Iran has imposed a toll on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, setting up a “safe corridor” for approved carriers. One of the operators paid about 2 million dollars for the transit of his tanker. Lloyd’s List wrote about this, referring to the source:

At least nine ships have already passed through the strait under this scheme. However, it is not known how many of them have paid. In some cases, according to some reports, diplomatic intervention was the only solution. Additionally, the payment mechanism itself remains uncertain amid sanctions against Iran.

According to some reports, the route of the “safe corridor” passes through Iran’s territorial waters near Larak Island, where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and port authorities carry out visual identification of ships. Access to the corridor is allowed only after coordination with Tehran.

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The Catholicos of All Armenians received an official notification from the Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church regarding the funeral of the blessed Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II and related events. This was reported by the information system of the Mother See.

“His Holiness intends to visit Georgia, attend the funeral ceremony, pay his respects to the late blessed Patriarch and convey his grief to the Georgian Orthodox Church and the friendly Georgian people.

As for the exit ban, the attorneys of the Mother See are taking steps in that direction,” the Mother See explained.

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Artur Khachatryan, deputy of the “Hayastan” faction, writes:

“The Evil Genius of Blackmail…. From the threat “Either I will be the prime minister or Armenia will not have a prime minister” to “Either I will be the prime minister or Armenia will not exist”…

Pashinyan openly declares that if he is in trouble, he will seek Aliyev’s help. Internal and external enemies work closely together.

In order to defeat the external enemy, one must first defeat the internal enemy…”

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The amended version of the RA Constitution has appeared in the hands of “Ishkhanutyun” news agency. In the text, the lines in red are the ones that were added, and the deleted lines are the lines that were removed from the Constitution.

The site writes: “The changes made in the RA Constitution put the fundamental values ​​of the people under attack: history, the institution of the family, the connection with the diaspora and the priority of being Armenian in Armenia. But the funniest thing is that the amended Constitution, undermining the state’s value system, is presented with a beautiful packaging of “European values”.

Thus, “historical memory is erased” in the preamble of the Constitution. There is no mention of the Declaration of Independence, while the existing Constitution is based on the Declaration of Independence. The declaration read: “The Armenian people, taking as a basis the fundamental principles of Armenian statehood and national goals established in the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, the sacred message of their freedom-loving ancestors who implemented the restoration of a sovereign state… accept the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.”

This reference was removed from the text of the new Constitution and replaced by the following lines: “The people of the Republic of Armenia, guided by the goals of preserving the independence, sovereignty and continuity of the Republic of Armenia, protecting human rights and freedoms, strengthening the democratic and legal state, ensuring the safety of the people and promoting the general well-being, as well as the commitment to inherit a peaceful, safe and prosperous homeland for future generations, adopt the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.”

It was Aliyev’s demand to tear the Declaration of Independence from the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, because it mentioned Artsakh and talked about the restoration of the historical homeland and lands.

Clause 2 of Article 35 has been deleted in the new Constitution, where it was stated that a woman and a man have equal rights when getting married, during marriage, and when divorcing. The amendment of this article implies that the model of the traditional Armenian family is changing, and that the same-sex union can also be considered a family.

Article 36, which defines the rights and responsibilities of parents, has been changed so that children no longer have an obligation to care for their elderly parents. Clause 3 of this article defined: “Adult working persons are obliged to take care of their disabled and needy parents. The details are defined by law.” This has been completely removed.

According to the new Constitution, a person of Armenian nationality can no longer become a citizen of the Republic of Armenia in a simplified manner. Clauses 2, 3 and 4 of Article 47 defining the right to citizenship of the Republic of Armenia have been completely deleted. This means that our Diaspora Armenians can no longer become RA citizens in a simplified manner.

Article 113 was completely deleted from the Constitution, which gave the members of the National Assembly the right to address the members of the Government, including the Prime Minister, with written questions, in other words, to demand transparency and accountability. With the new Constitution, parliamentary control is weakened, and the political system seems to be becoming a monarchy. The goal is simple: so that the opposition cannot influence the government and the prime minister has complete freedom.

One of the most important articles of the RA Constitution, Article 205, has been changed in such a way that the Armenian people will no longer be able to control the fate of their country. The Constitution written by the CP government allows the government and the National Assembly to decide the country’s membership in international organizations without a referendum.

The transitional provision of the new Constitution allows that if Armenia joined any international organization before 2015, the issue of suspending or canceling the membership of that organization can be resolved only through the National Assembly, without a referendum.

This circumstance creates a particularly serious problem in the case of EAEU membership, as Armenia had already joined that organization in 2015, according to the previous Constitution.

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The Ministry of Justice denies that the draft published earlier in the media is the final text they developed. At the same time, they neither deny nor confirm that the reference to the Declaration of Independence was removed from their prepared text.

“That is not the text we should publish. We will publish a new text, not amendments to the Constitution,” the press secretary of the Minister of Justice insisted in a conversation with “Azatutyan”.

“Ishkhanutyun” news agency claimed today that “the amended version of the RA Constitution appeared in its hands.” In the preface of the text published by this news outlet, there is no reference to the Declaration of Independence containing the wording on the unification of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Mariam Melkumyan did not answer the question whether the reference to the Declaration of Independence was removed in the project developed by the ministry. He said that they will make an additional clarification during the day.

Azerbaijan demands to remove the Declaration of Independence from the Constitution, claiming that only after that it will sign the peace agreement with Armenia.

Nikol Pashinyan personally described the declaration as a source of conflict, expressed his opinion that the Declaration of Independence should not be mentioned in the draft of the new Constitution, but the Ministry of Justice, which is developing the text, still keeps the main intrigue: will they remove or keep the reference?

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We are still waiting for the decision of the investigator regarding the permission to appear in a video message to Samvel Karapetyan, for which we applied in January, February, March, this time it seems we are getting the permission. Lawyer Aram Vardevanyan announced this on his Facebook page.

“In any case, let’s see. But an important record. during this entire period, it was admitted and proven that the next lies and manipulations were being spread, because the probation service could not give such a permission and did not give it, but the investigative service just gave it.

That’s what the investigator’s statement was about,” he said.

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At the end of the 2025-2026 school year, the 9th grade students of all RA schools will pass the final exam in the subjects “Literature” and “History of Armenia” in the format of an essay, through a written work integrating the content of the two subjects, which results from the requirement for the formation of abilities defined by the State Standard of General Education. This is reported by KGSMN.

On March 27, at 1:00 p.m., a webinar-question-and-answer session on the essay is planned for teachers and students. Teachers and students should fill in the questions they are interested in by March 24, the answers to which will be presented during the above-mentioned webinar-question-and-answer session.

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Harutyun Agha-Sargsyan, the president of the Pan-Armenian Council for the Protection of the Armenian Church, made a statement regarding the denial of the opportunity by the Armenian authorities to the Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II to travel to Tbilisi and participate in the funeral of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia.

“This is no longer the floor. The authorities of the day displayed their sick revenge and the most ridiculous degree of moral depravity. By effectively holding Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II hostage and forbidding him to travel to Tbilisi to bid farewell to Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia, this regime proves that it is ultimately devoid of any sanctity.

This is petty and cowardly hooliganism. When the state apparatus cannot restrain its cheapness even in the face of death, mourning and the last farewell, we are dealing not with the government, but with national shame.

This is a blow to the dignity of our state. By depriving the Patriarch of All Armenians from participating in the funeral of his spiritual brother, you are not humiliating His Holiness. You are turning Armenia into a mockery, showing the world that our country is run by mentally ill people who do not care about centuries-old Armenian-Georgian relations.

This is blatant blasphemy. Where normal people keep quiet and bow their heads, you build your cheap maniac walls. This is an encroachment not only against church order, but also against basic human morality.

We strongly demand that this disgraceful ban against the Catholicos be lifted immediately and without cheap legal veils. Your hostile and destructive campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church has crossed all the borders of insanity.

Calm down! Whoever remains silent and tolerates this disgrace today becomes an accomplice of this spiritual terror carried out at the state level. You are not hurting the Church, you are exposing your own moral bankruptcy, your fear and pettiness. Your image does not evoke feelings other than disgust and pity,” the statement reads.

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The recent dismissal of the director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute found a wide response in the Armenian society, quickly going beyond the scope of an ordinary personnel decision. For many, the move became an alarming indicator of how the relationship between the state and independent science is changing, while others saw it as an attempt to block pain and memory. What is more important in this dismissal: the demand for total loyalty during the pre-election period, the lack of understanding of the principles of academic freedom, or the government’s desire to take control of all public institutions? of the country about the real motivations of the leadership, the limits of the political conjuncture and why the ruling team finally bet on the bureaucratic resource to replace the lost social legitimacy,to VERELQ the director of the Caucasus Institute, a political scientist, told in the interview Alexander Iskandaryan:

Photo: Alexander Iskandaryan, source: RBC (РБК)

VERELQ: It cannot be said that what happened is unprecedented, but the release of the director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, nevertheless, received a sharp public resonance. What is the sign of this dismissal and, in your opinion, to what extent has it undermined Nikol Pashinyan’s position in society?

Alexander Iskandaryan. The logic of this release, as seen by the ruling team, is quite transparent. As a matter of fact, Pashinyan himself directly announced that and not only him. The essence comes down to the following. if a person is a civil servant and receives a salary from the state, he is obliged to support the political course of the government and has no right to act contrary to its provisions. And in the case of donating a book, apparently, it is required not only not to oppose the government, but also to guess in advance what its position is on this or that issue.

In general, the logic of the authorities is clear, but in this case we are talking about the director of a scientific institution. The Scientific Institute is not a regional department of the “Civil Contract” party. In the academic environment, at least in the part of the world to which our government is oriented, there are such fundamental concepts as academic freedoms. Science develops due to the clash of different views, and a scientist has every right to disagree both with his colleagues and with people far from science.

An understanding of academic freedoms, the right to have one’s own opinion and its diversity is vitally necessary, because without it, science, including public science, simply does not exist. It cannot function in a paradigm where it is required to serve the one true top-down narrative; under such conditions it ceases to be science.

Judging by everything, the authorities do not have this understanding, or at least it disappears during the pre-election period, when such values ​​seem to them to be completely marginal. I’m not inclined to attribute what happened solely to someone’s personal feelings. Of course, the personal factor may be present, but to prove it or to know for sure what the personal motives are there is impossible. Another thing is important. we are dealing with a clear trend that can be seen in many areas.

And now that trend has reached the social sciences, a field where the existence of independent opinion is presupposed from the start. The authorities are trying to introduce an approach, which in science is called “presupposition” (presupposition). when you define the desired outcome in advance and know from the very beginning exactly what you have to prove, adapting to changes in the political conjuncture. Requiring a scientist to work in a strictly defined ideological paradigm shows a deep lack of understanding of the working mechanisms of science, including state-funded science. After all, funding by the state and blindly serving the interests of the government are completely different things.

VERELQ: If we talk about the impact of this incident on the ratings of the government. how will this affect them given the extreme sensitivity of the subject?

Alexander Iskandaryan. You know, it seems to me that this topic is really sensitive, but only in those circles and classes of society, which either will not go to the upcoming elections at all, or if they do, they will definitely not vote for the ruling party.

The government obviously does not bet on Yerevan’s scientific intelligentsia. First of all, in terms of quantity, that capital intelligentsia is not so much to have a decisive influence on the outcome of the vote. Second, the electoral calculation is based on completely different groups of the population. And to what extent the problem of academic freedoms and the attitude towards history concerns the residents of small towns and villages, or the older generation with a not so high level of education, this is already a question, the clear answer of which we will get only on the day of the elections.

VERELQ: A logical question arises. Is this a manifestation of a personal desire to take full control of all state and public institutions (after parliament and the judiciary) in order to maximize power? Or is the main goal to ensure total bureaucratic loyalty? And maybe this is a preventive measure to prevent any step that could negatively affect the peace process?

Alexander Iskandaryan. I don’t think this is just someone’s personal ambition. This is a very clear and conscious position of the ruling class. They understand rationally within the government. in the conditions of the current low social legitimacy (and it is really low and obviously will not increase) it is necessary to bet on bureaucratic legitimacy.

In other words, the main problem in the upcoming elections is not to increase popularity and ratings, but to concretely confirm that bureaucratic legitimacy. Make it the basis on which the government will stand. In this sense, their actions are extremely rational, and the deep division of society can be used as a tool for the ruling team to successfully pass the electoral stage.

I repeat, this is not a question of psychology or a simple personal desire of one particular person. Even if the subjective factor is present, the global calculation is built on the critical importance of bureaucratic loyalty. That loyalty must be ensured absolutely everywhere, because it is what the government relies on now and intends to rely on in the future. The period from 2018 to 2021, when the country’s leadership relied on broad social legitimacy, incredible popularity among the people and unimaginable ratings, has passed irretrievably. This political tool is lost, it’s gone, and that’s why they are forced to act in such a way.

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