Armenia hosts major EU summits in pivot away from Russia
European leaders have gathered in Armenia for two major summits, as security, trade, and the war in Ukraine dominate talks. The meetings come as a signal of Armenia’s deepening ties with the EU, raising questions over its long-standing alignment with Russia.
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed …
Carney set to meet world leaders at European summit in Armenia
Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Armenia today to meet with world leaders during the European Political Community summit, a gathering touching on strategic co-operation in politics, security and infrastructure.
Canada is the first non-European country to attend these meetings, which include EU countries and others, such as Iceland, Turkey and Ukraine.
Carney met Sunday with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and is today scheduled to meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Prime Minister’s Office says the trip will focus on Ukraine’s defence and drumming up more trade and investment across the continent.
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Executive public servants returning to the office on a full-time basis today
Starting today, executives in the federal public service are expected to work on-site in the office five days a week.
The Treasury Board announced the change to remote work rules in February and said all other employees will have to be in the office four days a week as of July 6.
The new directive applies only to public servants working in the core departments and agencies under Treasury Board, though some separate agencies, like the Canada Revenue Agency, have said they intend to follow the same approach.
Federal unions have fought the government’s back-to-office directives and some have filed unfair labour practice complaints.
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Ontario’s top court set to hear Nygard’s appeal of sex assault conviction, sentence
The Ontario Court of Appeal is set to hear Peter Nygard’s appeal of his sexual assault convictions and prison sentence today, with his lawyers arguing the Toronto trial judge made errors including admitting the testimony of an expert on trauma.
The former fashion mogul was convicted of four counts of sexual assault in 2023 and sentenced to 11 years after multiple women came forward with allegations dating from the 1980s until the mid-2000s.
Nygard’s lawyers argue the 84-year-old’s sentence is “excessive” and that the judge erred in admitting the testimony of clinical psychologist Lori Haskell on the effects of trauma.
The Crown says the admission of Haskell’s testimony at Nygard’s trial was a “harmless error” that did not mislead the jury or cause a miscarriage of justice.
Alberta separatists set to deliver thousands of signatures on petition for referendum
A group of Alberta separatists gathering thousands of signatures to trigger a referendum on the province quitting Confederation is set to hand in its petition sheets today to Elections Alberta’s head office in Edmonton.
The question of separation could go on a provincewide ballot as early as October, as Premier Danielle Smith has said she would move forward if enough names are gathered and verified.
However, the petition could face another hurdle.
An Edmonton judge is expected to rule this week on a court challenge launched by a group of Alberta First Nations that say the petition violates treaty rights.
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May the 4th (be with you): Why iconic Star Wars films and shows have stuck with fans
Star Wars fans still put a lot of weight into the franchise, whether it be as a lasting message of resistance or a force pulling their family together.
May the 4th is considered a psuedo-holiday for them because of its punny resemblance to the movie series’ iconic line “May the force be with you.”
Some fans at the recent Calgary Expo, dressed in all types of Star Wars costumes developed in the nearly 50 years since the first flick, say the movies and TV shows of a galaxy far, far away represent a resistance against larger institutions.
Temuera Morrison, who has played Jango Fett and Boba Fett, says it’s heartwarming to know that he’s been a part of many fans’ childhoods and even helped some through dark times.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2026.
The Canadian Press
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On Monday (4 May 2026), NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte joined European leaders and partners for the European Political Community Summit in Yerevan to discuss shared security challenges.
Mr Rutte participated in the plenary session, as well as a roundtable discussion on addressing challenges posed by hybrid threats. The Secretary General also took part in several meetings in the margins, including with the host, Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, with whom he discussed NATO’s partnership with Armenia. He met with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reaffirming NATO’s unwavering support for Ukraine, and also met with several other leaders, including the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
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Ani Bridge deal marks historic step in Türkiye-Armenia normalization: VP Yilmaz
By Yagiz Efe Parmaksiz
May 04, 2026 05:32 PM GMT+03:00
Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz stated Monday that the eighth European Political Community summit in Yerevan marked a historic moment for Türkiye-Armenia relations.
He described the signing of the Ani Bridge restoration memorandum as a “symbolic” but concrete step in a normalization process that has been building since 2022 and called on the South Caucasus peace track to serve as a model for a conflict-ridden world.
“This is the first high-level visit in 18 years,” Yilmaz told reporters.
He noted that President Erdogan, the parliamentary speaker, and other officials had previously held contacts but that the Yerevan attendance represented a new level of direct engagement.
“We see a positive direction, toward peace, toward normalization,” he added.
‘A symbolic bridge toward future’
Yilmaz said the Ani Bridge memorandum, signed by special representatives of both countries with Yilmaz as a witness, would see Türkiye’s General Directorate of Highways and Armenia’s Ministry of Culture jointly restore the historic structure.
He described the bridge as straddling the two countries, one side in Türkiye and the other in Armenia, and said it had been damaged in past conflicts with Russia.
“Just as this bridge once connected us, we expect our relations to develop on very solid foundations in the future,” he said.
“Technical preparations are already complete. There are no longer any obstacles. We expect the work to begin as soon as possible,” Yilmaz noted.
‘Not just roads’
The Turkish vice president stated that the strategic importance of the Middle Corridor was a central theme of the summit and received strong EU backing.
He stressed that the corridor should be understood as a comprehensive connectivity framework, covering telecommunications, energy and digital infrastructure alongside physical transport routes.
“When you look at today’s circumstances, the war in Ukraine; the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupting Europe more than almost any other region; and competition from the Far East, Europe and Türkiye have inseparable ties and objective common interests,” he said.
He confirmed that progress had been made on the Zangezur Corridor, the route connecting Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave through Armenian territory, saying that agreements had been reached to establish the route.
“The strengthening of the Azerbaijan-Nakhchivan connection will also lay very important groundwork for broader regional cooperation,” Yilmaz said, reaffirming Ankara’s strong support.
‘Historic progress, more to come’
Yilmaz praised both Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for their leadership in the peace process, noting that Aliyev joined the summit via live link.
He said the framework agreement signed in Washington last August represented significant progress and that positive steps were continuing on a daily basis.
“As the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace becomes permanent and Türkiye-Armenia normalization advances, a new atmosphere is being created across the South Caucasus,” he said.
“Everyone in this region will benefit, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Türkiye and all countries in this geography,” the Turkish vice president noted.
Türkiye’s diplomatic role from Gaza to Iran to Balkans
Yilmaz said President Erdogan’s peace diplomacy extended far beyond the South Caucasus, citing active Turkish engagement on the Iran-Israel-U.S. war, Gaza, Syria, Africa, the Balkans and the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
“Wherever there is conflict or dispute, President Erdogan’s serious contributions through leaders’ diplomacy are well known,” he said.
On Türkiye-EU relations, Yilmaz said Türkiye is “a natural part of Europe” and a candidate country, adding that the two sides share objective common interests across security, economic competitiveness and connectivity.
“Our positive relations with Europe in general, and with the EU in particular, will continue in the coming period,” he said.
He closed by thanking Armenian authorities for their warm hospitality, saying, “From the moment we arrived, Armenian officials, led by Prime Minister Pashinyan, showed us close attention and warm hospitality. I thank all Armenian officials and everyone who prepared this beautiful environment.”
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Russia has restricted the sale of Armenian products in Russian major online retailers Wildberries and Ozon, citing new customs requirements and demanding additional documents from sellers. Yerevan claimed that two Armenian opposition parties ‘are behind’ the developments related to Wildberries.
The news about the restrictions was shared on 1 May.
‘Due to changes in customs clearance procedures for goods imported into Russia, there have been temporary difficulties with deliveries from Armenia’, the Head of Ozon in Armenia, Hayk Karapetyan wrote in a Facebook post.
Karapetyan further stated that in order to prevent customers from cancelling orders due to delays in delivery, ‘we have temporarily hidden product listings for these products from customers in Russia’.
At the same time, he noted that all products from Armenian entrepreneurs ‘located in Ozon warehouses in Russia are being sold without restrictions’, while no restrictions were applied to the sale within Armenia from the local sellers.
Separately, a similar statement was released by Wildberries, with the latter noting the changes to customs clearance regulations were applied on 20 April.
‘The company is in constant dialogue with partners and relevant structures and is closely monitoring the development of the situation’, the statement read.
Wildberries further noted that as part of these activities, they held a meeting with Armenian sellers, attended by more than 50 entrepreneurs, discussing ‘emerging issues’. The company expressed hopes of ‘a phased settlement of the situation’.
Shortly after the news broke, Armenian Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan blamed two unnamed opposition parties for the situation, suggesting that their supporters were ‘especially happy and delighted with the problem’.
‘You reached this point today by spending months filing complaints against Armenia with officials of other countries; we will resolve this matter soon’, Papoyan claimed, adding that those people ‘have no place in Armenia’s political life’.
On the same day, Narek Karapetyan, nephew of Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan, was asked to comment on the potential impact. In their questions, journalists cited some as suggesting the possibility of ‘intensified sanctions’ against Armenia against the backdrop of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s visit to Armenia to attend the 8th European Political Community (EPC) Summit, hosted in Yerevan on Monday.
While in Yerevan, Zelenskyi had a one-on-one talk with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
‘The current government must take responsibility for its geopolitical and foreign policy manoeuvres, as each step can carry consequences. We hope these consequences will not be negative for our economy’, Narek Karapetyan said.
He further added that there was a risk that Zelenskyi’s visit could further ‘complicate relations’ with Russia.
Earlier in April, Samvel Karapetyan claimed there would be an ‘economic war’ with Russia in July if Pashinyan remained in power. The warning appeared to be a response to what has become a regular talking point by Pashinyan — that a victory by the opposition in the upcoming parliamentary election would lead to war with Azerbaijan in September.
Public opinion surveys suggest Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia Alliance of Parties is expected to be the main challenger to Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled to be held on 7 June.
Again, on 1 May, Papoyan further claimed there was no political context in Russia’s recent banning of around 1.4 million Jermuk mineral water bottles over alleged regulatory violations.
The two rounds of ban affecting Jermuk followed the recent reopening of an investigation against the company after tense talks between Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 1 April.
Aside from the Jermuk case, immediately after the Pashinyan–Putin talks, Russia announced ‘stricter requirements’ on the import of Armenian products and accused Armenia of coming ‘very close to the point where we will have to restructure our economic relations with this country’.
Russia has previously been accused of using food health standards as a way to exert economic pressure on countries — including Armenia.
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The European Union has built its identity around the export of democratic norms. Rule-of-law conditionality, election monitoring, civil society support are the tools Brussels deploys to signal virtue.
In Armenia, six weeks before the country’s most consequential parliamentary elections in a generation, the EU is deploying all of those tools and aiming every one of them at the wrong target.
The facts are not in dispute.
[ Subscribe to our flagship EUobserver morning update newsletter. .]
Separately, a €12m EU package to “counter disinformation” ahead of the 7 June elections channels funds through institutions directly under the government’s influence.
Armenia’s opposition and many independent observers have characterised this support as green light for election manipulation by conferring European legitimacy on a government that has done nothing to earn it.
Under an emergency legislative procedure permitting adoption within 24 hours — a timeline that makes public deliberation impossible — the ruling Civil Contract party pushed through sweeping Electoral Code amendments, including granting authorities broad new powers to disqualify election observer organisations.
Brussels issued no public response.
Samvel Karapetyan, Armenia’s leading opposition figure, an Armenian-Russian businessman, and a principal financial backer of the Armenian Apostolic Church, remains under house arrest on charges widely described in Armenia as fabricated.
The EU, which conditions candidate country negotiations on judicial independence, has not linked either case to its programming in Armenia.
Brussels would counter that Armenia is a success story, a country that signed a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with the EU and expressed aspirations toward European integration.
But Pashinyan’s own words tell a different story.
Presenting his party’s official election programme, he declared that “it is difficult to overestimate the importance of our relations with Russia” and vowed he “will not allow any attempts to create problems in Armenia–Russia relations.”
He has gone further still: those who seek to “undermine Armenian–Russian friendship and brotherhood,” he announced, “are simply foreign agents”, using the precise term the Kremlin uses to silence dissidents and suppress opposition.
His European overtures are a negotiating card — played to extract resources and legitimacy while he remains firmly tethered to Moscow and Ankara.
The EU is not witnessing a geopolitical pivot. It is being played.
This should surprise no one who has followed the record closely. As this author documented in a 2024 ECIPE Policy Brief, there is evidence that suggests Pashinyan could have met with Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, in Moscow as far back as 2015, three years before his celebrated “Velvet Revolution.”
Once in power, he sent Armenian troops to serve alongside Russian forces in Syria, something his predecessors refused to do, chaired the Eurasian Union Summit in Moscow as recently as May 2024, and has visited Putin several dozen times since coming to power in 2018.
The EU is not financing a democratic partner. It is subsidising a Russian asset.
The EU has been aware of these warning signs and has chosen to ignore them. As the same report published by ECIPE documented, Western officials with direct knowledge of Armenia “ignored all the signs of foul play that were visible” from the outset.
The more structural explanation, however, is energy. When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Europe to diversify its gas imports, Brussels turned to Baku.
EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Azerbaijan in July 2022 and praised it as a “reliable partner,” signing a deal to double gas imports from a regime Freedom House classifies as “Not Free.”
Pashinyan’s Armenia sits squarely between Brussels and Baku. Keeping him in power keeps Aliyev’s gas flowing and the South Caucasus corridor open.
Europe’s failure in Armenia is not simply negligence. It is a transaction.
The stakes are about to become even more concrete.
The first-ever EU–Armenia summit — on Monday (4 May) and Tuesday in Yerevan, with both European Council president António Costa and von der Leyen making the trip — risks compounding every mistake described above.
EU leaders travelling to Yerevan while Pashinyan jails opponents, persecutes the church, and rewrites electoral rules in real time would hand him precisely the Western legitimacy stamp his pre-election narrative requires.
EU leaders would do well to recall how US vice-president JD Vance’s embrace of Viktor Orbán backfired — and resist the temptation to make the same mistake in Yerevan.
Three course corrections are available before 7 June.
First, the EU should reorient its monitoring resources away from the prime minister’s office and toward genuinely independent civil society organisations and opposition-linked observer groups.
Second, Brussels should issue a clear public statement that last-minute changes to the electoral code designed to give the ruling party expanded powers, is incompatible with the democratic standards Armenia has committed to uphold.
Third, the EU should make explicit what its partnership conditionality has always implied: that imprisoning political opponents to prevent their participation in an election, and directing state resources against the country’s principal religious institution, are not behaviours compatible with European integration.
The EU helped Armenia open a door toward Europe. It would be a particular kind of tragedy if European funding and institutional cover were what allowed Pashinyan to slam it shut.
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YEREVAN / ISTANBUL
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Press Release Date 05-04-2026
Etchmiadzin, the Mother See of the Armenian Apostolic Church. photo: csi
As European leaders gather in Yerevan for first EU-Armenia Summit, human rights group publishes list of known political prisoners in Armenia
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, May 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — “Not since the worst excesses of Soviet rule has the Armenian Apostolic Church faced state-sponsored persecution of such depth and intensity,” concludes a new report released today by Christian Solidarity International (CSI).
The report includes a list of known political prisoners in Armenia, the first of its kind published by an international human rights group.
The report is authored by Peter Flew, an international lawyer and historian specializing in religious freedom across Eastern Europe, the Baltic States, and the Caucasus, and is based on his recent fact-finding mission to Armenia. Combining legal analysis with historical background, the report details the effort by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to “subordinate the church to state control.”
The political prisoners named in the report include clergymen, relatives of the clergy, podcasters, church workers, and others detained by the Armenian authorities in their campaign against the church. The report’s list of political prisoners was compiled by CSI in consultation with the Armenian Center for Political Rights.
The report’s release comes as European leaders are gathering in Yerevan for the 8th European Political Community Summit on May 4, followed by the first ever EU-Armenia Summit on May 5.
“European leaders attending well-staged political events in downtown Yerevan should know that they are within walking distance of the prison where Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan is being held on manufactured charges,” said Dr. Joel Veldkamp, CSI’s director for public advocacy.
Since May 2025, Prime Minister Pashinyan has been publicly campaigning to force the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, to resign. As the report shows, Pashinyan’s government has arrested one-third of the archbishops in Armenia, imposed travel bans on the Catholicos and other senior church leaders, and attempted to foment a schism in the church.
On March 12, 2026, the International Observatory for Democracy in Armenia, a watchdog group whose executive team includes Kenneth Roth, the former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, issued a warning about democratic backsliding in Armenia, including “the apparent weaponization of the judiciary and security forces by the government against political opponents.”
The government’s campaign against the church began in May 2025, after the Catholicos spoke at a conference in Switzerland organized by the World Council of Churches. There, the Catholicos publicly advocated for Armenian refugees from Nagorno Karabakh, a region which was ethnically cleansed by Azerbaijan in 2023, to be allowed to return to their homes.
Pashinyan has made signing a peace treaty with Azerbaijan the centerpiece of his national agenda, and has called discussion of the refugees’ right of return “dangerous” for peace. In his address to the European Parliament in March, he accused church leaders of seeking to start a new war with Azerbaijan.
In his introduction to the report, CSI’s president, John Eibner, argues that the Pashinyan government’s campaign against the church must be understood as part of Turkey and Azerbaijan’s effort to “weaken the Armenian nation and diminish its ability to resist submission and integration into the emerging Turkish-led order in the region.”
“More than any other Armenian institution today, the Armenian Apostolic Church poses an obstacle to Turkey and Azerbaijan’s plans,” Eibner argues.
The report ends with a set of official recommendations from CSI to European and American policymakers. These include publicly affirming the right of the Armenian church to choose its own leaders without state interference, urging the Armenian government to release detained clergy and other political prisoners, engaging with independent human rights groups in Armenia, and supporting the Swiss parliament’s Peace Initiative for Nagorno Karabakh.
“Now is the moment for principled and coordinated action,” Flew concludes in the report. “Armenia’s security and prosperity will not be strengthened by subordinating the Armenian Apostolic Church. Instead, they depend on safeguarding the fundamental rights of all Armenians, as well as its national church.”
Patrick Degenhardt
Christian Solidarity International
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‘Far beyond’ EU and NATO: Armenia hosts EPC summit cast as ‘gateway’ in shifting diplomatic order
As 50 world leaders from Europe & Canada gather for Armenia’s first-ever EU summit, Genie Godula is pleased to welcome Dr Gesine Weber, Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies. She describes the European Political
Video at
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The Prime Minister met Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan this afternoon.
The Prime Minister met Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan this afternoon.
The Prime Minister began by thanking Prime Minister Pashinyan for hosting the European Political Community summit.
He commended the significant steps Armenia had taken to secure peace in the region and thanked Prime Minister Pashinyan for his leadership on the issue.
The Prime Minister underlined the UK’s support for Armenia’s resilience through counter-disinformation, cyber security and supporting an independent judiciary and media industry.
As part of discussions, the leaders agreed a new UK-Armenia Strategic Partnership to strengthen cooperation on defence and security, economic growth and democratic resilience.
The leaders looked forward to staying in touch.
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