May 25, 2026
Since May 22, Russia has limited the import of flowers from Armenia, according to the statement of “Rosselkhoznadzor”, the purpose of the decision is to ensure the protection of a healthy phytosanitary environment.
“Despite the guarantees provided by the RA Ministry of Education, quarantine plants for the Ministry of Agriculture continue to be found. During the importation of 96.2 million flowers and plants, 135 such cases were recorded, which is 77 percent of the total cases detected in the entire year 2025,” noted “Rosselkhoznadzor”.
Today 168.am He was in Armavir region, he talked Florist Artak Tovmasyan from Zvartnots who has been facing the same problem for a year and cannot export the flowers he produces to Russia or sell them in the domestic market.
“This problem is not new, exactly one year ago this problem arose when “Rosselkhoznadzor” presented demands that Armenian flowers are not imported to Russia, but are also brought from other countries and exported to Russia. I don’t know how true this is, but the villagers suffer as a result of all this.
In other words, a year ago they should have come and inspected the greenhouses, given a license, taken the addresses from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, I didn’t give mine, I said: you will come to me at the very end. Whoever gave an address, they did not go to anyone, they only went to the big greenhouse owners. But the flower cultivated by the peasant is in no way inferior to the flowers imported from Ecuador and Europe.
The reason for all this is political, if they didn’t come, they didn’t check the quality of these flowers, they didn’t tell me that there is a flower, but they tell me: don’t export, what is this? I exported for 12 years, there was no problem, but now there is a problem, isn’t this political? When the question was raised here: EATM or EU, “Rosselkhoznadzor” told me: “Very well, open your greenhouses, we are coming to check, to see if you are co-responsible for our market”, Artak Tovmasyan mentioned.
As for Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan’s statement that “regularly they receive information that certain internal forces of RA are inciting the Armenian producer to face a problem”, Artak Tovmasyan noted that we can convey to Gevorg Papoyan that we have found these “internal forces”.
“What is the “inner strength”? Tell me, we have found it. It is me with my flowers. I am a flower producer and have been exporting for 12 years. It is not in my favor, but I must say that for 12 years, when I sent my flower to Russia, I was convinced that there might be a prohibited pest on my flower, but people turned a blind eye. And when they decided here that flowers should not enter the Russian market, then this problem arose, what “internal forces” are we talking about? Let Gevorg Papoyan come, let us go around together, let him see what problems we have.
We cannot export our flowers to the European market, because there the requirements are stricter.
In the past, greenhouse owners were considered rich people in rural communities because people made money, but now they have become more vulnerable. We haven’t been able to export flowers for so long, whoever had the money made an investment, but they can’t sell what they produce. Because of this problem, I no longer have a good credit history, I have pawned the last gold, after 1-2 months I will not be able to pay the interest on the gold. This is called bankruptcy, a person becomes bankrupt of his mind, it also happens when we have Gevorgpapoyans and SATM. They want to do an election campaign, let them go to the flower market in the evening, they will hear a lot of new things about them. The season of apricots and grapes is approaching, what will the villagers do? It’s been 3 days, this problem exists, no one says anything, they only say: “internal forces are inciting”, yes, the internal force is me, I am the instigator,” added our interlocutor.
According to his observation, the government should not help the greenhouse owners, it should not interfere with its behavior and foreign policy.
In 2025, the florist suffered a loss of 40 million drams, and this year and in this period he has already suffered a loss of 15 million drams, invested 50 million on the greenhouse, and 13 million on flowers.
“In my greenhouse, 8 workers worked for 8 thousand drams a day, but now I have no workers, 8 people are already unemployed in my greenhouse alone, pesticide sellers are also suffering, starting with the producer and seller of this thread, they are suffering because we do not export flowers.
We will rebel, many greenhouse owners allow you to take pictures of their greenhouse, but avoid talking. In general, give Gevorg Papoyan a bus in Yerevan, let him drive, he is a person far removed from economics, he does not know what is happening in his country. Now that Gevorg Papoyan says to develop intensive horticulture, to demolish this greenhouse, to establish an apricot orchard, and “Rosselkhoznadzor” discovers such a problem again, what am I going to do?
I have supported Nikol Pashinyan since 2008, we wanted changes. We rejected Serzh so that we could live better, but we rejected him and now we live worse.
I earned all the money to establish this greenhouse in Russia, I brought it here to live and work in my country. Now we are in a worse condition and neglected than under all other leaders,” the flower grower said.
The situation is the same in other villages of Armavir region, where florists simply take the flowers out of the greenhouse in the form of garbage and throw them away. In Aghavnatun village, thousands of flowers were filled in front of almost all the greenhouses, some of them were taken to the landfill by trucks.
Details in the video of 168.am
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“West Azerbaijan” is an anti-Armenian project that has shown no sign of yielding
May 25, 2026
“West Azerbaijan” is an anti-Armenian program that shows the pace of concession no gives Geghamyan
The artificial concept of “West Azerbaijan” is part of the official state program of Azerbaijan. In Azerbaijan, it is understood as a program that includes almost the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia. He said this during the expert panel discussion entitled “Primary Armenia in Turkish-Azerbaijani programs”. Turkic scholar Varuzhan Geghamyannoting that this marginal term, familiar only to orientalists, has turned into one of the most discussed issues on the public agenda in the last 5 years.
“This approach with pan-Turkish roots, the first practical manifestations of which could be seen in 1918-1921, has always been present in the political discourse of post-Soviet Azerbaijan. For the first time, Heydar Aliyev started talking about “Western Azerbaijan” at the state level, from whom all this, like everything else, was transferred to his son, Ilham Aliyev, but with a few features.
One of those features is that, unlike the time of his father, Ilham Aliyev, it is not only about the fact that “Western Azerbaijan” is a historical heritage, a historical memory that should be known, talked about and sometimes dreamed about, but already in Ilham’s time, even before the April war, we are witnessing how they start talking about “Western Azerbaijan” being a strategic goal and policy. This is a direct quote from Ilham Aliyev’s speech,” commented the Turkologist.
According to the Turkic expert, after the war of 2020, a reality was created in the South Caucasus, which, although it is interpreted as an “era of peace” in Armenia, it is interpreted in a completely different way in Azerbaijan, and most of the conversations there are anti-Armenian. According to him, after the 2020 war, Azerbaijan, which positioned itself on international platforms as “the world’s main defender of the principle of territorial integrity”, stopped talking about territorial integrity, but mainly talks about historical-geographical revisionism, so to speak, declaring that today’s borders of Azerbaijan do not fully reflect “real Azerbaijan”.
“I have listed the main directions of the anti-Armenian policy, which can be easily found with a Google search, starting with the ongoing blockade and economic pressure on the Republic of Armenia, ending with the internationalization of ambitions for the territory of the Republic of Armenia. All these can be easily found. However, among these demands, the directions of anti-Armenian policy, one stands out, which, in my opinion, essentially includes all the other demands, and it can be said that it is the main tool of the pressure currently carried out by Azerbaijan against Armenia and Armenians. We are talking about the promotion of the dimensionalist concept of “Western Azerbaijan” or “Western Zangezur”, which is also a component of the so-called “Zangezur Corridor”.
According to Varuzhan Geghamyan, historical revisionism has become one of the main state ideologies in Azerbaijan after 2020. The main coordinator is the staff of the President of Azerbaijan, whose “outsourcing”, so to speak, is done by the organization called “Western Azerbaijan Community”.
“Also, we have leaked documents that prove that it is fully financed by the office of the President of Azerbaijan. In the true sense of the word, dollar after dollar is being spent to advance this project both in Azerbaijan and outside of Azerbaijan,” the Turkologist added.
According to the Turkic expert, the artificial concept of “Western Azerbaijan” has the meaning of both internal and external consumption. “Some political forces in Armenia present the situation in such a way that this is just propaganda for internal consumption, and they put a sign of equality with the idea of Western Armenia, which is completely wrong not only from the point of view of science, but also from the point of view of logic, but moreover, it should be understood that when we approach the topic of “Western Azerbaijan” exclusively as a phenomenon of internal consumption, we do not see all the possible threats arising from it and the various programs implemented within it.”
Secondly, according to the specialist, the intensification of the institutionalization and publicization of the “Western Azerbaijan” concept began after 2020, and this approach does not correspond to the “era of peace” in any way.
“The concept of “Western Azerbaijan” implies a multi-component program, and it cannot be considered with other manifestations of anti-Armenian policy. It is not possible to talk only about “Western Azerbaijan” and understand what it is. One of the most important parts of it is the concept of “return”, where the following is literally written that “West Azerbaijanis” should not only return to “West Azerbaijan”, but also a legal framework should be provided there, that legal framework should be adapted to the settlers, a change of place names should take place, an international mission with police and civil administration powers should be located in Armenia, etc. This is part of the official state program, which does not often become the subject of our discussion. And fourthly, the “Western Azerbaijan” concept is a program in action,” added Varuzhan Geghamyan.
The panel discussion was organized by the Armenian Center for Advanced Research.
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What are you doing? are you abnormal, think soberly, don’t go crazy. two
May 25, 2026
The pre-election campaign for the National Assembly elections in Armenia takes place in an atmosphere of fear and repression, which has nothing to do with democracy. About this 168 TVof Revue announced on the air of the program Aram Manukyan, vice-chairman of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) party, candidate for the National Assembly deputy on the ANC electoral listtelling about the ANC campaign.
The ANC vice president is more worried not only about the atmosphere in the country and the targeting of opponents of the current government, but also about external interference in the Armenian election process, including the visit of the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Armenia tomorrow.
Aram Manukyan believes that the Armenian authorities, instead of rejecting all external influences and interventions, are deliberately turning Armenia into a theater of geopolitical clashes in the context of the EU-Russia and USA-Russia confrontation during this pre-election period. He emphasized that choice and free will is the monopoly of the RA citizen, his imperative right, and all foreign interventions should be equally rejected, be it Macron, Rubio, Erdogan, Aliyev, Putin or Medvedev.
According to the ANC vice-president, the only task of the Armenian authorities should be to protect Armenia from external pressures and not pay tribute to the support or proposals of any party.
«In that sense, we are vulnerable. we have left unanswered the reactions, opinions of Azerbaijan, Turkey, the United States, the European Union and Russia, or, if you want to know, meddling in internal affairs, in the sense of expressing an open opinion in the Armenian elections. No one has that right.
The RA citizen should decide for himself who to vote for, and the RA authorities do not react to it at all, and this is worrying to the extent that it can become a serious source of escalation. it will open wide opportunities for escalation in Armenia, and we are slowly approaching the Ukrainian scenario, and Rubio’s arrival, Macron’s arrival and Russia’s statements, Russia’s steps to impose economic sanctions on Armenia, step by step, drop by drop, bring us closer to the conflict. The East and the West are not interested in the election of an RA citizen, they are interested in moving their conflict from Ukraine to Armenia and creating a new hotbed for the Russia-EU or Russia-West conflict.»։
Based on all this, Aram Manukyan calls on the people to reject all external interventions without exception. “Dear people, vote for whoever you want. Don’t look at who is saying what. Vote for Armenia, vote for Armenia’s independence.”
Speaking about the adventurous calls of the current rulers and their propagandists to go to an open confrontation with Russia, Aram Manukyan emphasizes that his criticism should not be perceived as flattery towards Russia, but as realism in the sense that an economic confrontation with Russia does not promise anything good for Armenia, considering the incomparably large economic weight of the Russian Federation and finally, the fact that this country is a nuclear superpower.
Aram Manukyan appealed to the authorities of Armenia. “What are you doing? In other words, do you agree that the Russian political discourse and the American and European discourse collide in Armenia? Don’t you think that these clashes can lead to serious escalations, and if we entered the stage of clashes, do you think that Ukraine entered the stage with one decision? It went step by step, the conflict escalated, and now the whole world is trying to back down, stop it, but it doesn’t work.
An entire powerful Ukraine is being destroyed, the country with 45 million inhabitants, the largest area in Europe, is being destroyed. The two Slavic nations have made each other, two fraternal, friendly, neighboring, same-language, same-religious nations have made each other and they are not able to get out of this conflict.
Can you imagine what will happen to Armenia if it suddenly finds itself in the focus of that conflict? I apologize to the people of Ukraine, but as a result of the policies of the abnormal leadership of Ukraine, who is suffering today, except the people of Ukraine? I’m not scaring you, I’m just saying: think soberly, think sensibly, don’t go to bloodshed, madness… “As long as our relations with the European Union do not conflict with our being there, we will be there, as long as I am here, I will not go there…”
What puns are you playing? You can’t talk to superpowers like that. We do not have that power. I say the same thing: you can’t play with the European Union, the United States, you can’t make demarches, blackmail, or bribe. The same with Iran»։
Aram Manukyan considers the calls of CP propagandists to boycott Russian products as judgments at the kindergarten level.
“Declare that ‘well, we will also boycott Russian vodka.’ What about you… was Russia filled with your statement? Are you abnormal, what is it? In other words, do we have a problem of ambition, to scare Russia or America, or is it the task of the state to regulate relations with them as well? What kind of childishness is this, what kind of madness is this, to invite two superpowers to clash in Armenia? I always give this example: Russia has 6,000 nuclear warheads, and America has 6,000. Will a smart country enter into that situation?’
Aram Manukyan also commented on Nikol Pashinyan’s recent famous statements and threats. “Don’t you have another way to break Armenia?” Why do you contrast Ararat and Aragats? Is that your problem today? Do you want to lead the country through controversy? You pit them all against each other: “black and white”, “I will destroy”, “I will arrest”, “I will kill”, “I will dismember”. it’s a shame, it’s a shame. This is not the chosen one of this nation, this is the indicator of the scum of this nation, which they have lifted up and are showing our weak state to the whole world.”
The predictions of ANC Vice President Aram Manukyan that as a result of Nikol Pashinyan’s “madness” or as a result of external interventions and geopolitical conflicts, the situation in Armenia may be “upside down” are even more worrying.
“Any day, as a result of any of Nicol’s madness or the arrival of Rubio, as a result of Russia’s actions, something may change upside down in Armenia, and we should go to the elections expecting that there will be drastic changes. Unexpected things will happen, and Armenia is not a stable country to decide how the elections will end with “exit polls” or preliminary calculations, Aram Manukyan predicts.
Full interview in the video.
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Hakobjanyan’s business marathon continues. Pashinyan 1 month ago his peach
May 25, 2026
The Ministry of Territorial Management and Infrastructure signed a contract with “Kapavor” LLC, a “favorite” supplier in state procurement, without a tender, in an urgent one-person procurement procedure, for the medium repair works of a part of Gyumri’s Independence Street, Shiraz and Cherazi Streets. The price of the contract was 104 million 400 thousand drams.
Founded in 2002, 93.75 percent of the share of “Kapavor” LLC belongs to Arman Hakobjanyan, about whom many publications were, which surprisingly revealed not only the successful marathon of his LLCs, Hakobjanyan is an active participant in state procurement, the road construction company he owns, “Kapavor” LLC, signed and continues to sign billions of AMD contracts with state institutions, this company implemented the construction of the new Argavand-Shirak road, was involved in the construction of the North-South road, but also some legal processes started around his person, located on the shores of Lake Sevan mansion episode, money laundering, etc.
According to the data of the register of legal entities, dozens of other organizations are related to Arman Hakobjanyan, including “Family Garden” LLC, where Nikol Pashinyan was hosted a few weeks ago.
More than 182 hectares of intensive peach and nectarine orchard was established in Baghramyan community of Armavir region by “Family Garden” company with the support of the Government. Nikol Pashinyan wrote on Facebook and posted an attached video.
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168: Are you going to sell brandy in Paris and apricots in Ankara? Did you cook the borsch, dude?
May 25, 2026
In the “Pressing” program Satik Seyranyan the guest Eduard Sharmazanov, member of the Executive Body of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), former vice-chairman of the RA National Assembly (NA) is
The main theses of the interview are below.
Today it became known that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will arrive in Armenia on May 26. “Armenpress” was informed about this by the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noting that the meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan and Marco Rubio will take place, after which the ministers will make statements to the press. Signing of bilateral documents is planned.
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to any country cannot be mere support. The US is the world’s #1 superpower, I don’t know what agenda it came with, but the visit coincides with the campaign, and CP will try to present the visit as support for Pashinyan. Vance also supported Orbán, after which Orbán suffered a crushing defeat. Taros to Nikol Pashinyan. Any new government cannot ignore the US factor, but we must be guided by the interests of Armenia. For that, on June 7, we have to go to the elections, reject Pashinyan, the government formed after that will cooperate with Rubio, Trump, and others.
To remind: In a speech in Budapest, US Vice President JD Vance praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, saying he was “doing a good job because he really is” and “a very, very important partner in the fight for peace.” According to Vance, “most European political capitals have not been as helpful to the cause of peace between Russia and Ukraine as Viktor Orbán.”
- Today, the most shocking news in Armenia is 48 hours old. JD Vance came, he was forgotten, a summit was held in Armenia with the participation of several dozen EU leaders, and that was also forgotten. Especially now that the campaign has entered a very heated phase, will Marco Rubio come in or someone else will not make an impact?
- No matter how much Nikol Pashinyan says during the campaign that he has excellent relations with Putin and that he is an “authority” in the EAEU, the statements coming from the north speak of something else. I am not guided by Pashinyan’s toasts, but by facts. Pashinyan used to say: I will cut off my hands, I will not give a centimeter of land from Tavush, he said: there is no question of enclaves, now they say: we will give them. Now he is saying things that are not within the scope of his intelligence or capabilities, in general, they are not issues for any leader of Armenia to solve.
- The Republic of Armenia became a member of the EAEU with the efforts of the RPA and the Third President Serzh Sargsyan himself. We negotiated it. For the Russian economy, whether Armenia will be a member of the EAEU or not is not so important as it is for Armenia. 70% of Armenia’s products are sold in the EAEU territory. Becoming a member of the EAEU was a historic decision, at one time it was hindered by both Aliyev, Lukashenko and the head of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev. One thing is obvious, it is a fact that Armenia’s membership in EAEU was in our interests. I don’t think that at this stage they will take revolutionary steps and remove Armenia from EAEU, but that in Armenian-Russian relations Dawns are not peaceful, obviously. He says that he has spoken with Putin 200 times. : Don’t talk, my friend, if the situation is going to get worse after every time you talk… Now that they don’t let you take the flowers, “Jermuk” has been banned, whose problem is it not Pashinyan’s? Or that they say that the opposition is doing it to not let them go, to take them to Russia. They don’t have the sense of a penny… if they believe the words of the opposition in Russia and EAEU more than Pashinyan, pack your wallet and go, what business do you have with that post?:
- It is funny that the RA Foreign Minister says to the deputy head of the Security Council of the atomic state, Dmitry Medvedev, who was also the prime minister and president of that country, that he does not know the situation. If Medvedev does not know the current state of Armenian-Russian relations, who does? If everything is fine, you don’t have a problem, why do they say something different from Russia, why do our goods stay at the border, why do you call our opposition figures “Kremlin agents”?
- We don’t need to be taught lessons from Russia. We have been fighting since 2018, we know everything very well. Artsakh renegade, what is the Armenian-Russian relationship, so that he does not deny it? I didn’t say, “Он не предатель”, did I? RPA is an independent party, we should not be directed anywhere:
- As a former RA official, I call on Russian officials not to resort to sanctions and drastic measures. Because Pashinyan cooked the borsch, but the ordinary citizen who will suffer from it will suffer. Nikol Pashinyan eats the budget like his own pocket, he has no problem buying bread, filling the car with gas, paying utilities, paying off loans. The ordinary citizen will suffer, and besides, it can consolidate the West around Pashinyan.
- If Pashinyan is re-elected and this situation exists with the EAEU market, we will face an economic collapse in the fall and winter. We will have many hard days ahead of us. Bread, transport, everything will become more expensive with the price of gas. If people can’t export their products to the Eurasian market, where will you sell Armenian brandy in Paris and apricots in Ankara?:
- For the West, Armenia is cannon fodder, anti-Russia. What Georgia did not do, they do here. You remember, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze announced that problems started in the country after it refused to open a “second front” against Russia on the instructions of the West. Georgia kept its national interest, they passed to Armenia, but what will be left of Armenia after that, they are not interested. They don’t even hide it. Their goal is to make Armenia an anti-Russian springboard. You must not antagonize relations with any state, including a member state of the UN Security Council, with which you have allied and historical relations. Relations with Turkey cannot be worsened. Our task is to keep the existing, and this is possible only if the KP is not re-elected on June 7.
- Through Nikol Pashinyan, the West and Turkey are trying to remove the role of Russia from Armenia and make Armenia a part of the Turkish world. This will become a reality in the case of Pashinyan’s reproduction. We don’t have much choice here. They will have to choose whether to become Russia’s ally or Turkey’s servant. He is deceiving, folks. No one is waiting for you in the European Union. Ski Ukraine and Turkey are not expected, who has been an associate member since 1999, how can they expect you? Turkey needs buffer states in the Caucasus between it and Russia. Do we want that? I don’t understand this hysterical anti-Russianness.
- Who killed our children in Artsakh? It wasn’t the Turkish soldiers? Nikol, that in 2022 On October 6, he recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, did he ask the Armenian people or the allies? Macron and Charles Michel are the toastmasters to hand over Artsakh, Erdogan was the patron:
- Visa liberalization was planned for 2017. With the CEPA signed by the government of Serzh Sargsyan, which was ratified by the EU member parliaments, and which they did not even implement. They can’t do it, will they liberalize visas? Yesterday he said that visas will be free in 2 years, and in 2021 he said that the prisoners will return in 2 months. Did they return?…
- Why shouldn’t Aliyev support Pashinyan if he does what he says? Pashinyan even blamed the genocide on Turkey, placing the blame on the superpowers. Read the April 24 message, it was a disgrace. It was an impression that that text was written by Erdogan. Aliyev found a gift, he should help his gift.
- Nikol is campaigning against CSTO, the problem is not CSTO. If the problem was the CSTO, Nikol would not have gone to receive the highest award from Tokaev, the head of the CSTO member country. I have not seen that there was anything anti-Azerbaijani in the CSTO, and Kazakhstan did not get involved. Why did he go, he got a reward from Kazakhstan… Because the problem is not the CSTO for him, but Russia. That person came to get Russia out of here. Artsakh should have surrendered in that grand opera. Remember that it was Pashinyan who said that the Russian military presence in Armenia is a threat:
- How is it that you criticize Lukashenko for supporting Azerbaijan, by the way, maybe it’s fair, but why don’t you criticize Zelensky? Zelensky supported Aliyev ten times more. In those days, the streets of Kyiv were covered with Azerbaijani flags. Unlike CP members, it doesn’t matter to me who violates the interest of my state.
- As early as April 4, during the RPA congress, we said that the elections are rigged, because the elections are not only on the voting day, but also the pre-election and post-election period. First of all, Pashinyan is blackmailing the Armenian people with war, many people, including clergymen, are arrested on fabricated charges, the leader of the most locomotive force of the opposition, the main opposition force, Samvel Karapetyan, cannot leave the house and campaign normally. How many people should a person have in their home? If we were in power, now the European institutions would eat us. We were told: do you see how the administrative resource is being misused? Dear people, I know you can’t not go, they will fire you, but go on June 7, make a choice of your own free will. Of course, elections are already rigged. But there are at least 3-4 forces that have real chances to pass the Parliament, the people should vote for one of them.:
- The people of Moldova did not vote for Maya Sandu. he was elected by outside votes. The people of Armenia will vote only in Armenia. Go and vote for the force that did not hand over Artsakh, that did not bow to the demands of Aliyev and Erdogan.
Details in the video.
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RFE/RL – Pashinian Ruining Ties With Russia, Insists Kocharian
- Anush Mkrtchian
- Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Former President Robert Kocharian again accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of needlessly antagonizing Russia and leading Armenia to economic ruin as he took his Hayastan alliance’s election campaign to the southeastern Vayots Dzor province on Monday.
Kocharian blamed Pashinian for the latest upsurge in Russian-Armenian tensions manifested by increasingly blunt Russian warnings to Yerevan. He claimed that Armenia’s leadership “doing everything to ruin relations with Russia” with its pro-Western foreign policy resented by Moscow. The latter has banned or restricted the import of some Armenian goods in recent days.
“Russia is not only a balancing power in terms of security but is also our main trading partner,” Kocharian told a campaign meeting in the town of Vayk. “The welfare of 80 percent of Armenia’s population considerably dependents on economic ties with Russia. It’s a fact which you cannot escape. Yet these authorities are consistently worsening their relations with Russia.”
“They are pursuing a foreign policy that is against our economic interests,” he said. “This course must change.”
Pashinian and his allies have played down the mounting tensions with Moscow, implying that they will ease if Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party wins the June 7 elections. A senior party member, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, made clear on Monday that it would continue to deepen ties with the West.
“We will continue to deepen our relations both with the United States of America, with whom we have declared a strategic partnership, and the European Union member states … We will continue to deepen our relations with everyone, and this is in no way directed against the Russian Federation,” Mirzoyan told journalists.
Other top Pashinian allies, notably parliament speaker Alen Simonian, say that the tensions with Moscow are fanned by Kocharian’s bloc and two other major opposition groups running in the elections. Pashinian alleged last week that they are infested with “agents” sent by Moscow.
The Armenian premier at the same time claimed to have a warm rapport with Russian President Vladimir Putin and pledged to refrain from any “drastic action” against Moscow. Russian leaders have since stepped up their attacks on Pashinian.
All three opposition heavyweights pledge to repair Armenia’s relations with its traditional ally on the campaign trail.
“We know that there are political forces in Armenia that are fully supportive of the Russian development vector and a focus on further, deeper participation in integration processes involving the Russian Federation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. “Of course, we like this approach.”
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Ruben Vardanyan Slams Pashinian, Warns Armenians
Ruben Vardanyan, a prominent Armenian businessman jailed in Azerbaijan, has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and claimed that Armenia risks becoming a Turkish province.
In his latest audio message communicated to his family by phone and publicized on Monday, Vardanyan branded Pashinian a “liar” and again compared him to Kaj Nazar (Nazar the Brave), a satirically inept character from an Armenian fairy tale.
“First, I want to remind you once again: it is the people who elect Nazar the Brave as king; he does not become king by himself,” he said, appealing to Armenians two weeks before their crucial parliamentary elections. “Second, dear ‘Nazar the Brave’ Nikol, your luck ran out three times.”
Vardanyan revealed that during his two-and-a-half-year imprisonment in Baku he has read a book written by Pashinian more than a decade ago.
“After reading your book, I became convinced that you not only have serious problems with moral and ethical standards, with education and with other things but that you are also a liar, a fantasist, and a plagiarist,” he said, predicting “great punishment” for the Armenian premier.
Vardanyan went on to warn Armenians of an “extremely serious challenge” facing their country.
“This is not a question of elections,” he said. “It’s a question of the fact that the war is not over. The war continues not in the form of military action but in other forms.”
“If we don’t change our behavior, neither Russia nor the European Union awaits us. What awaits us is becoming a Turkish vilayet (province),” he added without elaborating.
Armenian opposition groups running in the June 7 parliamentary elections regularly accuse Pashinian of seeking to turn Armenia into a vassal state of Turkey and Azerbaijan and even end the independent Armenian statehood altogether. Pashinian denies this, saying that he is bringing a final solution to the country’s long-running disputes with its Turkic neighbors.
Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, was arrested at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor in September 2023 as he fled the region along with its practically entire ethnic Armenian population. Seven other former Karabakh Armenian leaders were also arrested during the exodus that followed an Azerbaijani military offensive.
Five of them were sentenced to life imprisonment while the two others as well as Vardanyan received 20-year jail sentences in February at the end of yearlong trials denounced by Amnesty International as a “travesty.” They all denied a long list of accusations brought against them.
Pashinian and other Armenian officials insist that Yerevan has been doing its best to try to secure the release of these and 11 other Armenians remaining in Azerbaijani captivity. Their critics dismiss these assurances. Vardanyan has likewise repeatedly accused the Armenian government of being indifferent to the fate of the prisoners.
“The defeated commander-in-chief does nothing so that these people may at least feel that a state stands behind them,” he charged in his latest statement from the Azerbaijani prison.
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Yerevan Keeps Downplaying Tensions With Moscow
- Satenik Kaghzvantsian
- Anush Mkrtchian
The Armenian government continued to downplay its mounting tensions with Russia at the weekend just as Moscow imposed more bans on agricultural imports from Armenia and lambasted Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Citing sanitary grounds, Russian authorities completely banned the import and sales of Armenia’s most popular brand of mineral water. A Russian food safety watchdog said that as many as 37 million bottles of the water produced by Armenia’s Jermuk Group will be removed Russian shops. It already blocked the sale of more than a million other Jermuk bottles late last month. The Rospotrebnadzor agency gave a similar reason for a separate ban on wine and brandy produced by three other Armenian companies.
The measures were announced two days after Russia’s state agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor slapped “temporary restrictions” on the import of cut flowers from Armenia. They came amid Russian officials’ intensifying criticism of Yerevan. State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said Pashinian can no longer “dishonestly” take economic advantage of Russia while pursuing a pro-Western foreign policy.
“As we know, those who try to sit between two chairs risk landing painfully right on their limp butt,” declared former President Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
Pashinian claimed to be unfazed by these developments as he campaigned for Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections in the northwestern Shirak province.
“There are no unsolvable issues for me,” he told local residents. “I am currently busy with the election campaign. If I receive your vote of confidence during the elections, I will return to work and resolve all issues.
“We are working with our [Russian] partners,” Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Of course, all issues will be resolved.”
Medvedev doubled down on his attacks on Pashinian on Monday, however, accusing the Armenian premier of seeking to break up all ties with Russia.
“Apparently, he thinks we’re suckers,” he told the RIA Novosti news agency. “He’s made a major miscalculation and is pursuing a course that’s extremely dangerous for his country.”
“As a result of this very peculiar little individual’s actions, the entire Armenian people will lose out by losing the Russian market, the entire Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and the economic ties built over decades,” added Medvedev.
“Armenia is not interested in severing political, economic, and all other ties with Russia,” countered Mirzoyan. “On the contrary, we are determined, we want and we will try to preserve and deepen our natural relations.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Pashinian on April 1 that Yerevan’s moves to eventually join the European Union are “not compatible” with Armenia’s continued membership in the Russian-led trade bloc. He said on May 9 that the Armenian leadership should choose between the blocs “as soon as possible.”
Pashinian has effectively rejected that demand, saying that Armenia will continue to strive for eventual EU membership while remaining part of the EEU if he wins the elections. He has also decided not to attend an EEU summit in Kazakhstan scheduled for May 29.
Russia is the principal market for agricultural products as well as alcoholic and soft drinks exported by Armenia. Armenian exports to Russia totaled almost $3 billion last year. By comparison, Armenian firms exported $667 million worth of goods to European Union member states.
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RFE/RL – Karabakh Man Jailed For Arguing With Pashinian Continues Hunger Strik
An exiled activist from Nagorno-Karabakh arrested on May 18 right after publicly arguing with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian remained on hunger strike for the fifth day on Monday.
Pashinian was approached by Artur Osipian as he campaigned in Yerevan’s northern Arabkir district for the June 7 parliamentary elections. Osipian asked him questions and criticized his policies on Karabakh, sparking a furious reaction from him. Moments after his supporters and bodyguards dragged away Osipian, Pashinian picked up a megaphone and rushed towards the Karabakh Armenian man, shouting insults and threats also addressed to “Karabakh pseudo-elites.”
“You should have died when there was the Karabakh issue. Why are you alive at all, you scumbag?” cried the premier.
Osipian, who publicly campaigned against Karabakh’s last leadership before the region’s recapture by Azerbaijan, was arrested and indicted following the incident. Armenia’s Investigative Committee claimed that he disrupted public order and obstructed the ruling Civil Contract’s election campaign. It also charged him with calling for a violent attack on Pashinian in a social media post in March.
Osipian, who denies the accusations, went on hunger strike to protest against his arrest and demand an apology from Pashinian. His lawyer Davit Hovannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday that he is continuing to refuse food. Hovannisian complained about his client’s prison conditions, saying that he is held in a damp and dark cell.
Osipian’s arrest has also been condemned by more than a dozen Western-funded Armenian civic organizations. In a joint statement issued last Wednesday, they said he is prosecuted on “illegal, baseless and politically motivated” charges and demanded his immediate release. A Yerevan court ignored the appeal, allowing investigators to hold Osipian in pretrial custody for the next two months.
During his campaign tour of Arabkir, Pashinian also lost his temper after being confronted by several other disgruntled citizens. They included the sister of a senior military medic who went missing during the 2020 war in Karabakh. The woman blamed Pashinian for her loss and accused him of having “stolen my fatherland.”
Pashinian responded by linking her to the leaders of Armenia’s three main opposition groups and pledging to “take out” them. His outbursts drew strong condemnation from the opposition contenders. One of them demanded criminal proceedings against Pashinian. Law-enforcement authorities have essentially ignored the demand.
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California Courier Online, May 25, 2026
Courier Online, May 25, 2026
Sassounian
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1- If Pashinyan Bans Any Opposition Party,
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is proceeding with his electoral campaign amid countless violations of Armenia’s laws.
We have been witnessing Pashinyan’s rude, insulting, hysterical, and aggressive reactions whenever a citizen dares to criticize him during his campaign stops. This is not the normal behavior of a sane person, let alone the behavior expected of a Prime Minister.
There have been plenty of videos posted on social media during the past few weeks that show Pashinyan’s abnormal behavior towards those — mostly gutsy women — who courageously tell him to his face about the disastrous results of his policies, which have led to the loss of Artsakh, thousands of soldiers, parts of the Republic of Armenia, and perhaps soon all of Armenia. When citizens confront him to express their disagreement, they are viciously attacked by Pashinyan or pushed and shoved by his brainwashed supporters.
Those who have been following Pashinyan’s irrational behavior and senseless statements can see that he is increasingly exhibiting signs of mental disorder: screaming, threatening to jail, or even kill (“sadgetsnel”) his political opponents.
In recent months, Pashinyan’s subservient National Security Agency has accused his critics of being foreign agents, going as far as disseminating obviously fake documents. Pashinyan claimed that his major opponent in the election, Samvel Karapetyan, is a Russian agent. Karapetyan was arrested and charged with planning a coup d’état simply for saying that he supports the Armenian Apostolic Church. By releasing another fake document, Pashinyan falsely accused Karapetyan’s nephew, Nareg, of not disclosing his Russian citizenship — which would be a violation of electoral laws, since he is a parliamentary candidate. In addition, Pashinyan continues to interfere in Armenia’s judicial system by directing judges, who are supposed to be independent.
In the last two months, dozens of supporters of his political opponents have been arrested and imprisoned under the false accusation of giving bribes to voters. This is a ridiculous charge. Who is so foolish as to give a bribe to potential voters months before the election, hoping that they would vote for their party in the future?
Pashinyan has also imprisoned several high-ranking clergymen under the false pretext of committing various crimes. Furthermore, he regularly posts on Facebook obscene accusations against the Catholicos of All Armenians and meddles in internal Church affairs — a blatant violation of the constitutional provision on the separation of Church and State.
For years, Pashinyan has falsely claimed that his party’s previous two election victories, in 2018 and 2021, were fair and free of fraud. However, his actions tell a different story: he has violated numerous electoral laws, such as using governmental resources for his campaign, threatening his opponents, and employing illegal fundraising methods.
During the 2023 Yerevan City Council election, Pashinyan’s Civil Contract political party raised $1.3 million to ensure the victory of Tigran Avinyan, its candidate for mayor. An independent investigation revealed that some of the campaign funds donated by several individuals used fake names to hide their true identities. Violations included making large donations under others’ names. A woman whose ID card was fraudulently used was outraged and firmly denied making such a donation. In another case, donations were made in the names of eight employees of a prominent businessman — without their knowledge. Despite such blatant violations of fundraising laws, the courts failed to take any legal action against Pashinyan’s party.
Continuing the Civil Contract’s questionable fundraising practices, a new independent investigation by Infocom revealed that at least 23 directors of hospitals and medical centers from various regions of Armenia made almost simultaneous donations to the ruling party in March 2025. These directors of government-owned facilities are beholden to the authorities for their positions. More than $15,000 was transferred to the ruling party within a few days — between March 4 and 11, 2025. During the entire year, directors of 31 medical centers contributed about $22,000 to Pashinyan’s party. Even the Health Minister donated around $2,000 in 2025 to the ruling party. Infocom also revealed that Pashinyan’s party and the “My Step“ Foundation, led by his partner Anna Hakobyan, received contributions totaling $300,000 in the past three years from business owners or officials whose companies were granted government tax exemptions.
After making repeated threats to imprison his political opponents and warning that the opposition parties will not win any parliamentary seats in the upcoming election, Pashinyan may now cross all red lines and ban one or more opposition parties from the June 7 elections to guarantee his Civil Contract party’s victory.
If that happens, all opposition parties must boycott the parliamentary elections in protest. The result will be a parliament consisting exclusively of Pashinyan’s party after June 7 — reminiscent of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR where only the Communist Party was represented. This would confirm that Armenia is not a democratic country, but an autocracy.
So far, the West — out of self-interest and to the detriment of Armenia’s national interests — has ignored major violations of democratic rule. But if only one party remains in parliament, the West could no longer pretend that Armenia is a normal democracy. A concerted diplomatic effort should be launched to push foreign governments to refuse recognition of the illegitimate election results.
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A jury in the Central District of California convicted a California doctor yesterday in a $45 million scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting claims for Botox injections that were never provided and medically unnecessary, and for obstructing the investigation by manipulating and altering medical records in an attempt to mislead criminal investigators. The investigation was initiated as a result of a referral from the Health Care Fraud Section’s Data Analytics Team, after its analysis showed that the defendant was paid more by Medicare for Botox injections than any other doctor in the United States.
“Violetta Mailyan falsely diagnosed patients, fraudulently billed for Botox injections while she was actually on lavish vacations, and tried to trick federal agents with fake records,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “The Fraud Division’s data-driven approach will shine a light on fraud schemes across the country, ensuring that no doctor can engage in these types of brazen schemes to rob Medicare.”
“Let this conviction serve as a warning: anyone who leverages their medical authority to defraud Medicare will be caught and held accountable,” said Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of the Health and Human Servics Office of Inspector General (HHS‑OIG). “This defendant’s actions were a blatant betrayal of patients and the public trust. HHS‑OIG will stay relentless in protecting federal health care programs from those who seek to exploit them.”
“Physicians who defraud and manipulate federally funded health care programs to line their own pockets do so at the expense of American taxpayers and those who are in legitimate need of medical procedures,” said Assistant Director in Charge Patrick Grandy of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI is gratified that the jury convicted Dr. Mailyan based on the evidence, which uncovered the largest Botox fraud scheme in the United States, to include brazenly billing for someone who was incarcerated. Furthermore, the FBI is committed to pursuing physicians and others in the healthcare system who fleece Medicare and, in doing so, drive up premiums and co-payments for law-abiding citizens.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Violetta Mailyan, 45, of Glendale, owned and operated Healthy Way Medical Center, a clinic that purported to provide beauty and cosmetic services. Although Medicare reimburses medical providers for Botox injections when necessary to treat documented cases of chronic migraines, Mailyan billed and received payments for thousands of injections that were never provided or were provided only for cosmetic purposes or for patients whose primary care physicians had not referred them for treatment of chronic migraines. For example, the evidence at trial showed that Mailyan billed for providing Botox injections when she was actually on vacation in Cabo, Mexico; Maui, Hawaii; Las Vegas; Pennsylvania; and New York; billed for purportedly injecting a Medicare beneficiary who was actually incarcerated in federal prison at the time; and billed for thousands of injections, representing over $19 million, purportedly provided on days when her clinic was closed. The evidence also showed that Mailyan backdated some claims to bill for injections purportedly provided before the patients even contacted Mailyan’s clinic to request an appointment, and fabricated patient medical records, including patient consent forms, to make it appear as if patients suffered from chronic migraines and had received treatment for those migraines in her office.
In addition to the fraudulent billing, the evidence at trial showed that Mailyan actively sought to cover up her crimes when investigators were closing in. After receiving a grand jury subpoena seeking medical records, Mailyan altered patient records to make it appear as if she had provided Botox injections for chronic migraines when in fact those services had not been provided, and provided the altered documents to federal agents.
The evidence at trial showed that Mailyan used Medicare funds she obtained through the scheme to pay for her lavish vacations in Mexico, Hawaii, and elsewhere, and to purchase luxury collectible goods such as a $12,000 17th century crossbow and a $3,000 painting.
This prosecution illustrates the success of the Department’s efforts to use advanced data analytics to detect health care fraud schemes and bring the perpetrators to justice. The Health Care Fraud Section’s Data Analytics Team identified Mailyan as an extreme outlier among doctors receiving Medicare payments for Botox, having at the time been paid more than $24 million over the previous four years — six times the next highest group of providers, all of whom were neurologists. As the investigation and evidence presented at trial showed, Mailyan’s outlier status owed entirely to her pervasive and long-running fraud scheme.
Following the conviction, the jury also found that a Tesla Model X, a Tesla Cybertruck, $251,124 in funds contained in multiple bank accounts, brokerage accounts valued at $7,312,037 at the time of seizure, and four properties in Surfside and Glendale, California with combined estimated equity of $7,343,636, were proceeds of the fraud subject to forfeiture. The Cybertruck seized from Mailyan is shown below:
Mailyan was convicted of nine counts of wire fraud and three counts of obstruction of a criminal investigation of a health care offense. She is scheduled to be sentenced on September 10, 2026. She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and 5 years in prison for each count of obstruction. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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A. Hakobyan, M. Hakobyan and Y. Hakobyan, G. Ghazaryan and Av. Ghazaryan, citizens of Armenia, won a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights against the Republic of Armenia.
The case concerns their complaints about the excessive length of proceedings before the civil and administrative courts, lasting between seven to over 13 years. The applicants claimed that there were no effective remedies at national level to seek compensation for excessive length of proceedings.
The applicants accused the Republic of Armenia of violating Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial within a reasonable time) and article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
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A Greek court sentenced a 27-year-old Azerbaijani man to prison on espionage charges on Tuesday for monitoring a military base on the island of Crete, Reuters reported, citing legal sources.
The man, sentenced to seven years and one month in prison, was arrested in June last year following a surveillance operation by police and Greece’s intelligence service, on suspicion of monitoring the Souda naval base — a strategic facility for Greece, the United States and NATO, according to the report.
The probe showed that the man, who had a temporary residence permit from Poland, had first arrived in Greece in January 2025 and since mid-June had been staying in a hotel room with a view of the naval and air force base in Chania, western Crete.
He was accused of collecting and transmitting state secrets and critical military information to foreign powers, including photographs and videos of military installations, police sources said.
Evidence included 23 videos and nine photographs of a Greek Navy frigate which had arrived in Souda for refuelling.”He did not intend to spy,” his lawyer, Sofia Saripanidou, told Reuters. “He took pictures of a view, where everyone has access.”
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The trip is expected to include meetings, press conferences, and the signing of bilateral documents. It comes amid expanding Armenia-U.S. strategic engagement, including talks around the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process and the U.S.-backed TRIPP regional transit framework.
Rubio’s visit would mark the first trip to Armenia by a sitting U.S. secretary of state since Hillary Clinton traveled to Yerevan in 2010 and again in 2012.
The timing is politically significant. The visit comes less than two weeks before Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections and was not publicly announced in advance, underscoring both the sensitivity and the high-level nature of the trip.
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Joulhayan described ancient remains discovered near the Aras River, near Mount Ararat, where researchers reportedly compared ancient genetic samples with modern Armenians and found remarkable continuity stretching back thousands of years. “How could that be?” he asked. “Mongolians attacked. Turks. Persians. Romans. Greeks. Armenian DNA should have changed.”
Kevork Joulhayan walked into the Utah Stories studio carrying both deep pride in his Armenian roots and the weight of a history that still feels personal to many Armenians today. Not history pulled from textbooks or documentaries, but family history passed down through generations by survivors, grandparents, photographs, church communities, and stories that were never allowed to disappear.
He brought old photographs. Armenian brandy. Pomegranate wine from Armenia. Stories about his grandfather. Stories about Aleppo. Stories about survival. Stories about names deliberately passed down so the dead would not disappear completely.
And before almost anything else, he wanted to talk about DNA.
“They cannot explain it,” he said.
Joulhayan described ancient remains discovered near the Aras River, near Mount Ararat, where researchers reportedly compared ancient genetic samples with modern Armenians and found remarkable continuity stretching back thousands of years. The way he spoke about it made it clear he was not trying to present a scientific lecture. To him, it reinforced what many Armenians already believe emotionally about themselves: despite invasions, massacres, forced conversions, deportations, conquest, exile, and genocide, their identity survived.
“How could that be?” he asked. “Mongolians attacked. Turks. Persians. Romans. Greeks. Armenian DNA should have changed.”
The conversation lasted nearly an hour, but everything eventually circled back to survival and the persistence of Armenian identity across generations. Joulhayan was not speaking only about physical survival after the genocide. He was talking about the survival of memory, language, religion, family structures, and the emotional inheritance passed from grandparents to grandchildren long after the original trauma ended.
Sitting across from him, it became obvious that the Armenian Genocide is not something he thinks about as distant history. It feels much closer than that, almost present tense.
The Grandfather Who Refused to Be Forgotten
Throughout the interview, Joulhayan was not simply sharing family stories. He spoke with the urgency of someone who feels responsible for keeping Armenian history alive and making sure the rest of the world understands what happened to his people.
His grandfather escaped the Armenian Genocide in 1915 after fleeing Ain Tab, historically Armenian territory inside the collapsing Ottoman Empire. Like countless Armenian survivors, he eventually reached Aleppo, Syria, where displaced Armenians were rebuilding shattered lives from almost nothing.
There he married another genocide survivor. Together they raised eight children. One of those children became Joulhayan’s father.
Then he emphasized what his grandfather told the family before he died.
“You don’t owe me anything except one thing. Name one of your sons Kevork so I won’t be forgotten.”
Joulhayan became that grandson.
He smiled while telling the story, but the emotion underneath it was unmistakable. The name was not simply tradition but continuity. A way of ensuring that somebody who survived the genocide would continue existing inside future generations long after his death.
“Wherever Kevork ends up,” Joulhayan said, describing his grandfather’s thinking, “he’s going to tell my story.”
And decades later, sitting in Utah across from Richard Markosian, that is exactly what he was doing.
“Something Inside You Starts Bubbling”
“You can change your name. You can change your appearance. You can change your eye color, your hair color,” Joulhayan said. “DNA is not altering.”
For him, the survival of Armenian identity was inseparable from the genocide itself. Armenians had been scattered across Syria, Lebanon, Greece, Iran, and the United States, yet many families continued preserving the same language, churches, traditions, surnames, and tightly connected communities generation after generation.
“They always reconnect,” he said while explaining how Armenian families often sought out marriages within Armenian communities even after exile and displacement. “They always choose to marry one of their own.”
He described Armenians as people who survived repeated invasions and conquest while still holding onto a strong sense of identity. Mongolians. Turks. Persians. Romans. Greeks. Throughout the interview, he kept returning to the same question:
“How could Armenian DNA stay the same?”
Then he paused and connected it to something more emotional than science.
“Something inside you starts bubbling like a volcano,” he said. “You don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s coming from inside.”
For Joulhayan, the genocide did not erase Armenian identity because families continued carrying it forward through memory, religion, language, and family history. Even descendants born thousands of miles from Armenia still grew up hearing the stories.
Markosian’s own family history reflected that same continuity. His great-grandfather escaped after being conscripted into the Turkish army and ordered to fight Armenians. His great-grandmother survived deportation marches after being left for dead before eventually immigrating to Utah.
More than a century later, both men were still talking about the genocide not as distant history, but as something that continued shaping Armenian identity long after survivors themselves were gone.
Aleppo, Lebanon, and Waiting for America
Joulhayan was born in Aleppo in 1966 inside one of the largest Armenian diaspora communities formed after the genocide.
When he was still young, his family moved to Lebanon while applying to immigrate to the United States. The process took 15 years.
He spoke about those years carefully, but there were moments where the exhaustion underneath the story still surfaced. Lebanon descended into civil war during that time, and as an Armenian family living inside another country’s conflict, survival became uncertain again.
“I’m Armenian,” he said while describing those years. “I’m trying to survive.”
He told friends constantly that one day he was going to America. Not because he thought America was perfect, but because he associated it with freedom and stability after generations of instability.
Then the Beirut embassy bombing happened in 1983.
Only a week before his immigration appointment, the American embassy was destroyed in an attack that killed dozens of people, including U.S. Marines.
Joulhayan still seemed stunned remembering it decades later.
“One week before my appointment,” he said, shaking his head.
The immigration process collapsed again.
Eventually the family rerouted through Greece, spent time in Athens completing paperwork, and finally arrived in the United States.
Joulhayan came to America in his early twenties and eventually settled in Utah.
Despite everything he described throughout the interview, the thing he returned to repeatedly was gratitude.
“I love it here,” he said.
He spoke openly about freedom throughout the conversation, but not in an ideological way. He described freedom more personally, as the ability to openly be himself, openly Armenian, openly expressive without fear.
Armenia Was Never Just a Country to Him
He repeatedly returned to the idea that Armenians never fully separated themselves from the land, history, and religion that shaped them. While describing ancient Armenia, Joulhayan traced its borders from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and spoke about a civilization that existed long before modern Turkey.
“There was no Turkey,” he said at one point while discussing ancient Armenian kingdoms. “We’re talking B.C.”
He described Armenia as the first Christian nation, saying Armenians accepted Christianity in 301 A.D. before much of the rest of the world. When the discussion turned to the Council of Nicaea and the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, Joulhayan spoke with unmistakable pride.
“We already know Jesus,” he said. “We already had the Bible. We already had written a Bible in Armenian. We already knew Jesus before them.”
To him, Armenian Christianity was not simply a religion. It was proof of continuity and endurance.
That same feeling came through when he pulled out a printed copy of the Armenian alphabet and began reciting it from memory.
“Since 301 A.D. we’ve been talking Armenian,” he said.
He explained that Armenian leaders created and preserved the alphabet because they feared losing their identity while living between larger empires and surrounding cultures.
“Freedom is very important for Armenians,” he said. “We would die for freedom.”
Mount Ararat surfaced repeatedly throughout the interview as well, not just as geography, but almost as emotional territory. Joulhayan connected Ararat to Noah’s Ark traditions, ancient Armenia, Armenian wine-making history, and the survival of Armenian civilization itself.
While holding a bottle of Armenian pomegranate wine, he described villages near Ararat where wine has supposedly been made for thousands of years.
“They just found a 5,000-year-old cave winery,” he said. “That village still makes wine.”
Later he pointed toward the Armenian coat of arms and explained the symbolism almost like someone introducing members of his own family. The eagle represented one Armenian royal house. The lion represented another. In the center sat Mount Ararat and Noah’s Ark.
“These little flags,” he said while pointing to the symbols around the crest, “each different kingdom, little minor kingdom was formed during this period.”
For Joulhayan, none of these subjects existed separately. Ancient Armenia, Christianity, language, Noah’s Ark traditions, genocide survival, diaspora communities, family names, and modern Armenian identity all seemed connected inside the same continuous story.
Why Recognition Still Matters
At one point, Markosian mentioned that when he first wrote about Armenian genocide survivors in Utah back in 2011, the United States still had not officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. That changed in 2021 when President Joe Biden formally recognized it as genocide.
“If they don’t tell the Turkish government, ‘You need to acknowledge it, accept it, apologize,’” Joulhayan said, “someone else somewhere is going to commit the same crime again.”
Then he pointed directly to Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Happened in Artsakh,” he said. “One hundred fifty thousand Armenians that lived in Nagorno-Karabakh, they were driven away.”
“They’re homeless in Armenia,” he continued. “Armenia doesn’t have free land, free houses to give away.”
He spoke about Armenian churches being destroyed after Armenians fled.
“Every month Azerbaijani government is destroying one Armenian church,” he said. “They want to erase the Christian minority that was there.”
Later, while talking about the original genocide, Markosian reflected on the homes his great-grandparents once lived in.
“They just moved into their houses after they murdered them?” he asked.
“Yep,” Joulhayan replied.
“They stole the little Armenian kids,” Joulhayan continued. “They erased their identity. They put them in their own orphanage.”
According to Joulhayan, many people in modern Turkey are now discovering Armenian ancestry through DNA testing.
“They think they’re Turkish,” he said. “Then they find out, ‘Oh, I’m part Armenian.’ They’re shocked.”
The Photographs on the Table
Late in the interview, Joulhayan spread old family photographs across the table.
One showed his grandfather.
Another showed enormous family gatherings in Aleppo with children and grandchildren packed tightly together.
In one faded photograph, he pointed toward a tiny infant.
“That little baby,” he said quietly, “that’s me.”
The photographs clearly mattered to him deeply, not as nostalgic keepsakes but as evidence. Evidence that his grandfather survived. Evidence that the family continued. Evidence that the genocide failed to erase them completely.
By the end of the interview, the DNA discussion that opened the conversation almost felt secondary.
The deeper mystery was not really genetic.
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