In a post titled “European Political Week in Yerevan”, Russian analyst Sergey Markedonov referred to the 8th Summit of the European Political Community Platform and the first RA-EU Summit, which will start on May 4 in Yerevan.

In his Telegram channel, Markedonov states that in a few days, the capital of Armenia will turn into a diplomatic pill of the European Union.

According to him, two topics dominate the coverage of upcoming events in the Russian media and social networks: European forums as influencing factors on parliamentary elections (the main electoral process of Armenia’s five-year political cycle) and the “Europeanization” of Yerevan as part of the confrontation between Russia and the “collective West”. Markedonov believes that Moscow’s harsh critics and open opponents will gather in the capital of Armenia in a few days. However, the problem, as always, is broader and more complex,” the analyst notes.

“For many years, as Andrey Sushentsov observes, the European Union was on a “strategic vacation”, relying on the first principle of NATO: “we should keep Americans in”. The Ukrainian military-political crisis introduced certain changes in this positioning. The West became somewhat less united, and the United States made stricter demands on its European allies. As a result, we got Brussels’ attempts to restart relations both within the integration union and with the European periphery. The European political community project, which will be presented to the Armenian audience with great pomp, is widely considered as an initiative that enhances the strategic role of “united Europe”.

Today, Armenia is often compared with Moldova. Indeed, in both cases, Brussels clearly indicated and supported “its” candidate. However, there is an important subtlety. Yerevan does not have a real choice between European and Eurasian integration (as Moldova had, at least until 2022),” Markedonov asserts.

Continuing, Markedonov informs that at the moment the European Union has officially opened membership negotiations with 7 countries: Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine, and Armenia is not on that list, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Kosovo are mentioned in the reference of the European Commission as potential candidates with which negotiations have not yet been opened, Armenia is also on that list. there is none.

“Furthermore, according to Vahan Kostanyan, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Armenia’s membership in the EU is not planned in the short term. The same was openly mentioned in the National Assembly of Armenia by the co-chairs of the EU-Armenia parliamentary partnership.

“It is obvious that Armenia will not join the European Union either at the end of this year or at the end of next year. This process requires time and certain efforts,” said one of the speakers, Neil Ushakov.

It follows from this: The leadership of Armenia is actively trying to integrate into the European political periphery, contributing to the exit of the European Union from “strategic holidays”. And where are the national interests of the country here? This question remains open. At least as a result of this process, the deterioration of relations with Russia is very likely,” says Markedonov, a Russian political scientist.

Referring to the famous British Caucasologist Thomas de Waal, Markedonov reminds us that even Thomas de Waal, who spreads Western narratives, simultaneously acknowledges the existence of dangerous challenges.

“The expert warns his colleagues about the “extremely personalized and polarizing style of Pashinyan’s management”, which can create problems for the European Union, as it happened in Georgia during Saakashvili’s presidency. The current crisis between Brussels and Tbilisi is a direct consequence of European bureaucrats’ incomplete understanding of Caucasian nuances.

Today’s approaches, as well as the personnel composition of the European Union structures, do not allow us to say that Brussels is ready to give up simple generalizations. In this situation, one should not hinder the opponent by allowing him to make mistakes. But it is no less (if not more) important not to make mistakes ourselves.

First of all, to refrain from drastic moves that are dictated by emotions, at least until the June 7, 2026 polling day. Paraphrasing the well-known aphorism, targeting the EU, it is important not to harm Armenia and its people. It should be understood that the government structures are not yet the entire Armenian electorate, and the struggle between pro-Western and pro-Eurasian tendencies will not end either on May 5 or June 8,” writes Russian analyst Sergey Markedonov.

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Czech mass media confirm the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Yerevan. Czech media reports that Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis will have a short meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, May 3, in Armenia within the framework of the European Political Community Summit. As it is noted, the Czech Prime Minister will personally meet with Vladimir Zelensky for the first time after taking office in Yerevan. At the same time, the Czech side did not disclose the topics of the pending negotiations.

“I will also have short bilateral meetings with British Prime Minister Starmer, the Prime Minister of Serbia and the President of Moldova. For the first time, I will also hold talks with Ukrainian President Zelensky. It is important that we meet,” said Babish. However, he stated that he is not planning to visit Ukraine yet. “No, I will not go to Kyiv,” the Czech Prime Minister added. He also noted that in the future he may have a meeting with Zelensky during a conference to be held in Poland, which will probably be dedicated to the restoration of Ukraine.

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In the next few days, the international structures, in particular the International Arbitration Court, will talk about the termination of the powers of the President of the Armenian National Olympic Committee, Gagik Tsarukyan, as the President of the Olympic Committee of Armenia. Hrachya Rostomyan, General Secretary of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee, said this in a conversation with Sputnik Armenia.

On April 12, it became known that the Weightlifting Federation of Armenia applied to the court, demanding to recognize the termination of Gagik Tsarukyan’s powers as the president of the Olympic Committee of Armenia. On April 15, Head of the RA Prime Minister’s Office, President of the Weightlifting Federation Arayik Harutyunyan announced that Gagik Tsarukyan no longer has the right to claim the position of the President of the Armenian Olympic Committee, as his 70th birthday is coming to an end.

Rostomyan notes that the Olympic Charter of the International Olympic Committee clearly stipulates that the National Olympic Committees must act independently of state influence, while the RA authorities are trying to resolve some issue in court.

“Removing the president of the National Olympic Committee is not within the jurisdiction of the given country. That decision is decided by the General Special Assembly of the National Olympic Committee or the Arbitration Court of Lausanne, Switzerland. There is no other mechanism. This is proof of how the state apparatus interferes with the activities of the NAOC, which is unacceptable. In the next few days, both the international structures and the international arbitration court will talk about it,” Rostomyan said.

According to him, the International Olympic Committee and International Sports consider persons who violate the International Olympic Committee charter and try to influence the activities of the National Olympic Committee as persona non grata.

Rostomyan also emphasized that the chairman of the committee is elected for a period of 4 years and fulfills his duties until the next elections. The special session of the General Assembly was supposed to be held on April 11, 25 days ago everyone was notified for proposals, and 10 days ago they received the agenda.
There were confirmations from all federations, except for the Weightlifting Federation, which is headed by Araik Harutyunyan, the head of the RA Prime Minister’s Office.

Rostomyan also referred to the idea expressed by Harutyunyan that Tsarukyan can no longer claim the position of the President of the National Olympic Committee, because he is 70 years old. The head of NAOC assured that the age of the chairman of the committee has no significance.

To remind: The Weightlifting Federation demands from the court to recognize as invalid all the decisions and actions taken by Gagik Tsarukyan from September 9, 2025. In addition, they also demand to recognize the powers of the members of the audit committee and the decisions made by them as having ceased from the same date.

Gagik Tsarukyan was elected the president of the NAOC in 2021. on September 9, for a period of 4 years (Tsarukyan has been holding the position of the President of the Ukrainian National Association of Ukrainian Orthodox Churches since 2004 – ed.). The Federation believes that since 2025 Since September 9, new elections have not taken place, which means that the term of office should be recognized as terminated.

The petition was received by the court on April 8 and was addressed to the judge of general jurisdiction of the first instance, Anushavan Musheghyan.

Let us add that from January 22, 2025, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office Araik Harutyunyan will be the president of the Weightlifting Federation.

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On April 15, when Nikol Pashinyan visited Gyumri, many people from Gyumri expressed their indignation in front of cameras, saying that they are not waiting for Pashinyan in Gyumri, nor for his “Varchabend” concert.

Julieta Avetisyan from Gyumri also expressed her displeasure in the conversation with journalists, saying that she is very dissatisfied with the current state of the country.

“How can the person who handed over Artsakh come to Gyumri, it’s a shameful situation in Armenia?” We are prisoners on our own land, he has a face, he has come to Gyumri, right?” said the woman from Gyumri.

A few days after all of this, a user named Natalie Aleksanyan, who calls herself a blogger, made a post on her Facebook page about Julieta Avetisyan, saying that allegedly one of her followers contacted her and informed her that “Julieta Avetisyan works against the RA authorities and collects money, so she should inform the relevant authorities about it.”

Gyumri human rights defender Karapet Poghosyan reported that after this post, Julieta Avetisyan was taken to the police.

Today, we asked the human rights defender what is the status of Julieta Avetisyan, and what exactly is the police interested in?

“Julieta Avetisyan was detained by the police based on Natali Aleksanyan’s Facebook post. Unfortunately, this is not the first case in recent months, at least in my practice, once again the “Nicolas” propagandists cause people to worry because of their Facebook posts.

At the moment, we still don’t know if there is a criminal proceeding, Julieta Avetisyan was brought to the police in connection with the woman’s post, which had no basis, it was just slander. Now we are waiting, if they decide to initiate criminal proceedings on the basis of false information, of course we will protect Julieta Avetisyan with all our possible means. And if this was an attempt to scare the person, then it was a very unsuccessful attempt, because Ms. Julieta dedicated most of her life to this country, to fight for Artsakh and Armenia.” of 168.am Karapet Poghosyan said in a conversation with

In this context, the human rights defender reminded about another similar case, which happened a month ago with a lady from Akhuryan, whom the law enforcement officers have been keeping under house arrest for a month, again because of such an absurd post.

To the question: if someone or a journalist writes now that this or that representative of the government is distributing bribes, will the law enforcement officers act with the same speed, Karapet Poghosyan answered that even if they present the complete facts on video, they will definitely not be brought into custody, moreover, they will create serious problems for the whistleblower.

“We have repeatedly witnessed that they constantly try to hinder the objective work of journalists. Today we even saw the case of Kirants, when NA deputy Gegham Nazaryan behaved rudely towards journalist Ani Gevorgyan, but there is no reaction from the authorities. We see such insults and insults every day.

Unfortunately, for 8 years, the government has put the whole society under curse and blasphemy. It is not visible in any way that during these years they have at least grown up a little, matured and try to keep themselves restrained and correct,” our interlocutor added.

The human rights defender found it difficult to say or imagine what the government is capable of before the elections. In any case, it is obvious that the government prevents free competition by all possible means, creates an atmosphere of fear, and there are many political prisoners at the moment.

“One of the most absurd criminal proceedings was the one that happened regarding the detective Kandaz from Artsakh, when the person just said that it would be fine. In general, in political activities, when they talk to their potential voters, they will not say, right, we will be elected, and it will be bad, naturally, they say the opposite. We saw what qualifications this received and what illegal actions took place against a friend from Artsakh.

This indicates that everything should be expected from the current authorities. A person who has violated all the articles of the RA constitution, not to mention all the criminal articles and all human norms, will not want to hand over power and go and face the judgment. In this regard, we should be ready for anything, that’s why we said that there was no point in going to the elections, and a different form of struggle should be adopted,” emphasized Karapet Poghosyan.

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To the question of iLur.am, what is his opinion about the pre-election debate, to put it mildly, tough, RA First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan answered:

— I am not at all interested in that play called debate. I am much more concerned about the events of the post-election period, which can be fatal for our country.

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2020 is almost two weeks away. In the context of the 44-day war, the former head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, Colonel-General Onik Gasparyan, returned to the agenda of discussions, the reason for organizing a closed discussion was his last is the offer. 

«I propose to organize a closed-format discussion in the National Assembly about the war and post-war events of 2020, involving in the discussion key political and military positions held during that period, as well as political and public figures who have the appropriate permission to deal with data containing state and official secrets, and relatives of dead and missing servicemen.

It is time to face the reality and explode all the lies and unnecessary speculations that are being circulated. I am ready to present a detailed and multi-faceted argued analysis regarding the armed forces.” stated in the general’s statement to which 168.am referred to. 

Almost at the same time, the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Davit Tonoyan, whom, in fact, Onik Gasparyan also invited to a closed meeting, 24Newsin a conversation with, referring to the proposal of the former head of the General Directorate, he noted:

«I gave exhaustive answers to the questions that were asked to me in the investigative committee. I don’t want to stand on the same rake one more time. I have nothing to add, unless there are more professional questions. And I don’t think that such discussions are appropriate in the pre-election phase, because whether it is closed or open, it will give rise to speculations. unprofessional and incompetent.”

After the statement-proposal distributed on April 18-19, the Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Andranik Kocharyan through “Azatutyan” answering responded to the offer to organize a closed meeting. “Onik Gasparyan answered questions in the investigative commission for two days, and this is included in the report. He gave all the explanations and also presented his considerations. What does he want now?”

But one more on April 30th 24NewsIn a conversation with the National Assembly “Civil Contract” faction MP Gagik Melkonyan, who participated in the work of the 44-day investigative commission, said that he suggested to Andranik Kocharyan, the chairman of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly, that a closed meeting of the former head of the General Assembly Onik Gasparyan be organized with the members of the committee, and Kocharyan allegedly accepted that proposal, that is, did he change his mind?

“Soon you will know the answer to that question. It is possible to organize a closed meeting of Onik Gasparyan with the members of the commission. Of course, we participated in a question-and-answer session with each other for two days, maybe he remembered something or has something to say that he just remembered. And if something has come up after two days of work, I will be happy for him to come and tell me what questions are left. He talked about many issues, told stories, said everything. He gave comprehensive answers to all questions, we did not see any problem. Now we will be happy for that additional part to come… I repeat, I appealed to Andranik Kocharyan, he also has a positive approach to this matter, and I think that the meeting will be organized very soon.” the CP general continued.

Gagik Melkonyan responded to the rebuttal: “Did you see a crime in the actions of Onik Gasparyan?”, “I am not an investigator, I am not a judge.”

Let us remind you that this is the same Gagik Melkonyan, who in March 2021, when the General Staff had already demanded the resignation of Nikol Pashinyan, announced. «Onik Gasparyan should resign, he lost the war himself.”

Moreover, in July 2022 was saying that the day when Onik Gasparyan will have to answer before the court is very close. And in the context of approving the disgraceful plan of using “Iskander”, Gagik Melkonyan disclosed that «there are targets that, for example, should have been hit at a distance of 25-35 kilometers, and the one that hit these targets is not “Iskander”, but another missile, and with similar planning, of course, we should have been defeated.”

It turns out to be quite a long and mixed story, about which Gagik Melkonyan probably changed his mind after hearing Onik Gasparyan’s explanations, maybe there is another reason for that. As for what will happen in the final reckoning, whether the closed meeting wanted by the former head of the GSH will be organized in this pre-election period, time will tell, and also who is leading a specific game in this field. One thing is clear: the next meeting of the person who had a key status during the 44-day war before the CPs will not put anything in its place. In any case, let’s wait for the development of events.

And during this time, the close circle of the former head of the State Security Service, under the guise of protecting him, is actually busy “cleansing” Nikol Pashinyan.

It is remarkable when, 6 years after the war, only the person presented as Onik Gasparyan’s adviser suddenly remembers that during the 44-day war, martial law was declared in RA, and Nikol Pashinyan could not reserve the powers of the commander-in-chief to himself, and the head of the General Staff directly obeyed him, which has been said for 6 years. we write pointing the arrow in the direction of the Minister of Defense in some way, in this case Onik Gasparyan has more to talk and prove, and just like Tiran Khachatryan, the former first deputy of the head of the Defense Ministry, was with us recently in the conversation նկատել՝ «if Pashinyan could not be the supreme commander during the martial law, why did they report everything to him, and he made decisions himself?”

There are open facts that Nikol Pashinyan himself admitted, that he made a military decision, another question is how true it is.

This series can be continued, including with Shushi.

But this is not all. Onik Gasparyan’s adviser, the person presented recently “threatened” “When Onik Gasparyan starts talking, he will start from the end of the 90s, what path did Armenia take, what did they create for the army, what did the army have when the war started, did you buy air defense equipment, did you produce weapons and ammunition, did you buy missiles, what did you buy for the army… It will explode, but you know it will only be related to Nikol Pashinyan, all the presidents will suffer?”

The fact that there were gaps in the former army and there are issues that should have been resolved earlier, including those related to armaments, is not disputed by anyone, but when Gasparyan’s close circles began to declare the former presidents guilty of the defeat of the war, it is still not very moral.

After all, Onik Gasparyan knew the army from the inside, at least he could not come under the responsibility of the head of the General Staff.

By the way, in 2023 in detail we presented why Onik Gasparyan was not appointed head of the State Security Service in 2018, when Pashinyan’s family newspaper published such information at that time. Let’s add that he participated in the development of the 7-year plan for the development of the Armed Forces after the April 2016 war, and he can publicly say what he presented, especially when questions arise from time to time. This is the first.

Secondly, if Onik Gasparyan shares the claims of his close circle, friends-advisors, why was he “serving” Nikol Pashinyan, but at the same time having conversations with the 3rd President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and saying: “do you think we should deliver more than we did?” Both Serzh Sargsyan and Nikol Pashinyan confirmed this.

And already during the 2021 NA extraordinary elections, Onik Gasparyan expressed his support for the second president of the Republic of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan. And if there are things that might upset Onik Gasparyan, it does not mean that he should jeopardize his own military biography. And Onik Gasparyan went through the first war, he made a serious contribution to the army, he was the superior positional image of the Armenian side in Tavush, he had the reputation of a literate, unscrupulous officer.

And in the context of the 44-day war, we should mention that he remained in the General Hospital since September 25, 2020, in case of infection with the coronavirus during the 44-day war, when his condition was quite severe, according to our information, he was not hospitalized.

We wrote about the positive manifestations of General Gasparyan during these 6 years after the war, thinking that perhaps there are things we don’t know about, that it is not this government that should call him to account, that non-government defectors should not try to discredit him, but seeing the behavior of those around him, the incorrect behavior, which is certainly within his knowledge, we want to say briefly, in Serzh Sargsyan’s words, Onik Gasparyan, “don’t sully your general’s pagons.”

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We will have a new power, a new government, our future historiography, identity, right and interest demand it. All this is not only statistics: numbers, numerology, polls, but also spirit, ferments, connections, restraint towards one’s opposition partners, which is broken one by one. There are various factors, both emotional and hard, applied, practical political problems, which if solved, Armenia will finally have an elected legitimate government. 168TVof « expressed such an opinion during the program RA First Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi Hovhannisyan.

“We need collective responsibility. We have charismatic leaders, experienced, gifted, track record, etc., but we also have the complex of individualism. First of all, it belongs to the acting prince, who says that it is only me, and if I am not there, there is no Armenia, there is no peace, there is no statehood. It shows that the speaker himself does not understand what statehood is. It means that we do not have the Republic of Armenia as a state,” said the politician.

“They will continue to do everything until the elections to use the state’s assets, structures and powers for their own benefit, from national security to propaganda and television. This is a big constitutional violation, of course, but they will do it. Along with the already falsified pre-election situation, we should be able to bring such a result that the Armenian people will come out of depression, indifference, distress, and the deep pain of loss. It is necessary to participate in the elections, vote according to conscience, in the direction of the opposition. We should be able to get 60, 65, 70% participation in order to have that change,” Hovhannisyan mentioned.

According to the opinion of the opposition figure, the hybrid threat is not only Russia pointed out by them, but also Azerbaijan, Turkey, Europe, the USA, which interfere in our internal affairs.

“As Armenian people, we must understand that it is a fortunate existential situation, we are on the verge of disaster, and we must be able to bring about change. This situation already concerns not only the hearth, family, village, city of every Armenian person, but also the integrity of the Republic of Armenia.

The reproduction of this power will not bring peace, but war, or, without war, the dismemberment of Armenia. During their rule, we will not have Yerevan and marzes, we will not have a border with Iran, the eastern shore of Lake Sevan, and every Armenian will be directly under attack.”

“After committing genocide, the neighboring dictator says that they carried out Nuremberg there against the executioners of Armenia and the Armenian people, that is, the people who should have their international Nuremberg are changing their roles, and there is no response from Yerevan. This person subordinate to the neighboring dictators must be changed, we will have a new government,” said Raffi Hovhannisyan.

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168TV’s “Zara Has a Question” the guest of the program Daniel Ioannisyan is the program coordinator of the NGO “Association of Informed Citizens”.

In the conversation, the possible lawsuits against Anna Hakobyan, “Independent Observer” and Daniel Ioannisyan himself, the intensive growth of social programs launched by Pashinyan and his team during the pre-election period, the visits, promises, the manifestations of the unequal pre-election struggle, the possibilities of their prevention were discussed.

Another group of questions related to the clarification of the real goals of the fight against hybrid agents and the objectivity of the list of Facebook and YouTube user accounts used by the “Union of Informed Citizens” as an instrument of Russian interference in the Armenian elections.

There was a separate reference to the prospect of “peace” against the background of continuous aspirations of Azerbaijan, demands to eliminate the Armenian footprint in Artsakh, change the Constitution and boycott the Armenian Apostolic Church, etc.

Some of Daniel Ioannisyan’s recordings are below․

• We continue to insist that the name of the “My Step” foundation is associated with the “Civil Agreement” party, and yes, part 1 of Article 19, Clause 6 of the Election Code has been violated, an administrative offense provided for by Article 40, Clause 16 of the Code of Administrative Offenses has been committed.

• We expect the court to satisfy the claim. Of course, we have no great illusions about the independence of the courts of Armenia and we have all seen the judicial system act very unindependently in a number of cases, but, nevertheless, this does not stop us from starting legal processes.

• Խնդիրն ընկալումների մեջ է․ until now there are people who have some expectations during the elections, the problem lies in the incomplete functioning of the institutions, that sometimes a person, in order to get what he gets from the state system, has to tell the prime minister about it, the prime minister says: Papoyan, go, Torosyan, come, why is this person’s issue not solved? Ինստիտուտների չկայացվածության խնդիրն է։

But in the context of elections, yes, there are countries where it is forbidden to increase the volume of social programs. for example, in Great Britain, it is forbidden to increase the volume of social programs in a certain period before the elections. We proposed this within the framework of the electoral reforms in Armenia in 2018 and 2021. the authorities did not accept it. We will continue to insist on electoral reforms in the future, because, in our opinion, this is problematic.

• If you ask me, how equal is the election race for everyone… oh no, not equal, unfortunately, and not equal in many components. We see from the side of the government that the government is trying to gain a competitive advantage due to its administrative resources, some political opposition forces are trying to gain a competitive advantage with financial resources, and both they and they are doing this competitive advantage both outside the law and within the law.

• Regarding the “Civil Contract”, we applied to the Corruption Prevention Commission on April 19 and 25, considering the Gyumri and Yerevan concerts. They started some kind of proceedings, they wanted explanations from the CP.

• Overtly supportive statements are also a problem, but seeing it as interference… Putin announces one thing, JD Vance something else, Fidan did not directly announce it, but yes, that is also a problem. etiquette implies that one should not do such things.

• Understand correctly, I miss Artsakh very much, I wish for the state that existed at that time, but it was clear that it could not last forever. Looking back now, it is clear that it could not last forever.

Yes, we could have much better solutions, we could have solutions as a result of which Armenians would now live in Artsakh. we missed that chance.

• The statements and developments related to the AAP, which you look at retrospectively, were logical (I’m not saying they are good, in the history of Church relations, the government crossed many red lines that it shouldn’t have crossed).

Details in the interview

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