflicts at any second. What do you want now? Everyone is armed, unspeakably armed…”

Let’s remind that the United States and Israel started military operations against Iran on February 28. On the morning of April 7, US President Donald Trump set another deadline for the Islamic Republic of Iran until 20:00 of the same day, threatening to strike Iran’s power grids and transportation infrastructure and “destroy Iran’s entire civilization” if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz and sign a deal with the United States. However, just an hour and a half before the end of the “deadline”, at 18:32 Washington time, Trump on his official page of the Truth Social social network announced, that, with the mediation of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, the United States agreed MONDAY TWO-WAY SHOOT CONFIRMATIONin response to their request to withdraw from the “destructive operations” planned for the night and on the condition that the Islamic Republic of Iran agrees to the complete, immediate and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump also noted that the American side accepted Iran’s 10-point proposal as a basis for negotiations.

On April 11, negotiations between the American and Iranian delegations led by US Vice President J.D. Vance and Iranian Majlis Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf took place in Islamabad with the mediation of Pakistan. The representatives of Washington and Tehran did not reach an agreement during the 21-hour negotiations. On April 14, “Francepress” agency, referring to its sources, reported that Pakistan is working towards holding the second round of negotiations. The previous day, Trump announced that the US armed forces started the blockade of Iranian ports on Monday. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for its part, warned that if the United States resumes attacks, Iran will use capabilities “the enemy has no idea about” and will have “very limited ability” to counter them.

Full interview in the video.

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168 TV’s “Zara has a question” the guest of the program A member of the “Mother Armenia” faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders, a member of the pre-election list of the “Armenia” alliance It is Mesrop Manukyan.

The main theses voiced in the interview, in a nutshell:

• If Tigran Avinyan is sincere in his indignation and indignation and believes that there should be justice everywhere, then we should be the first to be indignant, spit at CP and them, the people will spit directly in their faces, because they and their “Republic” party have completely failed to manage Yerevan.

The citizen has never refused to pay, the citizen says: you do not carry out passenger transport. do you carry out cargo transportation? You promised decent transport, but instead, there are more than 100 gazelles in Yerevan, old buses donated by the Chinese government during the time of Taron Margaryan are still in operation in Yerevan, there is a shortage of around 500 vehicles in Yerevan, I am saying the minimum number, there are no more than 600 bus stops in Yerevan, there are pits and ditches in Yerevan.

In this case, the citizen asks the first question, he says: “Brother, did you remove the shadow that entered my pocket, are you able to calculate the cost of a passenger transportation or not?” There were no 2 officials in the city government and the entire CP that could say the same number of cost. everyone fell asleep, saying a price.

I am more inclined that they are being robbed than that they are not being recruited.

• First we note that we are dealing with a group of dilettantes, none of them are in place, just not in place.

If, God forbid, these things happen again, the situation in Yerevan will get worse and worse, the state of transport will be even more shameful.. In the first 2 years, no buses are planned to be bought in the medium-term expenditure plan, none, 0. That during the meetings they do something stupid, that we planned to take a bus, they lie. We have approved the budget for buying a bus, but no money has been allocated.

• The drivers themselves are treated as slaves. Now that is not enough, drivers are being pushed to fight. There is another problem here. if the driver starts to get angry… how will the poor drivers start driving the bus with that condition?

The man enters and says: there is no place to stand, neither you, nor Avinyan, nor CP. says the last words. Are they inciting the driver to become a criminal, endangering the lives of our citizens?

6 billion drams have been destroyed. there is no one responsible for this, and in a normal state they would have called and said: come and answer for this.

• 4.9 billion drams were spent on greening, creation of green zones and others. 13 million dollars. These people planted 5000 trees. I say, where is the other part of the money, he says, we planted 300,000 flowers, I say, where are the flowers, he says, winter has come, there is none, he says, I don’t know, they planted 40-50,000 bushes… let that bush grow on your head, you can’t, again, finally.

• It’s not that the sand and salt destroyed the asphalt (they can’t understand that either: I want to take a handful of sand and salt to the next meeting of the Council of Elders, fill it, see if they will disintegrate, we’ll get away) you understand… the sand and salt you pour, when the snow comes, it melts, it becomes water, it fills under the asphalt from those seams and holes, then the minus occurs, it swells, it cracks. the asphalt.

They express such stupid thoughts, they say it was the asphalt built by the previous ones, that is, the asphalt built 8 years ago lasted 8 years, 8 years…  Taron Margaryan, thank your ancestors a thousand times, you made such asphalt, it lasted for 8 years։

It has already been destroyed, it is not our fault. Were you an asphalt worker, were you selling a brand of asphalt to the people?. There is no quality control.

• In general, the system created by Nikol Pashinyan is already rotten, rotten from the inside, and since their money has increased a little, there is a race to see who will have more money, who will wear better clothes, who, I don’t know, will drink better wine and similar things. A general, corrupt, patronage structure.
• The collective opposition has work to do. He has work to do, every man must do his work in his trench.

Does the opposition have the opportunity to expel them? yes, it has. Will it be possible? We have to work. If we do not work, we are all to blame.

E:I see people are disgusted by these. I see that the power is held by the Turk.

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