“Fact” daily writes:

Yesterday, we can say, once again, Nikol Pashinyan terrorized the Armenian people with war. Moreover, Pashinyan mentioned a specific date: September. It is clear why September, because when Pashinyan is rejected after the June 7 elections, the formation of a new government will take place at that time.

In practice, Pashinyan constantly threatens war if he is rejected. Yesterday, the Foreign Minister of Pashinyan’s cabinet repeated the same threats in the National Assembly. But what does this mean?

Many questions are being asked about this these days. For example, does this mean an open hint to Azerbaijan to attack Armenia so that Nikol Pashinyan does not lose power? Or does this mean that Pashinyan has some deeper and more terrible concession agreements with Aliyev, after which Azerbaijan will “come” if Pashinyan is no longer in power? In the case of these authorities, nothing can be ruled out. However, whatever happens, it is actually understandable that Pashinyan is just terrorizing the people of Armenia, presenting himself as a “force of peace” and others as a “force of war”. At one time, in 1998, they said: “to war party” defeated the “peace party”, after that there was 20 years of peace. And when, so to speak, the “light” version “bringing peace” came to power, a war broke out shortly after. Wars. It turns out that “peace parties” bring war, “war parties” bring peace?

Pashinyan uses the topic of war to get votes before the elections, to play on the public’s emotions, to terrorize the public and to exploit those emotions.

Yes, by the way, in terms of knowing the date of the start of the war, Pashinyan says: I’ve been prime minister for so many years, I don’t know that either? What does this mean? In other words, did he learn about the start of the war in 2020 (was he warned)? Maybe he knows the day of the attack on Jermuk? It’s an interesting situation, isn’t it?

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Vagharshak Harutyunyan, chairman of the “National Revival” party, met with supporters.

The theme of the meeting was “Lessons of the past and today’s reality”.

Vagharshak Harutyunyan presented the meeting participants with various interesting facts about the history of the past three decades and referred to the untrue information circulating in the press and the Internet, especially regarding the Goris-Kapan road.

Vagharshak Harutyunyan promised to address these issues especially for the public during the campaign.

Press service of “National Revival” party

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A clear trend has been formed in the domestic political discourse of Armenia in recent years. political speech is gradually simplified, often descending to the level of everyday, and sometimes crude figurative formulations.

Nikol Pashinyan’s divisions of “potato eaters”, “lavash eaters”, “black caviar eaters” are typical manifestations of this trend.

Pashinyan’s speech is an example of classic populist rhetoric. The society is divided into “common people” and “elite”, and the government tries to present itself as a natural continuation of the people, even when it has already formed as an institutional and social layer separated from society, alienated.

In the conditions of being in power for eight years, the thesis “we are the same as the people” gradually lost its credibility, especially when a significant part of socio-economic problems remain unsolved. In this situation, populism ceases to be a mobilizing tool and rather turns into a way to avoid political responsibility.

At the same time, such rhetoric is conditioned not only by the choice of the government, but also by the persistent gaps in the opposition. A citizen going to work by transport, a representative of a small business, a non-nomenclature intellectual often do not see a clear expression of their interests in the opposition field. As a result, a vacuum of inclusiveness is formed, which is filled with simple, understandable, but superficial narratives.

In these conditions, electoral behavior is often formed under the influence of primitive slogans rather than programmatic selection. Simple, emotional and “familiar” language becomes competitive with more substantive, but poorly communicated offers. Political competition is moving to a level where the quality of politics, but the effectiveness of its presentation, prevails.

In the long term, this trend contains serious risks. Public polarization deepens, the content of political discussion narrows, and the institution of responsibility weakens. The “domesticization” of politics overshadows systemic issues: the structure of the economy, issues of social justice, and the effectiveness of public administration.

Systematic solutions are needed.

The government should move to a clear agenda of accountable management, and the opposition should be able to formulate an understandable, reliable and substantial alternative for those social layers that do not feel represented today.

Only in this case will it be possible to return the political discourse to the substantive field and limit the influence of populism on public life.

Political scientist Suren Surenyants

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On March 23, on the instructions of the Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan, the representatives of the Defender’s staff made a quick response visit to the Yerevan Garrison Hospital of the RA Defense Ministry.

The visit was caused by an alarm received from a member of the serviceman’s family, which was related to the health condition of the serviceman, the organization of medical care and the provision of his rights.

During the visit, the Defender’s representatives had meetings with the medical staff of the hospital. Issues related to the course of medical examinations, the medical care provided, as well as the assessment of all the health problems of the serviceman and the determination of further suitability for military service were discussed.

The representatives of the defender’s office also had a private conversation with the serviceman, during which the latter, among other issues, raised his concerns regarding health problems. The raised questions were discussed with the medical staff on the spot, in order to organize the necessary medical examinations and clarify the further course of treatment.

“At this moment, the necessary steps are being taken in the direction of properly addressing the remaining issues related to the protection of rights and providing appropriate solutions.

The procedure of consideration of the complaint related to the serviceman continues in the Office of the Human Rights Defender. His health condition and issues related to the provision of medical assistance are under the direct attention of the Defender.

The Defender can be contacted with questions related to the rights of servicemen and their family members by calling the hotline number 116, and on non-working days and hours, by calling 096-116-100.

You can also contact the Defender by visiting the Defender’s office: c. Yerevan, Pushkin 56A, as well as electronically: [email protected],” says the message of the HRD.

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In recent days, Turkey and Azerbaijan are actively discussing the scenario of expanding the war against Iran, as a result of which not only the energy infrastructures of the Persian Gulf countries can be targeted, but also the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline supplying oil to Israel, which is of critical importance for the regional strategy of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

It is not by chance that these days Turkey is making consistent efforts to ease the US-Iran tension and stop hostilities.

And in Azerbaijan, for example, they falsify official statistics so as not to show at least at that level that they supply about 45% of Israel’s oil. Thus, the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan until 2024 always showed Israel as one of the main 5 destinations of Azerbaijani oil exports (about 5-10% of all exports). And in 2025 in the published export data, the line “Israel” is simply missing.

Thanks to Azerbaijan’s statistical “magic stick” (by the way, the same stick is used to inflate the population of Azerbaijan by almost two times), the oil supplied to Israel disappears from the statistics, although in 2022 since then, its volumes, on the contrary, have increased. Oil going to Israel is now registered as oil exported to Turkey, although technically oil going to all countries can be labeled as such, unless they are transported from Baku to Ceyhan, Turkey, and from there to other countries. However, all other countries are listed on a separate line and appear in the statistics, except for Israel.
In response to inquiries, the Azerbaijani authorities say that they are not responsible for where the Azerbaijani oil will go from the Ceyhan port.

This statistical deception may be effective in the information-propaganda domain, but not with the military-political leadership of Iran.

Turkologist Varuzhan Geghamyan

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