March: 31, 2026
168TVof “Trigger” the guest of the program political analyst, co-founder of “Kamurj” civic initiative Arman Abovyan is:
During the program, the regional situation, the confrontation between Iran, Israel and the USA and its possible consequences, the internal political situation of Armenia and the criticism of the actions of the current authorities were discussed.
Reference was made to the accusations made by Nikol Pashinyan and his team against the people of Artsakh, the developments of the situation around the Armenian Apostolic Church, as well as the future prospects of the state.
Hayk Derzyan
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168: Pashinyan admitted that “what I did, I did it thoughtfully.” this is reported by han
March: 31, 2026
Nikol Pashinyan’s statement last week in the National Assembly that “we made a conscious sacrifice in 2020, that’s why we gained statehood and independence as a result“, in fact, is a self-confessed testimony. Expressed this opinion 168 TVof Revue on the air of the program Vitaly Mangasaryan, head of “Henaket” analytical centerspeaking about the situation in the defense sector.
According to the military expert’s assessment, Nikol Pashinyan’s statements made on the same topic and before should have criminal legal consequences, because they actually report on a crime.
“The criminal law assessment is also important here, because in fact this is a report about a crime. He admits that “what I did, I did thoughtfully”. What happened to us was premeditated, for example, if “Iskander” “tracked by 10%”, it was also premeditated, Ashotik left, I don’t know what operations he took part in in Jabrail’s position, it was also premeditated,” Vitaly Mangasaryan commented.
He emphasizes that this means that from the beginning there was no problem that we should keep Artsakh at any cost or keep this or that position and territory.
“In his Facebook post published on the occasion of the Declaration of Independence Day, Nikol Pashinyan actually admitted that they thought about the defeat of 2020, because can you imagine if we had won or, in sports language, it would have been a draw, it turns out that we would have tightened that “leash” around our neck even more.
According to Nikol Pashinyan’s logic, “we are lucky that we lost”. What happens? Let’s go back to 2020 for a moment. If, during the war, Nikol Pashinyan said: “Whoever has a helmet or a bulletproof vest at home, choose a commander from among you and go to the front”, does it mean that he deliberately sent us all to the front so that the number of victims would be large, so that he could terrorize our society due to the large number of victims, so that he could easily get rid of this “rope”? That logic works.
I proceed from the assumption that Nikol Pashinyan had initially set himself the task of getting rid of that “leash” in 2018 and was thinking of such a plan: “so how do we get rid of that leash?” Let’s say, 4-5 people get together, they think day and night: for example, what can be done, can we declare that Artsakh is Armenia, and that’s it, we will annoy the leaders of the co-chairing states of the OSCE Minsk Group a little, Azerbaijan will also be annoyed, they have taken weapons, the probability of Azerbaijan’s attack will increase, we will also make an imitation. By the way, I have talked about this on different occasions, that in 2020 we pretended that we want to keep Artsakh, that is, the leadership did not set before itself the task of keeping Artsakh, but pretended that it was trying to win the war, and now Nikol Pashinyan confirms it with his mouth, saying that if we had not lost, it would have happened to us. And that implies criminal consequences,” says Vitali Mangasaryan.
The military expert raises the question: the authorities of the day “praise themselves” so much that they bought billions of weapons, increase defense capabilities, what is all this for, if if they are not re-elected, not only will there be a “disastrous war”, but we will also lose something else.
The interlocutor of “Review” emphasizes that, in general, the country’s defense capabilities are being increased and strengthened in order to protect the borders of the state, our homeland and our homes in case of danger.
“Now if we increase our capabilities and the next step is to say that if we are not elected, there will be a war, and not only that, there will be a war, and one more thing, we will lose in that war. In that case, the question arises: why are we bragging so much, saying: we got this, we showed this, we are going to present a report to the public, what are we doing all this for? If they brag for 4 or 5 years that we spent a lot of money, bought billions worth of weapons, and at the end they stop and say that there will be a war and we will all go to war, maybe it would be better not to do all that? The state should create an institutional system. It turns out that if this person is not there, the next leader comes, some situations arise, do we have to lose? As they say, “where is the logic?” What do we want to do, what problem do we want to solve in this case?”
Mangasaryan reminds Pashinyan’s statements made at the time, for example, that “in the created geopolitical realities, even the leaders of the superpowers do not know what will happen tomorrow”, or another statement made during one of the Government meetings, that “we have been in the same class for 7 years”.
“It turns out that only one or two years have passed, the leaders of the superpowers remain in ignorance and uncertainty as before, but the military-political leadership of Armenia is able to generate such a vision and put it on “institutional foundations” that it can be evaluated in that perspective? This is in the event that the same Nikol Pashinyan announced.
“We have been in the same class for 7 years and we are all ignorant, starting with me.” He was speaking at the government session. He says that we have been in the same class for 7 years. It turns out that this group is able to solve a very difficult military-political problem, and those scientists, people who have achieved serious success in this or that field, will not be able to solve that problem, but the team led by Nikol Pashinyan is able to solve that difficult problem. Here too we see a logical break. Where is that justification, especially since we have seen the disastrous path we have taken in the last 8 years?
«Suppose, God forbid, there is a war, and who said that we will necessarily lose? In other words, from Himikvan, we tell our society that the Indian weapons, the bunkers shown by the Ministry of Defense from morning to night from different angles: from above, from the side, from the middle, the announcements to buy billions of weapons – all this aside, but since there was a war, are we necessarily going to lose? In other words, on the one hand, we say that we are going for peace, on the other hand, we say that we are buying 5-6 billion worth of weapons, but one thing is that, if there is a war, it will end badly. In other words, thinking from the beginning that you will lose, and from the beginning thinking that you will not be able to do anything, it does not fit into any logic.Vitaly Mangasaryan added.
In this context, the military expert warns and reminds that no major military exercises have been held in the RA Armed Forces since 2020.
“Do we become stronger by playing on people’s weak nerves? We will become even stronger when people participate in mass military exercises and see with their own eyes how different scenarios are played out. From 2020 until now, we have not conducted military exercises, we have only conducted military exercises with a small group of peacekeepers, and after that we announce that you know what, we have bought billions of weapons, we have made reforms, but none of us knows on the visible ground how we will use these weapons in this or that situation, who will use them, let’s say I am the commander of the military equipment calculation, if something happens to me, who will replace me.
All this should be played out in the form of military games and appropriate events, and if they just bring, wipe the dust, show them, bring people, take pictures with weapons, we have also seen those stories, how they ended, in particular, in 2019, when “Su-30” and “Osa-AK” were brought, dusted, everyone took pictures with them, in the end it turned out that there is neither normal ammunition for them, nor a pilot. Now we hold 25-day gatherings, but with them we mainly solve the problem of ensuring the number of people of position guards. No one goes and goes through an appropriate educational cycle on that Indian, French or other country’s weapon, so that we can use it effectively when needed.”
Speaking about the risks arising from the war against Iran that has been going on for more than a month, Vitali Mangasaryan raised the question: what scenarios does the Armenian defense and security system consider regarding the effects and risks of this war, for example, what will happen if Azerbaijan gets involved in the war with all the consequences arising from it, or, for example, carries out provocation in the territory of Armenia and declares that the attack was from Iran?
“At this stage, we are simulating arming. It can’t have any significance if you don’t train, you don’t hold military exercises,” added the expert.
Full interview in the video.
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RFE/RL – American University Of Armenia Resumes In-Person Classes
The American University of Armenia (AUA) resumed in-person classes on Tuesday one day after suspending them in response to neighboring Iran’s threats to target U.S.-affiliated campuses in the region.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened such “retaliation” after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes reportedly destroyed two Iranian universities on the night from Friday to Saturday. It warned “all employees, professors, and students of American universities in the region and residents of their surrounding areas” to stay a kilometer away from campuses.
The AUA administration responded by deciding to hold all classes online on Monday. It said it took the “precautionary measure” despite “no indication that we are in any kind of danger.”
The Yerevan-based university, which has some 2,800 graduate and undergraduate students, announced its decision to revert to in-person teaching in a statement released late on Monday.
“As of earlier today we have received assurance from the Armenia Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport that they are confident that there is no significant or substantial risk to the University, and that in-person classes can be resumed as usual,” said the statement. “By the decision of the AUA Emergency Operations and Crisis Management Committee, based on that information, all classes will resume in-person starting tomorrow, Tuesday, March 31.”
The ministry made no public statements on the issue. The AUA, which is affiliated with University of California, was founded by Armenian-American charities and philanthropists in 1991.
The Armenian government has reacted cautiously to the continuing war in the Middle East triggered by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. It has refrained from criticizing the U.S.-Israeli military campaign while delivering an unpublicized amount of humanitarian aid to the Islamic Republic. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi thanked Yerevan for its “support” after a weekend phone call with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan.
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Armenian Student Indicted After Church Incident With Pashinian
- Naira Bulghadarian
An Armenian high school student was formally charged with obstructing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s “political activities” on Tuesday two days after confronting the latter at a church in Yerevan and being arrested as a result.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee also petitioned a district court to allow it to hold the 18-year-old Davit Minasian in custody for two months.
The criminal case stems from Pashinian’s unexpected visit to the packed St. Anne’s Church during a Palm Sunday Mass held there. Pashinian’s bodyguards upset Minasian as they cleared the way for the premier’s passage. The young man told them not to push him and said he wants to keep “standing in the middle” of the church.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he then told Pashinian before stretching a hand towards his shoulder.
Minasian was seemingly knocked down by one of the bodyguards as Pashinian left the church amid angry cries from other believers. Minasian was arrested right after the liturgy along with his twin brother Mikael and Gevorg Gevorgian, an activist critical of the Armenian government.
The Investigative Committee indicted all three men on Tuesday morning. It charged Davit Minasian with committing a violent hooligan act in a bid to interfere with Pashinian’s “political activities.” For their part, Gevorgian and Mikael Minasian were charged with organizing and assisting in the alleged hooliganism respectively.
They both were set free on bail, unlike Davit Minasian. The latter appeared later in the day before a Yerevan court asked by investigators to allow his pretrial arrest.
The investigators searched the brothers’ home the previous night. Defense lawyers said they did not find any documents or objects in support of the accusations. One of them, Vartuhi Elbakian, continued to insist that the students did not commit any crimes or pursue political goals.
“They have no connection to any politician,” Elbakian told reporters outside the court building.
Gevorgian likewise denied organizing the incident, saying that he did not even know either young man personally. He said he only tried to stop the Pashinian bodyguard from hitting Davit Minasian.
Pashinian has spent the last few weekends touring various parts of Armenia and talking to people in preparation for showdown parliamentary elections slated for June 7. Some of those citizens caused him to lose his temper by openly denouncing his policies or complaining about his government’s track record.
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Another Youth Prosecuted For Anti-Pashinian ‘Hooliganism’
- Naira Bulghadarian
Armenian law-enforcement authorities reportedly pressed on Tuesday criminal charges against a teenage man who is said to have spat at Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s limousine over the weekend.
According to Ruben Melikian, a well-known lawyer defending critics of the Armenian government, he protested against Pashinian in that way when he noticed the premier’s motorcade near his home in Yerevan on Sunday. Melikian said the high school student identified by him by his first name, Mikael, was arrested on the spot.
“When the boy was asked why he did it, he replied that ‘the Turk has sold out our lands,’” the lawyer said in a live Facebook broadcast. “The prosecutor construed this _expression_ as an obscenity, and Mikael was arrested on suspicion of hooliganism.”
The student was indicted but released from police custody two days later, added Melikian. Armenia’s Investigative Committee, declined to comment on the reported incident. The law-enforcement agency had famously refrained from prosecuting a top Pashinian ally, parliament speaker Alen Simonian, for spitting at a heckler in Yerevan in 2023.
In Melikian’s words, the incident took places just a few hours after Pashinian was confronted by another youth during a Palm Sunday Mass at Yerevan’s St. Anne’s Church. The church was packed with worshippers, and Pashinian’s bodyguards had to clear the way for his passage. The 18-year-old Davit Minasian raged at Pashinian and seemingly tried to lay his hands on the latter after telling the bodyguards not to jostle him.
Minasian was arrested along with his twin brother and another man right after the church service. He remained under arrest on Tuesday, with investigators seeking a court permission to keep him behind bars for two months on charges of hooliganism and obstruction of Pashinian’s “political activities.”
Pashinian has spent the last few weekends touring various parts of Armenia and talking to people in a clear effort to woo them ahead of showdown parliamentary elections slated for June 7. Some of those citizens caused him to lose his temper by openly denouncing his policies or complaining about his government’s track record.
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Five arrested in Armenia over alleged vote-buying scheme linked to Karapetyan’
Five people have been arrested in Armenia in connection with alleged election-related bribery linked to Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia party. The party denied the accusations.
The Anti-Corruption Committee said on Monday that it had obtained ‘factual data’ indicating a group of people planned to distribute electoral bribes to ‘ensure’ participation in the parliamentary elections on 7 June and to secure votes ‘in favour of a party indicated by them’.
According to the committee, the scheme began in 2025, when an office of the Our Way NGO was opened in the town of Metsamor in Armavir Province. The organisers then ‘nominally registered’ an unspecified number of local residents in the organisation, ‘assigning them the task of recruiting individuals who would vote in favour of the “Strong Armenia” party in the elections’.
In an effort to conceal the promised bribes, the money was allegedly ‘formulated as a salary’ and was intended to be provided ‘in stages’.
‘Notably, among the main preconditions for being hired by the NGO were having a large family and a wide circle of acquaintances, as well as being an eligible voter’, the statement claimed.
However, the statement did not specify the number of people allegedly involved or the total amount of money distributed.
The committee also accused individuals linked to the party of providing money to residents of Armavir province ‘under the guise of charity’ to cover medical service costs between February and March 2026. According to the statement, this took place ‘despite the legislative ban on conducting charitable activities during this period’ by parties and their affiliates in the pre-election period.
The committee added that ‘dozens of searches have been conducted’, five people have been arrested, and a criminal case has been initiated ‘under the relevant articles’.
It also vowed to monitor organisations linked to parties running in the elections to identify people who may be involved in planning or carrying out electoral crimes, including through hidden methods.
The Strong Armenia party has denied the accusations, describing what appeared to be secretly recorded phone calls presented as evidence as a made-up scenario created by law enforcement bodies ‘which have become a tool in the hands of the authorities’.
Following Karapetyan’s arrest in June, the Our Way initiative was established, and the group later registered the Strong Armenia political party.
The initiative’s name was derived from comments Karapetyan made in support of the Armenian Apostolic Church amid the government–Church confrontation that escalated in May 2025.
‘If the politicians fail, then we will participate in our own way in all of this’, Karapetyan said to News.am back in June 2025.
Hours later, he was detained after a raid on his mansion in Yerevan and charged with calling for a coup.
Earlier in March, Armenia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS) detected signs of possible foreign interference ahead of elections. The FIS said Armenians living abroad have reportedly been pressured to back certain political parties, without specifying the country behind the alleged interference.
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Pashinyan’s calls for end to ‘mirrored’ genocide accusations appear to go unh
Azerbaijan has repeated calls for global recognition of the 1918 massacres of Azerbaijanis by Armenians as genocide, despite efforts by Armenia’s leadership to stop mutual recriminations about history amidst peace efforts.
Former Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, the father of President Ilham Aliyev, issued a decree in 1998 declaring 31 March ‘the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis’, accusing Armenians of killing ‘tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis’.
‘Although the systematic killing of the civilian population during the March–April 1918 incidents was committed on the basis of their ethnic origin and religion, these crimes of genocide have unfortunately not yet been recognised at the international level’, Azerbaijani Human Rights Defender Sabina Aliyeva’s statement read.
During the period, several overlapping wars were ongoing, including WWI, the Russian Civil War, the Turkish–Armenian War, and local conflicts between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Thousands were killed in the mass violence, including civilians on all sides in a series of tit-for-tat massacres.
Amidst the backdrop of widespread violence, only Azerbaijan and Turkey appear to use the word ‘genocide’ to describe the massacres of Azerbaijanis at that time.
On Tuesday, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry in turn issued a statement accusing ‘radical Armenian groups’ of carrying out a genocide against Azerbaijanis.
Such statements contrast sharply with those of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has suggested moving away from such allegations for the sake of peace.
In his weekly press briefing on 26 March, Pashinyan refused to assess the mass exodus of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in September 2023 as ethnic cleansing in response to a journalists’ question, instead dubbing such discourse ‘harmful’.
Referring to the word ‘genocide’ in another journalist’s question about the attack on Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023, Pashinyan suggested that focusing on such terminology was detrimental to peace in the region.
‘In general, this race of genocide [accusations] needs to stop. In our region, everyone accuses everyone of genocide’, Pashinyan said.
He added that discussions about genocide and return issues — in reference to Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian refugees returning to the region — only trigger mirrored accusations.
‘We can call it ethnic cleansing and, in response, receive mirrored accusations of ethnic cleansing, [or call it] genocide and get the mirrored genocide [narrative]’, Pashinyan said.
He suggested that it was an entry into ‘the path of conflict, and that is not my concern’, instead stating that his concern was to help refugees settle in Armenia, live in peace, and have homes and jobs.
Pashinyan has insisted that peace has been established between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the initialling of a peace treaty at the Washington summit in August 2025, but has repeatedly stated it must still be strengthened.
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Vote-buying in Armenia: ‘Strong Armenia’ party disguised bribes as salaries a
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Political battle for Armenia’s future intensifies ahead of June parliamentary
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Radio station appeals license cancellation over Armenian genocide reference to
Açık Radyo (Open Radio), whose broadcasts were silenced in October 2024 by Turkish authorities after a guest spoke on air about Armenian genocide, has taken its legal challenge against the cancellation of its license to Turkey’s highest administrative court after lower courts rejected its appeals, Turkish Minute reported.
The İstanbul-based station and its legal team announced on Tuesday that both cases they filed against the decision have been escalated to the Council of State, marking the latest stage in a nearly two-year legal battle.
Speaking at a press conference in İstanbul’s Beyoğlu district, representatives of the station said the case should not be seen as an isolated administrative measure but as a “critical threshold” for freedom of _expression_, media freedom and the rule of law in Turkey.
“This is not only a matter concerning one institution,” they said, describing the process as a structural problem affecting all independent media outlets in the country.
In a press statement the station argued that imposing harsh sanctions over expressions that have been recognized as protected speech by both national and international court rulings creates a chilling effect on the media and restricts freedom of _expression_.
The controversy stems from a broadcast in April 2024, when a guest referred to the mass killings of Armenians during the late Ottoman period, using the term Armenian genocide.
The Armenians, supported by a majority of historians and scholars, say 1.5 million of their people died in a genocide committed by the Union and Progress government of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians and Turks died in the conflict but firmly rejects the characterization of the deaths as genocide.
Following the broadcast Turkey’s media watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), imposed the highest administrative fine on the station and ordered a five-day suspension of the program.
According to Açık Radyo co-founder Ömer Madra, the station later lost its license after failing to implement the suspension due to a technical issue that prevented them from viewing the dates included in the official notification.
“Despite the administrative fine being enforced and despite our request for new dates due to technical reasons regarding the suspension schedule, we were effectively silenced without even receiving a response to our petitions,” Madra said.
Madra criticized the court rulings thus far, saying the station’s legal submissions, including expert reports and precedents, were dismissed with a standard justification that RTÜK’s decision to revoke the station’s license was “in compliance with the law.”
In its legal filings the station argued that it could not be held responsible for remarks made by guests during live broadcasts without considering the overall context and intent of the program and that the sanctions imposed were disproportionate.
Lower courts rejected Açık Radyo’s appeals, and both cases were escalated to the Council of State for final review in 2026.
The station’s broadcasting license was suspended by RTÜK for five days in May on the allegation of inciting hatred. The media regulator subsequently withdrew the station’s license in July, but the radio continued to broadcast until its closure on October 16.
The station, which had been broadcasting for three decades, describes itself as a station “open to all sounds, colors and vibrations of the universe.” Its broadcasts addressed human rights, minority rights and ecological issues, among other topics.
Following the shutdown the station resumed broadcasting online under the name “Apaçık Radyo,” meaning “more open radio,” maintaining its editorial line on digital platforms.
Representatives of the station said during the press conference that despite the loss of its FM license, it continues to operate online under the Apaçık Radyo platform with an expanded team, maintaining its principles of independent broadcasting.
They also noted that the cancellation of an FM license in a metropolis like İstanbul, which faces a high earthquake risk, affects not only a media outlet but also the public’s right to access information.
Turkey, which has a poor record on freedom of the press, was ranked 159th out of 180 nations in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
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