Category: News

RFI: Azerbaijan seeks to balance the factor of Armenia’s orientation toward Eu

Ani Kharatian
News.am, Armenia
July 23, 2026

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a number of economic agreements aimed at expanding Berlin’s access to Baku’s gas reserves and transit routes. As reported by RFI, the deal comes amid Germany’s efforts to diversify its energy supplies and at a time when Azerbaijan is trying to balance its orientation toward Europe with its recently renewed ties with Moscow.

Aliyev’s visit to Berlin resulted in the signing of a Joint Declaration on a Strategic Agenda for Bilateral Partners and the creation of an Azerbaijani-German Business Council.

Berlin’s interest is primarily economic in nature. Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan began supplying gas to Germany this year as the EU is phasing out imports of Russian energy resources. Merz called the South Caucasus a “key transport hub linking Europe and Asia,” hinting at the Middle Corridor, a trade route connecting the Caspian and Black seas and bypassing Russia.

Relations with Armenia were also discussed during the talks, as Azerbaijan is slowly but steadily rebuilding ties with its neighbor after decades of bitter hostility and war.

Merz congratulated Aliyev on signing a peace agreement with Armenia, calling it a “historic agreement” that offers “a new opportunity to finally overcome the protracted conflict.”

However, the text signed at the ceremony at the White House in August last year is still awaiting amendments to Armenia’s constitution demanded by Baku before a final version can be signed.

“Azerbaijan offered peace to Armenia and received a positive response,” Aliyev said, noting the German government’s role as a mediator and emphasizing that more than 40,000 tons of transit cargo had passed through Azerbaijan to Armenia, while Azerbaijani gasoline and diesel fuel “contribute to Armenia’s energy security.”

Berlin appears keen to avoid taking either side. In March last year, Steinmeier’s trip to Baku came after a two-day visit to Armenia, where he urged both sides to show “the courage to compromise.”

Meanwhile, France has openly tilted toward Yerevan, selling the country 36 Caesar howitzers for the Armenian army, as well as radar systems and armored vehicles.

Armenia, meanwhile, has maintained its frozen membership in the Russian-led CSTO alliance, while Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has ruled out a return to active participation. In February 2025, the country’s parliament voted to begin the process of joining the EU.

Baku is moving in the opposite direction. Relations with Moscow collapsed after Russian air defense systems struck an Azerbaijan Airlines plane on December 25, 2024, causing it to crash in Kazakhstan and killing 38 people.

However, on July 17, Foreign Ministers Jeyhun Bayramov and Sergey Lavrov said after talks in Moscow that relations had been “fully normalized,” direct flights were being resumed, and bilateral trade had reached $4.9 billion in 2025, making the regional map more fluid and contested than at any time since the war.

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John Sununu profited from Azerbaijan attack on ethnic Armenians

Garnik Tadevosian
American Journal News
July 22, 2026

Columbia University says Azerbaijan engaged in torture, mutilations, and beheadings.

By Jesse Valentine – July 22, 2026
CREDIT: Sununu Senator

Former Sen. John Sununu’s stock portfolio benefited from Azerbaijan’s 2020 war with Armenia, a conflict that led to ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Sununu is running for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire again this year. He left office in 2009 and has since worked as a corporate lobbyist and adviser. He has substantial stock holdings and a reported net worth of up to $36.3 million.

Personal finance disclosures indicate that Sununu owns between $1 million and $5 million of Anglo Asian Mining (AAM) stock, a London-listed public company that mines gold, copper, and silver in Azerbaijan.

Sununu’s father, former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, sits on AAM’s board of directors, as does Sununu’s brother Michael. In September 2024, the elder Sununu transferred more than 900,000 shares of AAM to the family-owned investment firm Sununu Holdings LLC.

In 2020, Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that is geographically within Azerbaijan but was controlled by ethnic Armenians. Azerbaijan used ground troops, heavy artillery, drones, and missile strikes to seize control of the territory.

United Nations officials raised concerns about Azerbaijan’s alleged “indiscriminate attacks” on civilians and infrastructure, while Amnesty International alleged that both sides likely committed war crimes in the conflict. A report produced through Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights reached similar conclusions, documenting evidence of executions, torture, mutilations, and beheadings carried out by Azerbaijani forces.

In 2023, Azerbaijan launched another offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee the region. Numerous human rights groups and International Criminal Court officials described the events as ethnic cleansing, with some arguing they constituted genocide.

Both of these incidents allowed AAM to expand its mining operations into Nagorno-Karabakh, which proved extremely profitable for the company. AAM’s stock value has grown by 395% in just the last three years as a result.

The Armenian National Committee UK, the largest group representing the political interests of British Armenians, said AAM was “taking advantage of the war and exploiting an unstable region to maximize profits for its investors.”

A lawsuit against AAM alleged that Sununu’s father encouraged Azerbaijan’s failed 2016 raid on Nagorno-Karabakh for the express purpose of expanding mining operations.

This is not the first time Sununu has been accused of profiting from a war. Earlier this year, it was reported that the value of his oil and gas holdings had skyrocketed as a result of the wars involving Venezuela and Iran. Sununu has supported continued U.S. involvement in Iran.

Sununu will face former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in a Sept. 8 primary. The winner will likely face Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas in the general election.

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Stone Tools from Armenian Cave Reveal Split Strategy for Survival 50,000 Years

Emil Lazarian
July 22, 2026
Jul 22, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro
« Previous

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Ararat-1, a modest limestone cave that lies at an elevation of 1,034 m on the eastern flanks of the Ararat Depression in central Armenia, has yielded a striking puzzle about how Middle Paleolithic humans moved across their landscape.

A look at Ararat-1 Cave from the bottom of the Ararat Depression. Image credit: Ariel Malinsky Buller.

“The Caucasus is a geographically and ecologically diverse region that created a complex environment for past human populations and endemic species of flora and fauna,” said Dr. David Nora from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his colleagues.

“The region hosts a rich archaeological record, with the Middle Paleolithic being the most represented period, encompassing approximately 60% of the over 450 known Paleolithic sites.”

“These sites include caves, rock shelters, open-air sites, and single-find spots.”

“They are strategically positioned across diverse landscapes such as river canyons, terraces, coastal peninsulas, mountain plateaus, hills, and lava domes.”

In the new study, the authors examined 1,770 stone tools excavated from Ararat-1 Cave, a site perched above the Ararat Depression northeast of Mount Ararat.

The tools date back roughly 52,000 to 35,000 years, a period known as the late Middle Paleolithic.

What the researchers found was a tale of two raw materials: obsidian and chert.

Obsidian, the volcanic glass that was the dominant stone resource in the area, showed heavy signs of retouching, reshaping and repair — evidence that toolmakers were carrying finished or partly finished obsidian pieces with them and maintaining them carefully over time, sometimes sourced from outcrops tens to nearly 200 km away.

Chert, by contrast, was mostly worked from scratch on-site, with far less evidence of curation, suggesting it was gathered locally and used expediently before being discarded.

That contrast matters because archaeologists have long used the balance between ‘curated’ and ‘expedient’ technologies as a signal of how mobile a group was.

A heavily curated, well-traveled toolkit usually points to people who moved frequently and needed durable, multipurpose tools. An expedient, locally sourced toolkit typically suggests longer stays in one place, where replacing worn-out tools cost little effort.

According to the researchers, the problem is that Ararat-1 Cave displays both signatures within the same archaeological layers: one pointing to high mobility, the other to a longer-term camp.

“Ararat-1 Cave leaves us with a conundrum regarding the ways to interpret the mobility signature,” they said.

“Within the same sedimentary units, we observe two distinct interpretive scenarios for mobility: a higher mobile toolkit, represented by the obsidian assemblages, and a less mobile one, as indicated by the chert.”

“These two signatures led us to question whether either chert or obsidian can be an outlier in terms of technological strategy (curated vs. expedient).”

To make sense of the contradiction, the scientists turned to an unusual class of evidence: tiny waste flakes, many smaller than 2 cm, produced when a tool’s edge was sharpened or rejuvenated.

Because so much of the Ararat-1 assemblage consists of artifacts under 2 cm, they built a five-category system to track these flakes as direct evidence of tool maintenance, even when the tools themselves were no longer present at the site.

By reading this maintenance debris alongside the distances obsidian had traveled, they argue that Ararat-1 functioned less as a long-term base camp and more as a way station: a stop where groups paused to rest, repair, and refresh their portable obsidian toolkits during repeated short-term visits, while nearby chert was quarried and used up on the spot for more immediate needs.

“Our study demonstrates that ancient hunter-gatherers were highly flexible and strategic thinkers,” said Dr. Ariel Malinsky-Buller, a researcher at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology.

“They did not rely on a single way of doing things. Instead, they carefully balanced portable, long-distance toolkits with immediate local resources, treating caves like Ararat-1 as critical hubs to rest, repair their gear, and plan their next move across a challenging landscape.”

The study was published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

_____

David Nora et al. 2025. The role of lithic technology in shaping mobility and decision-making: The case of Ararat-1 Cave. Quaternary Science Reviews 366: 109524; doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109524

https://www.sci.news/archaeology/stone-tools-ararat-1-cave-armenia-14938.html

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German Chancellor speaks on the phone with Armenian prime minister Pashinyan

Tambiyan Samvel
commonspace.eu
July 23, 2026
23 July 2026

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke by telephone on Wednesday afternoon (22 July) with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The two leaders discussed the current situation in the Middle East, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and its impact on the South Caucasus. The Chancellor encouraged further steps in the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan and emphasized its importance for regional stability. Both leaders stressed the opportunities for strengthening bilateral relations and Armenia’s ties with the EU.

source: commonspace.eu with the Office of the German Federal Chancellor (Berlin)


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U.S. House panel urges release of Armenian prisoners

Emil Lazarian
Big News Network
July 23, 2026

PanArmenian.Net
23rd July 2026, 15:44 GMT+11

PanARMENIAN.Net – The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 44-7 on July 22 to approve an amendment calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all Armenian hostages held in Azerbaijan, according to the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The ANCA-backed amendment was introduced by Congressional Armenian Caucus Vice Chair Brad Sherman, a California Democrat. Committee Chairman Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, also supported the initiative, Factor.am reported.

“Today, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 44-7 in favor of my amendment calling on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian POWs. I am proud to have put Congress on the record and will continue fighting to free Armenians unjustly and illegally held, tortured, and abused by Azerbaijan,” Sherman said after the vote.

On June 10, the committee proposal advanced with Chairman Mast’s support. This followed Sherman’s agreement to amend the text by removing a paragraph concerning application of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act.

Sherman also urged the committee to take action based on documented abuses of Armenians held in Azerbaijani captivity.

“Given the documented executions of Armenian prisoners of war by Azerbaijani forces, including several executions that were horrifyingly recorded and circulated on social media, as documented by Human Rights Watch, it is vital that the United States unequivocally support the immediate and unconditional release of all Armenian prisoners of war,” Sherman told the committee in June.

The congressman also linked the release of the hostages to the U.S. administration’s diplomatic efforts in the region.

“As President Trump continues his efforts to secure lasting peace in the South Caucasus, securing the release of Armenian prisoners of war and political prisoners would be a significant step toward this achievement,” he said.

Ruben Vardanyan was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in Baku.

Former Nagorno-Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan was sentenced to life imprisonment. Former Defense Army commander Levon Mnatsakanyan and former first deputy commander Davit Manukyan were also sentenced to life imprisonment, as were former Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Minister Davit Babayan and parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanyan. Former Nagorno-Karabakh presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan were sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Madat Babayan and Melikset Pashayan were sentenced to 19 years in prison, Garik Martirosyan to 18 years, Davit Allahverdyan and Levon Balayan to 16 years, and Erik Ghazaryan, Gurgen Stepanyan and Vasily Beglaryan to 15 years.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said after meeting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that Armenia and the U.S. had completed negotiations on a 123 Agreement on peaceful nuclear cooperation, opening broad opportunities for major projects. He said this could involve up to $5 billion in initial U.S. exports, plus $4 billion in support through fuel and servicing.

Source: PanArmenian.Net

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Jerusalem and Baku owe each other loyalty, not sovereignty

Karakhanian Suren
July 23, 2026

The Jewish state does not bargain over truth – and Azerbaijan deserves Israel’s loyalty, not a veto over its memory.

 by  Shay Gal
Israel’s Cabinet recognized the Armenian Genocide. Then Jerusalem yielded to Baku and withheld the Knesset vote that would have completed the act.

The recognition stands. The capitulation does too.

A Jewish state does not bargain over truth. Azerbaijan deserves Israel’s loyalty, not a veto over Israeli memory.

After the Soviet collapse, Israel forged ties across the South Caucasus. Armenia anchored itself in Moscow and Tehran; Azerbaijan made Israel central to its sovereign foreign policy. Centuries of Jewish life anchor the relationship in Azerbaijani society.

Jerusalem will not apologize for choosing the ally that chose it.

Israeli systems helped Baku overturn the military balance in 2020 and secure the outcome in 2023. Azerbaijan reciprocated with energy and intelligence, safeguarded Jewish communities and Israeli missions, and resisted pressure from Ankara and Tehran.

In 2025, Azerbaijani crude supplied almost half of Israel’s oil imports. This is interdependence, not oil for arms.

Iran is the core. Along Iran’s border, Azerbaijan faces Revolutionary Guard subversion and terror; Israel confronts the same regime across the region. In March 2026, Baku exposed Iranian plots against the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Israel’s embassy, a synagogue, and a leader of the Mountain Jewish community.

Intelligence binds them; cyber, air defense, and infrastructure protection turn alignment into power. Israel needs a sovereign Azerbaijan on Iran’s northern frontier, not a battlefield or launchpad. Azerbaijan needs an Israel that confronts Tehran.

Beyond Iran, the partnership reaches orbit: Israel Aerospace Industries supplies Azercosmos with advanced satellites, the Technion builds Baku’s cyber capacity, and cooperation spans artificial intelligence, water, agriculture, trade, and investment. Azerbaijan also bridged Jerusalem and Ankara, hosting talks to avert a clash in Syria.

“One nation, two states” binds Azerbaijan to Turkey. Yet Baku preserved its ties with Israel when Ankara sought its isolation, and blocked Turkey’s 2009 opening to Armenia until Azerbaijani interests were secured.

Turkey is Azerbaijan’s closest ally, not its master.

Pro-government Turkish outlets cast Baku’s ties with Jerusalem as a betrayal of the Muslim world. State-aligned Azerbaijani media exposed the campaign. Turkey’s presidential disinformation apparatus stayed silent.

In Erdogan’s media system, silence is authorization. The campaign sought to punish Baku’s ties with Israel and subordinate its policy to Ankara.

The Armenian Genocide is where Azerbaijani sovereignty stops, and Ankara’s denial begins.

1915 was an Ottoman crime committed before Azerbaijan existed as a state, while most Azerbaijanis lived under Russian rule. Responsibility lies with the Committee of Union and Progress and the military, police, officials, and auxiliaries that organized deportation, dispossession, and mass death.

Baku inherited no guilt from 1915. By dismissing the genocide as “so-called,” denouncing Israel’s recognition and demanding reversal, Baku made Ankara’s denial its own.

Azerbaijan must recognize a genocide it did not commit. Recognition reclaims its history from Ankara and opens reconciliation on three terms: truth without inherited guilt, responsibility without humiliation, peace without amnesia.

The South Caucasus has its own ledger. The violence of 1905 and 1906 destroyed Armenian and Muslim communities alike. In March 1918, Bolshevik and Dashnak forces massacred Muslims in Baku. That September, the Ottoman Army of Islam, supported by local Azerbaijani forces, massacred Armenians in the same city. In 1920, Shusha’s Armenian quarter was destroyed and its community erased.

Decades later came Sumgait, the Baku pogrom, Khojaly, mass displacement, and two wars.

A grave is not an argument against another grave.

Azerbaijani suffering belongs in the record. Armenian selectivity demands a fuller history, not Turkish falsification.

The Washington agreement, initialled on August 8, 2025, remains unsigned over Baku’s demand for constitutional revision. It recognizes neither genocide nor atrocity from the early twentieth century, requires no apology, forecloses new interstate claims predating signature, and compels the withdrawal or settlement of existing proceedings.

It is amnesia codified.

Defeat constrained Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. It did not require him to purge genocide recognition from Armenian foreign policy or reduce peace to borders, transit, and survival. Survival is his duty, not erasure.

Under the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, Armenia retains jurisdiction, customs, and border control; a company jointly owned by the United States and Armenia receives a concession for 49 years, renewable for another 50, to develop roads, railways, pipelines, power, and fibre.

Armenia keeps the flag. Baku receives the corridor’s function.

The treaty must codify Azerbaijani recognition of the Armenian Genocide and require Yerevan to name the March 1918 massacre of Muslims in Baku, the expulsions of Azerbaijanis, and the Khojaly. Shusha, Sumgait, and the Baku pogrom must enter a shared historical record.

Peace without truth is transient.

Azerbaijan has won. Conditioning peace on constitutional revision turns victory into obstruction.

Jerusalem cannot demand historical truth from Baku and Yerevan while recognizing only one part of the crime.

Israeli historians Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi call the destruction of Armenians, Assyrians, and Ottoman Greeks, including the Pontic Greeks, the Thirty-Year Genocide. From the Hamidian massacres through the Young Turks and into the early Turkish Republic, governments and uniforms changed; the project did not.

It destroyed Anatolia’s Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian peoples through murder, deportation, forced conversion, confiscation, and erasure. It was Turkification through dispossession: peoples, histories, and holy places consumed to fabricate a nation pure enough for its own mythology.

NILI, the Jewish intelligence network in Ottoman Palestine, understood before Jewish statehood. Sarah Aaronsohn witnessed the Ottoman machinery turned against the Armenians; Aaronsohn grasped the warning: once a state brands an indigenous people a security threat, extermination becomes administration. The Jews of the Land of Israel were close enough to know they could be next.

Israel must recognize the whole 30-year genocide.

Geography divides Jerusalem and Baku.

The Syunik route through Armenia, linking Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, strengthens the Middle Corridor by carrying Central Asian trade across the Caspian through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey into Europe. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor runs from India through the Gulf, Jordan, and Israel to Europe, carrying freight, energy, and data.

The routes coexist physically but compete for capital, cargo, standards, data, insurance and control of Asia’s European gateway. Every railway, guarantee, and regulatory regime entrenches one architecture and erodes the other.

IMEC binds Israel to India, the Gulf, Cyprus, Greece, and Europe. The Middle Corridor ties Azerbaijan’s rise to Turkey’s control of the western exit. South Asia exposes the strategic cost: Baku and Ankara backed Pakistan, a nuclear state that refuses to recognize Israel, against India, Jerusalem’s principal Asian partner.

Israel will trade with Baku and build IMEC.

Baku converted Turkey’s occupation of parts of Cyprus into a protocol. The illegal secessionist entity entered the Organization of Turkic States as an observer in 2022. President Ilham Aliyev hosted and chaired the October 7, 2025, summit in Gabala, Azerbaijan, then signed its declaration styling Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar as president and recasting occupation as an “existing reality.”

The same summit deepened integration among defence industries and proposed joint exercises in Azerbaijan. Baku operates Israeli systems; Israel must firewall the technology, doctrine, and operational knowledge behind those systems from Ankara through transfer controls, compartmentalization, and cyber safeguards.

Azerbaijan cannot invoke territorial integrity in Karabakh while legitimizing Turkey’s partition of Cyprus.

Ankara is militarizing the occupied areas at Lefkoniko and Bogazi, extending its reach over Israel’s sea lanes, energy fields, undersea cables, air approaches, and IMEC’s Mediterranean outlet.

Israel’s objective is Turkish withdrawal and the Republic’s reunification. If Ankara entrenches and weaponizes the occupation, Jerusalem will, at Nicosia’s request and with Greece, restore the Republic’s sovereignty by force.

Jerusalem and Baku will stand by one another. Loyalty runs both ways. Sovereignty remains each capital’s own.

Shay Gal is the founder and principal of Line of State, a strategic practice that works with governments, institutions, and decision-makers on strategy, risk, access, and security decisions in high-stakes environments.


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Armenian rights lawyer files ECHR complaint over Ruben Vardanyan’s 20-year jai

Aram Torosian
JAM News
July 23, 2026
  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

Human rights lawyer Siranush Sahakyan has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the case of Ruben Vardanyan, the former state minister of the former unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. She said she would represent Vardanyan before the court. Sahakyan has represented Armenian detainees at the ECHR for many years.

“The application sets out in detail violations of eight articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, supported by comprehensive legal and factual arguments,” Sahakyan said in a statement shared with the media and posted on social media.

Vardanyan is one of 19 Armenians still held in Azerbaijani prisons. In February 2026, a military court in Baku sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

According to Sahakyan, the defence was only recently able to obtain the court’s written judgment, which was required before an application could be submitted to the ECHR. She said Azerbaijan had withheld the ruling until then, which is why the complaint was filed only on 19 July.

The court found Vardanyan guilty of a number of serious offences, including waging war, financing terrorism and deportation.

Armenian rights groups, however, have described the trial in Baku as “political rather than legal”. Vardanyan himself called the proceedings “a farce” and “a mockery of justice”. During the hearings, he instructed his lawyer not to present arguments in his defence.

“It is impossible to protect rights in a system that fundamentally denies the right to a fair trial. That is why Ruben Vardanyan decided to continue his fight for justice through international legal mechanisms,” Sahakyan said.

  • Opinion: ‘ECHR ruling is indisputable historical fact’
  • Four ethnic Armenians held in Azerbaijan jails handed over to Armenia
  • Ruben Vardanyan not allowed to finish what he wanted to tell Azerbaijan’s ombudsman

Details of Vardanyan case

In her statement, Sahakyan disclosed further details of the case. She said the military court in Baku did not read out the full verdict. Now that Vardanyan’s family has passed the written judgment to his lawyers, it has become clear that he was convicted on 41 counts under 21 articles of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code.

According to Sahakyan, the judgment does not substantiate Vardanyan’s personal criminal responsibility with facts or evidence.

“Instead, the court concluded that the ‘criminal organisation’ – the leadership of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh – had been operating in Nagorno-Karabakh since 1988. It also found that Vardanyan joined this ‘organisation’ in December 2020, although he was living in Moscow at the time.”

She also said the court treated Vardanyan’s appointment to a civilian administrative post as a violent seizure of power. His commercial and charitable activities were classified as illegal entrepreneurship and financing terrorism, while his entry into Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor was deemed an illegal crossing of Azerbaijan‘s state border.

Sahakyan said Vardanyan had not appealed against the verdict because he regarded the trial as staged and pre-planned, and considered all domestic legal remedies ineffective.

‘Shocking but expected verdict’: Ruben Vardanyan sentenced to 20 years in Baku

The former state minister of the unrecognised NKR barred his lawyer from presenting arguments in his defence, saying it was “not a court, but a tribunal”. Vardanyan’s final statement, his family’s response and expert commentary

Background

On 17 February, a military court in Baku sentenced Russian-Armenian businessman, billionaire and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan to 20 years in prison. His case was heard separately from those of the former leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh.

A month after the verdict, Vardanyan’s family said he had tried to raise concerns with Azerbaijan’s Human Rights Commissioner, Sabina Aliyeva, during a phone call with relatives, but the call was cut off.

The family has repeatedly appealed to the international community, saying that neither Vardanyan nor the other Armenian detainees in Azerbaijan have access to institutional protection. They argue that the country lacks independent human rights protection mechanisms. They have also noted that the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had facilitated contact between detainees and their families, has ceased operations in Azerbaijan.

On 5 February, two weeks before Vardanyan’s sentence was announced, an Azerbaijani court handed life sentences to several other former Nagorno-Karabakh leaders, including former President Arayik Harutyunyan, former Defence Army commander Levon Mnatsakanyan, his deputy Davit Manukyan, former parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanyan and former Foreign Minister Davit Babayan. Former presidents Arkady Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan were sentenced to 20 years in prison.

All of the detainees faced a range of serious charges, including terrorism and genocide. Ghukasyan and Sahakyan received lighter sentences because they are over 65, and Azerbaijani law does not allow life imprisonment for people above that age.

Independent media and human rights observers were not allowed to attend the trials. Information about the proceedings was published by Azerbaijani state and pro-government media.

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Armenian sellers suffer losses after Ukraine strikes Wildberries warehouses in

Vorskanian Yeghisabet
OC Media
July 23, 2026
by Arshaluys Barseghyan

23 July 2026•4 min read

Armenian businesses selling through Russia’s largest online marketplace Wildberries have been affected by Ukrainian drone strikes targeting the company’s logistics centres and warehouses, with many now uncertain whether they will be compensated for their losses.

Since 18 July, Ukraine has launched a series of long-range drone strikes on Wildberries warehouses across Russia. The attacks caused extensive material damage, killing at least eight workers and injuring around 80.

Wildberries remains one of the most widely used e-commerce platforms in Armenia, both for consumers and sellers.

In 2025, the company ranked as Armenia’s 39th-largest taxpayer, paying over ֏8 billion ($21 million) in taxes. However, it was absent from the State Revenue Committee’s list of the country’s 1,000 largest taxpayers for the first quarter of 2026.

The strikes came amid an intensification of Ukraine’s attacks against Russian logistics and military infrastructure. Since early July, Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities have contributed to fuel shortages in parts of Russia.

In a statement following the attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said Ukrainian long-range drones ‘successfully struck important targets’ in Russia, which he called ‘logistics hubs involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment, and other gear’.

‘We are, quite justly, bringing the war back home — to Russia’, Zelenskyi added.

On 21 July, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that the situation facing Wildberries and the small and medium-sized businesses using the platform was ‘difficult’, adding that the Russian government was in contact with the company.

He also denied allegations that Wildberries warehouses were being used to supply the Russian military.

However, the BBC reported that Wildberries sells a range of military-related goods, including body armour, alongside products that have both civilian and drone-production applications. It also cited pro-war bloggers as saying that volunteers regularly purchase equipment through online marketplaces to send to the front, while noting there was no independent evidence that the warehouses targeted in the attacks stored such supplies.

The BBC also noted that the strikes disrupted the livelihoods of hundreds of Russian sellers who rely on online marketplaces, adding that Wildberries and its competitor Ozon are used by an estimated 85–90% of Russia’s economically active population.

The attacks have also heightened concerns over compensation.

Earlier in July, Wildberries amended its contracts with sellers, adding drone attacks to the list of force majeure events for which the company bears no liability.

Although Wildberries owner Tatyana Kim pledged not to ‘abandon’ sellers and announced temporary discounts and waived shipment fees, many merchants remain sceptical that they will receive compensation.

According to Forbes Russia, rebuilding just the first two damaged warehouses could cost ₽33 billion ($420 million). The outlet estimated sellers’ losses at no less than ₽150 billion ($1.9 billion), noting that compensating sellers in full would likely consume almost all of the company’s 2025 net profit, which is ₽175 billion ($2.2 billion).

RFE/RL reported that more than 10,000 Armenian businesses sell their products through Wildberries. Many of the sellers the outlet spoke to said they had received no clear information about compensation, while some feared any support measures would primarily benefit Russian businesses.

Gurgen Tadevosyan, who sells silver jewellery on Wildberries, estimated his losses at around ֏1.5 million ($3,900). Like many sellers, he had stored his products in several of the company’s warehouses across Russia, as required by Wildberries to speed up deliveries to customers. He now does not know whether his goods survived the attacks.

Donara Grigoryan, who sells household goods, also told RFE/RL she was unsure about the status of her assets.

‘I currently have products stored in seven warehouses, and two of them are now gone. That means I’m left hoping that the other five warehouses are still intact. I’m in such a state of panic now that I don’t know whether, when I wake up tomorrow morning, another warehouse will have been targeted overnight’, Grigoryan said.

After Wildberries revised its seller contracts, Grigoryan suspected that ‘something might happen’, though she never expected the scale of the destruction.

Grigoryan said Armenian sellers should organise collectively to ensure their concerns are heard and to press for equal treatment in any future compensation programme.

As uncertainty persists, Armenian influencers have sought to draw attention to the issue, urging sellers to share the codes of products still stored in Russian warehouses and encouraging consumers to order them in support of Armenian businesses.

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How does Armenian cuisine travel from the Caucasus Valley to Chinese dining ta

Antranik Varosian
Street Insider
July 23, 2026
July 23, 2026 7:10 AM EDT

Qingdao, China, July 23, 2026 — Step into the open-air markets of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, or venture into the rural farms of the Ararat Valley, and you’ll find the unique delicacies nurtured by the Caucasian sun: plump, golden dried apricots, rich and natural jams, fragrant pomegranate products, pure and sweet mountain mineral water, and premium wines with a thousand-year history.

These distinctive products, embodying Armenia’s natural bounty and national culture, have long been a staple on the tables of local residents and a vital symbol of the country’s agricultural and food industries. However, due to limited international logistics networks and insufficient overseas sales channels in the past, many high-quality, affordable local products could only circulate through traditional trade models, making it difficult to truly reach a broader international consumer market.

In recent years, with the rapid development of global cross-border e-commerce and the continuous improvement of international logistics infrastructure, Armenian specialty products have ushered in new development opportunities. As a major global consumer market, China’s demand for natural, organic, and high-quality imported foods continues to grow. Armenian dried fruits, jams, wines, mineral water, and other products, with their unique flavors and high cost-performance ratio, are gradually gaining favor among Chinese consumers and becoming new highlights in cross-border trade.

The Chinese market opens up new growth opportunities for Armenia’s distinctive industries.

“In the past, our dried apricots and pomegranate juice were mainly sold to neighboring countries, and the market size was limited. During the harvest season, we often faced price fluctuations and inventory pressure,” said Aram Sargsyan, an agricultural exporter from the Ararat Valley.

“But in recent years, the Chinese market has brought us new opportunities. More and more Chinese consumers prefer high-quality foods that are naturally processed and additive-free, and our order volume has increased significantly, while product prices have become more stable. More importantly, more and more young people are willing to return to their hometowns to participate in agricultural processing and export trade.”

Alan’s experience is a microcosm of how many small and medium-sized enterprises in Armenia have achieved transformation and upgrading through cross-border trade.

The development of cross-border markets has not only changed traditional sales models but is also driving the upgrading of local industrial chains. From agricultural product planting, processing, and packaging to international transportation, warehousing, and distribution, and then to overseas sales services, a new industrial ecosystem centered around the export of specialty products is gradually taking shape.

Innovating the “city agency model” to create a local Armenian cross-border entrepreneurship ecosystem

To further help high-quality Armenian products enter the international market, cross-border supply chain service companies, such as Panyuan International Logistics, are exploring innovative cooperation models that are closer to the local market – the “city agent model.”

This model upgrades the traditional single export model into a comprehensive system of “city operation + cross-border supply chain + international sales” by recruiting local partners in Armenia to become city agents responsible for regional product integration, procurement , and marketing.

This model not only lowers the barriers for local businesses to enter the international market, but also allows more ordinary residents to share the benefits of cross-border economic development, realizing the transformation from “product export” to “industrial co-construction”.

For many young Armenian entrepreneurs, the city agency model offers a new career development path. They don’t need to invest heavily in building complex supply chain systems; they can participate in international trade and achieve local entrepreneurship and income growth simply by leveraging established cross-border logistics platforms and supply chain resources.

Pan-Yuan International is building a “New Silk Road Corridor” connecting the Caucasus region with the Chinese market.

High-quality products cannot reach the world without the support of a stable, efficient, and secure cross-border logistics system.

In response to the transportation needs of Armenian specialty products, Panyuan International Logistics, leveraging its years of experience in cross-border e-commerce logistics, provides local businesses with integrated supply chain solutions covering the export end, international transportation end, and Chinese consumer end.

From local warehousing and consolidation, product sorting and professional packaging, to international air and sea freight, and then to customs clearance and last-mile delivery in China, Panyuan International helps Armenian businesses reduce logistics costs and improve transportation efficiency through a full-process service.

Meanwhile, relying on the digital supply chain management system, Panyuan International has achieved full-process visual tracking of logistics, real-time monitoring of cargo transportation status, and improved the security and stability of cross-border transactions.

By combining logistics infrastructure with local operating networks, Panyuan International not only helps Armenian specialty products enter the Chinese market faster, but also promotes the formation of a more complete cross-border business ecosystem in the region.

From a single dried apricot to an entire industry chain, Armenia’s distinctive economy is ushering in a new future.

Today, Armenian goods are traversing mountains and rivers, connecting two vibrant markets, from traditional agricultural products in the Caucasus Valley to the distinctive delicacies on Chinese consumers’ tables.

Cross-border trade brings not only the flow of goods, but also industrial upgrading, employment growth, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

In the future, with the continuous deepening of the city agency model and the continuous improvement of the cross-border supply chain system represented by Pan Yuan International, more Armenian local enterprises and individuals will have the opportunity to participate in global trade, allowing more high-quality products from the Caucasus region to reach the world.

This “New Silk Road Corridor” connecting Armenia and China is becoming a new bridge to promote economic exchanges between the two countries and allowing more consumers to experience the unique flavors and cultural charm of Armenia.

Contact Info:
Name: Meng Xiao
Email: Send Email
Organization: FAR INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS Co., Ltd.
Website: https://www.far800.com/about?to=p1

Release ID: 89198624

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Armenian Church Ready for New Clashes with PM Pashinyan

Arbi Tashjian
July 23, 2026
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By Benoit Lannoo*

ANTWERP, Belgium | 23 July 2026 (IDN) — It was a remarkable meeting at the Vardavar celebration – the 14th Sunday after Easter – in Etchmiadzin. Armenian Apostolic Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan was blessed by Catholicos Garegin II in the mother-cathedral of this autocephalous (independent) Eastern Church. ‘Blessing with lots of water’ plays a central role on Vardavar.

This encounter was striking since the primate of Tavush is under house arrest. Bagrat was arrested a year ago on charges of planning a coup, and he was released from a prison in the centre of Yerevan just before the Armenian parliamentary elections of Sunday, 7 June. But Bagrat is apparently allowed to attend the liturgy, and he took advantage of this to go to the patriarchal mother-church and to be openly blessed by his Catholicos.

In doing so, both prelates subtly make it clear that they remain allies in their opposition to the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his U-turn concerning the former Armenian enclave of Artsakh. That enclave – also known by its Russian name Nagorno-Karabakh – was ‘cleansed’ of its more than one hundred thousand Armenian residents by Azerbaijan in the autumn of 2023. Pashinyan, however, prefers not to talk about it anymore. Pashinyan won the elections and his renewed government recently formally approved the peace agreement he signed with Azerbaijan in August last year. That agreement also provides for Armenia to amend the constitution, because it still contains an indirect reference to the reunification of the motherland with Nagorno-Karabakh.

But Pashinyan’s electoral Civil Contract alliance has no constitutional majority. The question is whether Pashinyan will succeed in completely wiping the Artsakh issue off the agenda in the coming months. He is not exactly helped by his former opponent and new partner, Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan. Aliyev is not the man to settle for a resounding victory. His adversaries must be humiliated, and new conditions added to every ceasefire or peace agreement. A few days ago, Aliyev publicly declared that the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh was justified, criticised the European and international bodies that defend the right to self-determination of the Artsakhians and – oh irony! – added that the South Caucasus should be governed by… international law.

Aliyev, however, does not care about any international law. In Artsakh’s capital Stepanakert, the Azeri’s just before the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide destroyed the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral entirely. Aliyev also consistently calls Armenia ‘West Azerbaijan,’ not hiding new territorial expansion claims. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani strongman turns his back on anyone who stands in his way: he explicitly left the Council of Europe and do not want to deal anymore with the European Parliament, because both institutions are insisting on international law and the rights of the Artsakhians. But meanwhile, Aliyev has become one of Europe’s most prominent suppliers of gas and oil – or is it still Russian gas oil with a new label on it?

That is why Commission President Ursula von der Leyen continues to pamper the Azerbaijanis. Last Week, it became clear once again that the European Parliament is not happy with Von der Leyen’s politics in the South Caucasus. At a conference about some twenty former politicians and military leaders from Artsakh, who were sentenced to heavy prison terms in Baku in mock trials, and whose release is demanded by the European Parliament in an almost unanimously adopted motion, it appeared that the European Union can no longer maintain its stance on this matter. The European elected representatives are asking to support Artsakh, but the European Commission and the member states united in the European Council are reluctant to do so.

Meanwhile, the Armenian Apostolic Church has gone through its deepest crisis since the end of the Soviet Union. Last summer, Prime Minister Pashinyan started a smear campaign against the Catholicos of All Armenians through his Facebook account. The prime minister and his wife openly accused the supreme leader of the Church of not taking celibacy too seriously and even having fathered a child. On several occasions, he also explicitly called on the faithful to go to the Veharan – the residence of the Catholicos in Etchmiadzin, about thirty kilometres west of the capital Yerevan – to depose the Catholicos, a declaration that each time caused a lot of commotion there.

Armenians in Armenia and in the diaspora repeatedly ask me: ‘Why is Pashinyan attacking the Catholicos only since last Summer? He has been Armenia’s strongman since 2018, so why did he never make those accusations earlier?’ Rumours about the ‘Catholicos of all Armenians’ are not new; just about every observer says that there have been complaints behind the scenes for years about the luxurious lifestyle of Ktritsch Nersissian (Prime Minister Pashinyan since last Summer invariably calls the patriarch by his baptismal name), about his authoritarian Church government, and even about the vow of celibacy that he would not respect. The answer to the question ‘why now?’ is not ecclesiastical at all, but pure political; and it has a lot to do with Artsakh.

Someone who made the effort to look at the complex situation in the Southern Caucasus from all angles is the Lebanese-born journalist and researcher Vicken Cheterian. This lector in international relations in Geneva has coordinated the publication The 44-Day War: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the struggle for Nagorno-Karabakh. In that book from 2025, several scholars look back from both Armenian and Azerbaijani angles on the 44-Day War of 2020, when Azerbaijan, with the explicit support of Turkey and with Israeli drones, managed to recapture all buffer areas around the enclave of Artsakh from the Armenians who had gained them after the bloody first war for Nagorno-Karabakh (1988-1994).

Some argue that Pashinyan unintentionally provoked that 44-Day War by stating with fanfare during a military parade in Shushi in May 2020 – in the middle of the enclave – that ‘Karabakh is Armenian; period!’ In doing so, he ignored how much Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had not only fuelled anti-Armenian hatred in his country, but in the meantime also had heavily weaponized his military. Yerevan apparently had not understood that the Armenians would stand alone if Baku attacked again. Indeed, when the Azeris advanced on Stepanakert and Shushi in September 2020, no other country was ready to properly defend the Artsakhians. The European Union, for example, was overflowing with large and senseless declarations and no action at all.

Russian President Vladimir Putin forced both sides into a ceasefire on 10 November 2020. When I drove past the road to Shushi a few days later, a Turkish flag was flying unabashedly next to an Azerbaijani flag. Pashinyan misjudged the situation once again. As so-called environmentalists blocked the only corridor to what remained of Artsakh in December 2022, the Russian peacekeepers did not intervene. Nor did they when Azerbaijan attacked again in September 2023 and the hundred thousand remaining Artsakhians fled the enclave within Azerbaijan’s borders to the Armenian motherland. Only then did Pashinyan understand: Nagorno-Karabakh has been lost, and he no longer had any ally to count on!

That is why Prime Minister Pashinyan made his U-turn: he resigned himself to the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh and tried to normalize relations with former enemies Azerbaijan and Türkiye. But the Armenian Apostolic Church rejected this U-turn. ‘Before, the Church was always loyal to those who call the shots in Yerevan,’ Cheterian explains. Catholicos Garegin I (1983-1995) did not interfere with the politics of President Levon Ter-Petrossian (1991-1998), nor with those of his successors Robert Kotcharian (1998-2008) and Serzh Sarksyan (2008-2018). Even after his Velvet Revolution of 2018 and after his first re-election in 2021, the relationship of Armenia’s new Prime Minister, former journalist Nikol Pashinyan, with Catholicos Garegin II at first remained cordial.

However secularized the former Soviet republic may be, the Armenian Apostolic Church is the linchpin of the Armenian identity. People with money support her. Philanthropists, for example, have funded the construction of the gigantic cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, which was inaugurated in Yerevan in 2001 to celebrate 1700 years of Christianity in the country. Women invariably wear a cross on a necklace; men have Christian symbols tattooed on their arms. The Metz Yeghern – ‘Great Crime’ – also plays a key role within this national narrative. During the Armenian genocide of 1915, the government of the Young Turks in Istanbul killed one and a half million Armenians and systematically wiped out the Armenian identity of western Armenia.

There are no Armenians anymore in Eastern Anatolia and any remaining churches or monasteries are now in ruins, like those of the city of Ani, where Turkish tourist guides do not even dare to admit that it is Armenian heritage. The Azerbaijani regime, under the father Heydar and the son Ilham Aliyev, has done the same in the Nakhichevan exclave southeast of Armenia and is currently doing it again in Artsakh. Several churches are already destroyed, graveyards have been desacralized, and hundreds of khachkars (carved memorial steles bearing a cross, characteristic of medieval Christian Armenian art) have disappeared. Aliyev takes his time, but no doubt that the Armenian heritage of Artsakh will be erased from memory as it has been done before in Anatolia and in Nakhichevan.

Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the primate of the northern diocese of Tavush, has always been revolting most strongly against Pashinyan’s political turn. ‘Artsakh is ours,’ he told me explicitly when I met him in November 2023, before his arrest. ‘It is in the monasteries of Artsakh that Armenian Christianity and even our language and our alphabet were conceived. You cannot separate the loss of Artsakh from the broader Armenian question, from the Armenian Genocide and from the attacks and the negationism of Türkiye and Azerbaijan.’ In May 2024, Galstanyan organised ‘Tavush for the Homeland’, a protest march on Yerevan, and he called for Prime Minister Pashinyan to be removed from power.

That is not to say that the Catholicos himself sided with the opposition. Strategically, Garegin II is keeping a low profile on narrowly political issues. But everyone knows that Etchmiadzin is very sympathetic to Galstanyan’s analysis. There were even whispers that Galstanyan could be a viable candidate for the premiership. Cheterian, however, stresses the pointlessness of Galstanyan’s movement. ‘It is inconceivable that Baku will leave Nagorno-Karabakh, certainly not in the near future. Who would encourage President Aliyev to do so? Not the Russians, not the Europeans, and not the Americans, because since the war in Ukraine, they all prefer to keep oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan as friendly as possible.’

Pashinyan, Aliyev and ‘peace broker’ Donald J. Trump in Washington on 8 August last year signed a memorandum of understanding. This was never a peace agreement! It is a business deal that gives in to all Azerbaijan’s aggression in recent years in exchange for a lucrative trade corridor through the southern Armenian province of Syunik – the memorandum of understanding text does not even have the courtesy of giving that corridor an Armenian name but already uses the Azerbaijani name for the province in question, Zangezur. It also does not mention Artsakh, nor the hundred thousand Artsakhians on the run, nor the Artsakhian political prisoners in Baku, nor the Armenian cultural-religious heritage that the Azeris are already destroying…

Analyst Cheterian does not think it is possible to go back on the Washington agreement. Pashinyan’s U-turn might not be liked by the Church, the Armenian diaspora in Europe and the United States, nor the political opposition in the homeland; that opposition is hopelessly divided. Meanwhile, Pashinyan has been playing it hard: anyone who criticises his policy is taken before the courts for alleged crimes. Armenia’s richest man and important philanthropist of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Samvel Karapetyan, has been in jail since last Summer. Following the election, his ‘Strong Armenia’ alliance became the largest opposition force in the National Assembly, but only half as big as Pashinyan’s Civil Contract.

‘In 2018 Pashinyan had promised to tackle corruption in the country and to reform its governance in a transparent, democratic way,’ Cheterian points out. ‘He didn’t keep any of those promises.’ On the contrary, the Prime Minister has become an autocratic leader abusing all institutions for his personal ambitions, just like Soviet leaders did at their time and Armenian politicians have done since independence.’ Three Archbishops were put behind bars: Bagrat Galstanyan of Tavush, Mikael Ajapahjan of Shirak, and Mkrtich Proshan of Aragatsotn, as are other Church leaders, priests and opposition leaders. Experts from the United Nations, meanwhile, are challenging Armenia’s prosecution over terrorism charges against Archbishop Galstanyan.

At the end of November last year, ten prelates shocked observers as they sat around the table with Pashinyan and… joined his calls for the Catholicos to step aside. Among them were archbishops of dioceses in the motherland, such as Sion Adamyan of Armavir, Arakel Karamyan of Kotayk, and Abraham Mkrtchjan of Vayots Dzor. They were joined by bishops from the diaspora, like Vazgen Mizakhanyan of the diocese in the Baltic States, or Hovnan Derderian of the diocese in the western United States. But during a remarkable meeting in the Austrian abbey of Sankt Pölten last February, Archbishop Derderian, considered one of the leading figures of the dissidence, signed an appeal for unity in the Armenian Apostolic Church and confirmed his loyalty to the katholikos.

The most surprising element of the crisis was that Archbishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan of the diocese of Artsakh – the diocese in exile – was also among the dissidents opposing the katholikos. His participation to the movement showed that it obviously was no longer just about Artsakh. What, then, was it about? It is true that each of the ten dissidents was rumoured to nurse personal ambitions, to have fallen victim to corruption or to be involved in private business deals. They did not form a solid, united front. However, many observers think that the ‘dissidents’ had had enough of the pro-Russian position of the leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church. (Now that the dissidence has disappeared, Archbishop Abrahamyan of Artsakh seems to suffer from a serious burnout.)

Pashinyan & Co. indeed have realized that Armenia can expect little from its historical allies in Moscow, and therefore better turn towards Washington and seek a normalization of relations with Baku and Ankara. ‘There is a lot to be said for that,’ Cheterian remarks, ‘if you want effectively to prevent new violence in the Southern Caucasus.’ After all, the Azerbaijani President Aliyev will not need much justification to attack again. That is why it is so dangerous to cherish Aliyev without holding him accountable for what he is doing in Nagorno-Karabakh or with the Artsakhian political hostages held in prison in Baku. Was there ever before in history a peace agreement without releasing prisoners before the agreement?’

Unfortunately, the Churches also are cherishing Aliyev. Pope Leo XIV received the Armenian Apostolic Catholicos Aram I of Cilicia in mid-May. Publicly, the emphasis was on the situation in Lebanon, where many of Aram’s believers live. However, it is obvious that the developments around Artsakh were also discussed during the conversation. But at the same time, the Vatican continues to carefully maintain relations with Azerbaijan. The financial support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation to Vatican projects might play a key role in the good relationship between Rome and Baku. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation richly finances the Vatican Museums and other cultural projects in Catholic Rome. Can the ‘first diplomacy’ in the world continue to be led by Mammon?

*Benoit Lannoo is Church historian and expert in Eastern Oriental Churches.

https://indepthnews.net/armenian-church-ready-for-new-clashes-with-pm-pashinyan/

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