Category: News

Speaking about Artsvashen during the pre-election campaign, Nikol Pashinyan said that one of the options to solve the Artsvashen problem is exchange, but with what, Pashinyan did not elaborate.

“One of the options to solve the problem of silver can be the exchange.

For the Armenian side, this topic is no longer a matter of tension. The principle is as follows. Do Armenia and Azerbaijan want to hurt each other with the border demarcation process, or do they want to solve the issues so that our children and their children no longer have these topics?” had said Nikol Pashinyan.

Artsvashen community leader Mamikon Khechoyan during the campaign, he approached Nikol Pashinyan and asked, “What are we going to do with Artsvashen now? What are the people talking about?”

“You see, the issue of Artsvashen was resolved by ANM members on August 8, 1992. In other words, when the Artsakh-Azerbaijani war was taking place, the people understood that if the Armenian side is liberating lands and took “enclaves” in Tavush, then the Azerbaijani side will also take Artsvashen. Our state provided buses for us to go out to avoid many further problems. At that time, we were not asked if we wanted to live in Artsvashen or if we wanted to leave, there was a state, and the state had decided.

Now the state, as well as Nikol Pashinyan, say that if there is any question of exchanging the sovereign territory of Armenia, they should hold a referendum. Let’s suppose that 2,700 people from Artsvashen want to return to Artsvashen, but the 1 million population of Armenia says no, there should not be an exchange, in that case what should the people of Artsvashen do? 168.amMamiko Khechoyan said in an interview with

He says that there is no one who asks the opinion of the people of Artsvashen, even if they ask, one thing: in the case of a referendum, the citizen of Armenia decides whether that territory should be exchanged or not. From time to time the people of Artsvashen are asked if they want to return to Artsvashen, to which they definitely give a positive answer.

“Who wouldn’t want to return to their home, but none of us take our opinion into account?” Since 1991, I have been the head of the village of Artsvashen, and I have never seen the state ask for our opinion. Now whether they ask or not, what will change? My parents are buried in Artsvashen, we have cemeteries there, but what can we do?

When we lived in Artsvashen, not a single Azerbaijani lived there, before reaching Artsvashen there were 2 Azerbaijani villages, but today no Armenians live in Artsvashen,” added our interlocutor.

To the question whether it will be safe for the people of Artsvashen to live there after the return of Artsvashen, Mamikon Khechoyan answered that there was a border demarcation in the Tavush section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and if, for example, an Armenian child studies in the Kirantsi school, but there is an Azerbaijani border guard standing in front of them, why shouldn’t the people of Artsvashen return to their homes?

“If the columnist feels safe, why shouldn’t we feel safe?” If we have an army and they say that the army is the guarantee of your security, then we have no problem living in Artsvashen.

In a straight line, Artsvashen is 5 km away from Chambarak, so that Armenia is a complete border, again. This is neither an emotional nor a heroic step. Now that we live in Chambarak, and they can even hit directly from Azerbaijani positions, why can’t we live in Artsvashen in the same way? We are neither heroes nor cowards, we are just realists,” said Mamiko Khechoyan.

It should be noted that according to Mamikon Khechoyan, approximately 2800 people were displaced from Artsvashen in 1992, very few of them have moved to Russia today, approximately 10-15 families. Today, almost 3,000 people from Artsavash live in Chambarak and neighboring villages, Drakhtik, Shorzha.

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RA defense and internal affairs ministers will be reappointed. Today, Nikol Pashinyan told journalists after the meeting of the CP Board.

“Defense Minister Suren Papikyan and Internal Affairs Minister Arpine Sargsyan will be reappointed,” Pashinyan said.

As for the question of whether he is satisfied with the leaders of the two military departments, taking into account the fact that this year the 8th casualty has already been registered in the army in non-combat conditions, Pashinyan said that the solution to this issue is to change the social-psychology of the public.

“Approximately 70 percent of the phenomena that occur in the army do not originate with the army. The officers are to blame, but each individual case should be investigated separately,” said Pashinyan.

He also confirmed the information that Lilit Makunts will be appointed as the head of the Prime Minister’s Office.

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Alina Antonyan, a former employee of Shirak State University, made a post on her Facebook page, informing that Hovhannes Melkonyan, a lecturer of the university’s Armenian language department, director of the Foreign Relations Center, has been insulting her for years, using insulting words towards her.

“H. Melkonyan calls the students “sheep” and their elder “shepherd”.

Rector E. Naturally, Serobyan is aware of all this…

Anyway, back to Hovik Melkonyan.

This phenomenon, abusing his position, has always inflicted the latest personal insults on his former and current employees, colleagues and students.

I was also “lucky”…

Alina Antonyan said in her post that she insulted me with such words as “fluffy”, “squeamish”, “boring”, “joke”, “mentally retarded”.

A recording was also published in which their conversation is heard and in which insulting words are spoken towards Alina Antonyan.

of 168.am in a conversation with Alina Antonyan said that the voice of the man heard in the recording is the voice of Hovik Melkonyan, who insulted him throughout their conversation.

“Hovik Melkonyan worked at the Armenian Language Department as a lecturer of the Armenian language, and I was the foreign relations coordinator. One day, their laboratory assistant came and asked me to pass some paper to Melkonyan, I had interns, then I forgot to pass that paper. Then Melkonyan came, he said why did I forget to give him that paper, he immediately got angry, I apologized, but he continued to insult me.

He insulted me for 19 minutes, he always insulted me like that. I just made a recording at that time so that the rector would believe me, whom I told that he was insulting me, they said: well, it won’t happen to that degree. I have always been patient, I have said: well, he is human, it will pass. I didn’t turn to the law enforcement officers, so I endured until this May, when everything reached its peak.

In the last 8 years, I have gone to the rector a lot, the rector told me: “go ahead, work calmly”. When I told the rector the last time, let’s settle this matter, he told me not to go to him again with such a question, I asked whom to turn to, he told me to settle it yourself. He didn’t care what was going on.

In May, Melkonyan had “exacerbations” again, he started yelling at me in the presence of students and 2 employees. There were questions related to the translation, he wanted to blame the mistakes on me, against which I protested. That’s when I told him that he crossed all the borders during these 8 years, and he said that he will write everything down and give it to the rector in a report,” said Alina Antonyan.

According to our interlocutor, they never discussed the issues in a normal environment, all incidents ended with a report, with which Melkonyan addressed the rector. Although the report reached the rector, Alina Antonyan submitted 7 pages of justification against the report.

“They issued a notice that my employment contract was ending, no one warned me about it.

Melkonyan did not even answer my greeting during this one month. I got health problems from that person’s face.

I even told the rector that I have proof of how he insults me, but he didn’t even want to hear it. Two of them fired me like that. The rector called me to him and said that that day is my last working day and he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore,” added Alina Antonyan.

168.amalso got in touch Hovik Melkonyan with He told us that Alina Antonyan’s employment contract has expired, and the university has not extended that contract. Therefore, “the reason for the girl not working” is the date.

As for the insults and the published recording, Hovik Melkonyan said, yes, it is his voice in the recording.

“Since the recording exists, take the answer to that question from there, what else can I say, it is there. There is nothing personal, what should be personal on the work level? You will know better when something is taken out of context, it acquires a different meaning, and I don’t see any need to discuss the context at this time. I consider it frivolous, discussing frivolous issues will be double frivolity for me, I don’t see the need for it,” emphasized Hovik Melkonyan.

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After the elections, there are widespread arrests and detentions.

It was obvious that if Pashinyan is re-elected, mass arrests and political persecution will be the next step.

If earlier they were individual cases, now they are mass in nature.

The main reason for this mass terror is the elections themselves.

The administration understands very well that it did not win a real victory in those elections.

Details in the video

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The representatives of the former military-political leadership of Artsakh held in Baku state in their messages that they do not feel the attention of the Republic of Armenia and its authorities.

Recently, the former Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces, Major General Davit Manukyan, made such a claim, declaring. “It is a pity that those here do not feel the breath of the Republic of Armenia.”

He also to Nikol Pashinyan had suggested clarify the status of those in Baku according to the state position of the Republic of Armenia.

Meanwhile, human rights defender Siranuysh Sahakyan warns that the Armenian prisoners and hostages kept in Azerbaijan (Baku) have spoken about their health problems and injuries during their phone conversations with their families.

Panorama.amin a conversation with, he said, in particular.

“And the family members gave us that information, and based on that we raised the alarm, of course we also presented the problem to international institutions.

Here this situation is the result of isolation. The activity of the Red Cross is stopped, new visits are not obtained as a result of agreements. There are no independent medical examinations, no independent advocacy, which can detect and prevent such cases. And it is understandable that this situation will lead to vulnerability, psychological, physical and other new, serious consequences.

I think that the priority is to restore the activity of a structure that carries out a humanitarian mission. Or organizing a visit to independent doctors, or arranging a consular visit through a 3rd country.”

At the same time, there was an individual alert about the health condition of Ludwig Mkrtchyan, who is being held in Baku prison.

Against the background of the above, as well as the allegedly open “trial” on trumped-up charges, and the fact that access to the relevant Armenian departments (if, of course, there was a desire) and international structures is prohibited for Armenians held in Azerbaijani prisons, Aliyev is trying to create a “mirror image” with terrifying episodes.

Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, is a documentary about Shushi prison spread whose the author Lithuanian journalist It is Richardas Lapaitis who has long enjoyed Aliyev’s patronage and financing, even by Aliyev reward has, so nothing prevents that for years on the international stage and among European partners “through the eyes of an eyewitness”. Baku theses about “Khojalu Genocide”.

And it is nothing that before the military operation to be carried out in order to unblock the Stepanakert airport near the village of Khojalu (Ivanyan) and neutralize the Azerbaijani firing points located in the village. In order to safely remove the local population, the Armenians informed through loudspeakers not only the expected operations, but also the civilian population was informed about the corridor through which the Karkar river valley could and should go out to Aghdam, which was controlled by the Azerbaijanis. In other words, the Azeri side is responsible for the murders of Azerbaijanis in that area, which was once admitted by the former president of Azerbaijan, Ayaz Mutalibov, who later had to resign.

We still do not mention the cases of Khojaly, the Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafaev (died in 1992) the investigation. 

But Aliyev needs and will need the services of the likes of Richards Lapaitis for a long time, the peace agenda with Armenia will not deter or stop him.

And now the Lithuanian journalist serving the Aliyev regime, as we mentioned, has decided to make a film about Shushi prison. shoot and to tell how “in what terrible conditions the Azerbaijani prisoners of war were kept, what tortures and humiliations they were subjected to by the Armenians”, which cannot fit into the human brain.

And in order to make it more understandable to the world, he considered Shushi prison “Auschwitz of the Caucasus”. Everything would not be so funny, if before the liberation of Shushi during the first war, Baku itself had not kept Armenians there and had not been subjected to torture. About this there are both the testimonies of Armenians and the records of foreign individuals and organizations at that time.

For example, “Morning”According to Ignat Mamyan’s documentary novel “Scream of the Wounded Mountain”, the following is described.

“In the 1990s, they spared nothing to get the innocent victims caught by the Turks out of prisons and to return them home. Ignat Mamyan’s documentary novel “The Cry of the Wounded Mountain” was published in 1991. It is the investigation of the unknown details and dark pages of the operation of the May tragedy that happened near the village of Voskepar, Noyemberyan region. From the story of Andranik Kocharyan’s phone call, the conversation of the commander of the ambush landing force with Lieutenant Hrant Harutyunyan from the group of Armenian policemen coming to Voskepar, Alik Petrosyan’s sudden summons to Yerevan… A significant part of the book is dedicated to those policemen who were taken to the prisons of the Republic of Azerbaijan after being wounded and captured alive. The book presents the relatives, friends, and officials who spared nothing to get the innocent victims who were in the clutches of the Turks out of prisons and to return them home. The letter of Russian soldier Dima Ryazanov, the interview with the deputy of the Russian State Duma are also used.

“In 1991 in the preludes of the spring war, we already had hundreds of guys who had seen battle and blood, who had learned courage in the mountains of Artsakh, in the battles for the protection of the southern borders of Armenia. Declared or undeclared, war was no longer an inevitable reality, and the chosen had already accepted the crosses, become patriot soldiers. The republic still had no Ministry of Defense, no organized army. They were mainly included in the newly formed land guard volunteer detachments and the structures of the INS system, scattered with detachments in the border areas in the face of hostile bloodthirsty forces.

In those days, there were heavy clashes, especially on the Goris-Kapa border. During one of the battles here, a group of MHNJ boys, 16 people, were surrounded and captured due to a severe disparity of forces.

Days later, intelligence revealed that they had been taken to Shushi prison and were being held there in brutal, inhumane conditions, subjected to horrific torture. Relying on the mediation mission of the Soviet army, which was carrying out the last convulsions of the crumbling empire in the Armenian-Azerbaijani territories, was the same as relying on the conscience and morality of the Azerbaijanis.

Many years later, Alexander Mkrtchyan would say: “We were going to free our friends from the terrible prison of the Azeris, but we couldn’t decide how to do it.”

And there was only one way: exchange. Adrejani captives were needed to be exchanged for boys being tortured in Shushi.”

Let’s recall the cases of RA citizens who were tortured and died in Azerbaijani prisons many years after the first war: Manvel Saribekyan, Karen Petrosyan, etc. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani saboteur-murderers Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilham Askerov, who were convicted in Artsakh and served their sentence in Shushi prison, were returned to Azerbaijan safe and sound.

In other words, Aliyev’s “cleansing” attempts may be successful in some international circles, but they are groundless, or at least do not justify keeping the former military-political leadership of Artsakh in Baku.

By the way, in the case of the movie about Shushi’s prison, there is an implicit self-confession.

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Q:On July 13, speaking at the latest Shushi media forum, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced the full normalization of relations with Russia..

“There were difficulties. Yes, we all know about them, but the important thing is that this phase is already in the past. I would say the relationship is completely normalized. Azerbaijan values ​​relations with Russia.

The contacts are carried out at different levels: between governments, in the line of the co-chairs of the intergovernmental commission, the ministries of foreign affairs, as well as the administrations of the presidents. That’s why, I think, everything is going well in this regard, and we are happy about it. .. bilateral relations include both traditional spheres of interaction and new directions that are emerging today. Of course, the transport component, trade and humanitarian cooperation play a very important role.”

Of course, it didn’t go unnoticed by those who followed the speech in its entirety, not just looking for something comfortable. Aliyev’s unconditional support for Zelensky’s regime, which, as is known, is manifested not only in a symbolic but also in a purely practical way. The series of “friendly” statements continued in Berlin, where the leader of Azerbaijan visited on July 21.

As a result of negotiations with Federal Chancellor Mertz, a declaration on the strategic agenda of bilateral partnership was signed, and agreements on a wide range of directions of bilateral cooperation were concluded. It should be noted the good preparation of the visit, including in the context of the earlier agreements on the supply of natural gas from the western shores of the Caspian Sea to Germany (and Austria) from the beginning of 2026.

During the summary press conference, the “strategic partners” spoke quite frankly about various topics. To Andreas Rinke of Reuters, a question concerning the European and Russian public the answer should perhaps be reproduced in full.

“What about? to oil supplies, I can say that last year our total turnover with Germany amounted to about 1.5 billion dollars։  Most of it is Germany’s export to Azerbaijan, and the rest is our export. The main part of our export is crude oil.

In other words, I think that Azerbaijan supplies crude oil at the level of several hundred million dollars and can supply as much as it needs, both at the expense of internal sources and through the trading division of our energy company SOCAR. In other words, there is no problem here.

As for natural gas, I already mentioned since this year we have started selling natural gas to Germany. Last year, our total gas export was 25 billion cubic meters. 

Half of that volume was exported to European Union countries. As far as I know, a 10-year contract was signed with German companies, and the initial volume is 1.5 billion cubic meters. However, that volume can naturally increase. For that, several issues must be resolved. First, there must be an application to us regarding the volume increase.

Երկրորդ՝ the existing gas infrastructure should be expanded. Because today and TANAPand TAPare operating at full capacity, and there is no free space left in those pipelines.  New interconnectors are needed in the European territory. Of course, funds are needed for this. One of the main problems is that European banks, especially the European Investment Bank, have stopped financial support for oil and gas projects due to the green agenda.

So, in order to expand the infrastructure supplying gas to Europe today, we need to get loans from other sources. It would be good if the European banks reconsidered their decisions. Especially considering that today the crisis in the Middle East is unfortunately deepening and traditional supply chains are broken. Taking into account the fact that due to the decommissioning of Russian oil refineries, Russia cannot export the desired volume of oil products to traditional customers. All these events, the end of which is unknown, continue.

Therefore, I believe that if the green agenda is taken into account, these issues can be reviewed so that European banks also allocate funds for the development of oil and gas projects, the construction and expansion of oil and gas infrastructures. In that case, Azerbaijan can significantly increase its gas exports to the European area, including Germany.”

“We are serious about expanding relations between Germany and Azerbaijan. Cooperation in the field of oil and natural gas supplies through the Southern Gas Corridor is of particular importance, including in the context of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. We have discussed it in detail,” said Friedrich Mertz, who is an unconditional supporter of total confrontation with Russia. Notepad edition ingeniously writes: “…Azerbaijan will feed the NATO military machine, which in turn will arm the Kyiv regime.”

As for Aliyev, in general, there is nothing in the quote that was not mentioned in one way or another in Baku, implicitly hinting at the need for European partners to more actively support the expansion of the “Southern Gas Corridor” and similar projects.

We believe that Azerbaijan’s completely logical and pragmatic intention to take the place of Russian energy corporations in the European gas markets should not surprise anyone and cause certain emotional assessments expressed by individual telegram channels.

Rather, we need to look a little further here and note that Azerbaijani-German interdependence is growing going out from the borders of energy, which was pointed out by Orhan Yolchuev, the head of the CASPIA analytical center։ According to him, in 2025, the bilateral trade turnover will reach around 1.7 billion euros, mainly due to the export of German industrial equipment, machines and transport systems.

In parallel with the negotiations, a joint business conference was held in Berlin, the parties agreed to create a business council, which is called, as always, to coordinate joint projects.

Currently, more than 250 German companies are working in Azerbaijan, which participate in the reconstruction of industrial zones in various production directions.

Thus, we are talking not only about energy, but also about closer cooperation and the transition of joint investment projects, including in the field of the military-industrial complex (here, too, we can recall the mutual interest in drone systems, including in the context of the events surrounding Ukraine). Germany’s interest in increasing the possibilities of the port of Baku and the Alyat Free Economic Zone in the “middle corridor” routes, where Azerbaijan can become a transit route for both Kazakh oil and Turkmen gas, and not only for them, is also evident.։

“The exit to Central Asia, if not through Russia or Iran, is through Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus,” recalls Rasim Musabekov, MP of the Milli Mejlis.

Another discussed statement of Aliyev referred to the closed meetings of unofficial representatives of Russia and Germany in Baku on July 12-14., about which the local authorities were allegedly not informed in advance (which, frankly, is hard to believe).

Aliyev said that after the media publications, he ordered to check the information about crossing the state border, as a result of which it was found that on the specified days, former German politicians and Russian representatives were at the same time on the shores of Absheron, who were previously acquainted, in particular, from the “Petersburg Dialogue” conference and participated in some unofficial meetings, about which the Baku authorities, according to their version, do not have information. If such informal contacts really contribute to the cessation of the armed conflict, Azerbaijan can only welcome such efforts, Aliyev noted diplomatically.

Information about the existence of informal dialogues between Berlin and Moscow is confirmed jointly by Die Zeit and ARD investigation the authors, moreover, on the German side, former politicians, not current representatives of the Mertz government, participated in them.

German security services consider such contacts as a possible tool of the notorious “Russian influence”. The federal chancellor himself, commenting on Aliyev’s words, stated that he knows nothing about the alleged meeting.

“Tube successor”-ը  writes: it is possible that “Aliyev has decided to distance himself as much as possible from the story, which is already perceived in a toxic way in Germany”. Speaking with Friedrich Mertz, he actually said: “Azerbaijan did not organize these contacts, Baku was not aware of them in advance and has nothing to do with them.” This corresponds to the current line adopted by the German leadership.

While official Berlin views such meetings with the prism of possible Russian influence, Aliyev tells Mertz. “It’s not my fault, they came themselves.” To us, this is hardly a friendly gesture. The opposite. if such contacts were indeed secret, their public disclosure by Aliyev is unlikely to be in Russia’s interests.”

Another Telegram channel, Кремлёвский безбашенник, does too notes the attempt to “establish a dialogue behind the backs of the official German authorities”, secret diplomacy revealed “by Ilham Aliyev from the high podium”.

Less noticeable (but in vain!) became Ukrainian Ambassador to Baku Yuriy Gusev statementn: about lifting sanctions against Azerbaijani companies involved in the export of Russian oil, bypassing EU restrictions.

According to the Kiev diplomat, currently Azerbaijan and Ukraine continue cooperation on the issues of maintaining existing restrictions, which can mean departure from the previous schemes of transshipment of oil in the Caspian Sea and its further transportation through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

According to Gusev, “the next logical step can be the participation of Azerbaijani companies not only in urgent repairs, but also in the joint production of energy equipment, as well as in the modernization of Ukrainian energy: the construction of new facilities, the development of distributed generation, energy efficiency and renewable energy. We are already conducting such a dialogue with our Azerbaijani partners.”

Alexander Grigoriev

vpoanalytics.com

Translation by Zhanna Avetisyan

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Head of Masis community Norayr Hakobyan informed on his Facebook page that Davit Hambardzumyan was appointed to the position of adviser to the head of Masis community.

“Dear residents of our community,

I inform you that today I have made a decision to appoint Davit Hambardzumyan as an adviser to the head of the Masis community. “Davit Hambardzumyan” alliance team will continue the united, consistent and responsible work for the sake of Masis community development, well-being and improving the quality of life of every resident,” he wrote.

By the way, according to our information, Davit Hambardzumyan will be nominated as a candidate for the head of the Masis community in the upcoming local government elections.

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The moment of national sobering up has come. Former RA Prime Minister Khosrov Harutyunyan wrote about this.

“Today, at a meeting with journalists, Pashinyan stated that he does not know an Armenian Catholicos named Karekin II.

With this statement, Pashinyan records the start of a new phase of his anti-constitutional campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church in the period following the elections.

There is no doubt that this campaign against the Church is unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, there is no doubt that the current government “doesn’t care” about the Constitution and constitutionality.
Moreover, it does not bother the government that with its anti-national behavior it is deepening the division in the Armenian society, creating dividing barriers between different parts of the world-wide Armenians. Meanwhile, the unity of the Armenian people is a very important factor in the formation of national collective capabilities to face external threats to Armenia. Moreover, it is only possible to be blind in mind not to realize that Pashinyan needs the power to paralyze the state institutions of Armenia and the final disintegration of the State of Armenia (today, without exception, all state institutions operate not within the framework of the authority reserved to them by the Constitution and the law, but by the subjective instructions of one person).

You cannot call this situation anything other than a crisis of statehood.

Here is the necessary prerequisite for “successfully” managing that crisis – the tearing and division of the nation and society.

The attack against the Armenian Patriarch aims to destroy the national institution, which is entrusted with the most important mission of national spiritual unity and national preservation.

This anti-national attack against the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church is the last effort of the government to finish the process of destroying the Armenian Independent State.

The moment of national sobering up has come.”

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