Today 168.amreceived information that they are going to “confiscate” the 12 horses of the equestrian club belonging to Gagik Tsarukyan as well.

And although it has become known that the actions have been postponed, the club is still waiting for that scenario.

Employees are concerned about the fate of 12 horses. they note that the possible transfer of animals will have negative consequences, because better conditions for them than those created in the club are not possible – a large area, without favorable conditions for exploitation.

Employees are also concerned about the fact that most of the horses are 12 years old or older.

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“In order to implement a change of power, the people must be ready for it. These elections showed that it is not ready at this moment. It seemed that these years had taught people something, but we saw that it was not, they are still waiting for something.” 168.amsaid in a conversation with writer, public speaker Bakur Karapetyan՝ talking about the national elections held in Armenia, its consequences and the prerequisites for a possible change of power in Armenia.

He says that 2000 years ago, the Armenian nation should have conquered the whole of Asia Minor, but, unfortunately, it could not, probably they were not united again, they only thought about the inter-ethnic struggle. They did not have a common goal and ideology, that is, they were in the same situation as they are today.

“With today’s situation, can we be a nation-state, can we do this, maybe not at this moment. The basis of having all this is the brain, knowledge, but today we are not able to appreciate the mind, we are pushing smart people back, I am also talking about the intelligentsia, which has automatically been pushed back from the front line, while in this situation it should not have been like that. Intellectualism should create a movement, raise the people, spread ideas.

Although everything is very difficult, I am sure that everything is not lost, there are more opportunities at this moment. If in the past they conquered the world with a single bow and arrow, today they can conquer it with their brains, so it would be good if strong individuals, intellectuals, were in the “frontline”. The globalists managed to create a “Kajnazarian” government in Armenia, this is a terrible phenomenon for us, which we cannot deal with.” 168.am–Bakur Karapetyan said in a conversation with

According to him, those people who help this government stay in power “don’t care about Armenia, they don’t know what fate awaits the country tomorrow”, only the Armenian nation should think about it.

“It is not necessary that Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharian are in power, but they can lead people, I have nothing against them, of course, I respect them as former presidents. They can lead knowledgeable people forward and help with their experience and resources,” Bakur Karapetyan emphasized.

He also said that the Armenian nation can feel its strength when it becomes united, which is needed at this moment.

“Do you think that today our enemy wants us to unite, of course, he doesn’t, he has seen what we are capable of in case of that unification, that’s why they are doing everything. Even today, our enemy’s allies are doing everything to prevent this unification from happening. We represent a huge force, why don’t we use it, let everyone ask themselves this question. When we are strong, the stranger will respect us, instead of standing up and demanding respect from the stranger.

If foreign forces can put their own person in charge of our country, this is not their problem, but our problem, we have to solve these problems, a foreigner will not come to solve our problems. Beyond this, there is no other shocking phenomenon, if we don’t save our country, then the issue of Armenia ends, that’s it,” emphasized Bakur Karapetyan.

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The 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity will be held in Yerevan at the “Meridian” exhibition and event center. 168․amis different with publications refer to is at the event.

In particular, we informed that last year the State Property Committee of the Ministry of Territorial Management and Infrastructure signed a space lease agreement with “Meridian Holding” CJSC for the COP 17 conference. The price of the contract was 5 billion 775 million drams. In the contractual specification about the nature and period of space provision, it is also stated that in addition to the COP 17 service, the holding will also provide space provision services within 6 years after that, within the framework of the price of the mentioned contract, equivalent to 2 billion 775 million AMD (the cost of 1 square meter for 1 day is 462.5 AMD and without the minimum square meter requirement).

In the session of September 11, 2025, the Executive Board approved the draft Government decision, according to which the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 17) will be held in the “Meridian” expo center in 2026. It was mentioned that the allocated sum of 5 billion 775 million drams will be spent on the repair, construction and improvement works of areas in the “Meridian” expo center, making the entire area suitable for organizing the above-mentioned event in the “Meridian” expo center at a high level. The 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 17) is scheduled to be held in Armenia on October 18-30, 2026.

Recently, we learned that the Ministry of Finance provided the same Meridian center with a 500,000 USD loan at 1 percent. The purpose of the loan was assumed to be the same “costly” measure, but for clarification, we sent a written request to the Ministry, inquiring about the purpose of the loan, terms, terms of interest calculation, as well as clarifying whether this is the only similar loan to the “Meridian” center.

In response, Secretary General of the Ministry Hayk Harutyunyan elaborated. On the basis of the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2026” of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of May 27, 2026, Resolution No. 1910-N of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of December 25, 2025 and on Making Budget Loans from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia No. 762-N of 02.06.2026 Credit agreement No. 1/2026 was signed between the RA Ministry of Finance and “Meridian Holding” CJSC.

According to the contract, for the construction of the “Meridian” expo center, the company was granted a budget loan from the state budget in the amount of AMD 1,839,350,000 with an annual interest rate of 1 percent and a repayment period of 78 months. You can find other information about this decision аrlis.am on the website.

At the same time, we inform that “Meridian Holding” PB company was not granted any other loans from the RA state budget.

The link mentioned by the Secretary General of the Ministry also details that the loan is given to Meridian Holding closed joint stock company for the purpose of building the Meridian Expo Center for the organization of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) on October 18-30, 2026 in the Republic of Armenia.

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6 years ago, on these days, you could find the pages of the majority of Facebook users in Armenia TavushStrong the hashtag.

On July 12, 2020, on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, in the direction of Tavush region, fierce battles began, which were considered the hottest in 2016. after the April war. civilians and settlements were also targeted.

According to official data, everything started with an attempt by the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan to violate the state border of Armenia with a UAZ car.

The case had happened in the interpositional space between the Armenian Movses and Azerbaijani Aghdam villages.

Moreover, when RA Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan presented what happened to Nikol Pashinyan during the government session on July 13, the latter, for some reason, decided that “it is possible that the Azerbaijani soldiers have gone astray”, to which the minister responded that his impression was wrong.

After a short time, unofficial channels announced the occupation of new, more favorable positions by the Armenian side. In particular, we are talking about liberating the position called “Fearless”, which is located on the “Gharadash” hill, which was later attacked unsuccessfully by Azerbaijanis.

On July 14, 2020, Pashinyan at the RA Ministry of Defense were introduced The punitive steps of the RA Armed Forces, especially the 3rd Army Corps under the leadership of Grigory Khachaturov.

By the way, in May 2024 168.amwith in the conversation Former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Davit Tonoyan noted that “The July 2020 battles in Tavush and the February 2019 operations that preceded it were carried out based on the strategic logic of strengthening RA’s positions.”

And in 2020 According to the official data of July 16, Azerbaijan had 13 victims (12 soldiers and 1 civilian), and the Armenian side 4 victim: Major Garush Hambardzumyan, Captain Sos Elbakyan, junior sergeants Grisha Matevosyan and Smbat Gabrielyan.

Later, on July 27, contract soldier Ashot Mikayelyan, who played a major role in the July battles and the liberation of “Anvakh” position, was also killed by enemy sniper fire.

The topic of the July battles and the destruction of high-ranking Azerbaijani military personnel will be examined was an object even during the Baku “trial”.

It should be noted that during the July battles, in particular, Azerbaijan lost the Chief of Staff of its Third Army Corps, Major General Polad Hashimov, as well as the Chief of Artillery of the Third Army Corps, Colonel Ilgar Mirzaev and other officers.

And later, the mother of the Azerbaijani general Polad Hashimov had announced, that in fact his son was “killed” by Kerim Veliyev, the current head of the General Staff of Azerbaijan, who was the country’s deputy defense minister at that time, that is, based on various motives, the military leadership of Azerbaijan sent Polad Hashimov to the place of combat operations, calculating that he would not return from there.

For a long time, Aliyev and his family have paid special attention to the mother of the destroyed Azerbaijani general, and her sharp interviews are almost impossible to find on the Internet.

It is worth reminding that during the days of the July battles, Azerbaijan was threatening hit the Metsamor nuclear power plant.

And the RA government? command lowered the RA Armed Forces, the Artsakh Defense Forces, not to target Azerbaijan or foreign infrastructure there.

There were other notable episodes in those days. In the days of the July battles, from the very first moment, Turkey was his expressed support Azerbaijan: foreign affairs and military departments through

At that time Hulusi Akar, head of the Turkish Defense Department, to Armenia had threatened take retaliatory measures that “the death of Azerbaijani soldiers will not go unpunished”.

And Akar’s pre-war threat was almost immediately followed by the Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercises that took place from July 29 to August 12, 2020 in Baku, Ganja, Kurdamir, Evlakh and Nakhichevan, which “influence” In the context of the 44-day war, as well as Turkey’s direct participation in the war and Hulusi Akar himself role playing we we have referred. At the same time, Armenia had suspended Turkey’s inspection visits to Armenia under the treaty on the SDF and the Vienna document.

Let us add that on one occasion Armen Grigoryan, the Secretary of the RA Council of State had confessed that a large-scale war in Artsakh, such as occurred in September 2020, was expected at some point in the summer of the same year, “During the July events, Azerbaijan aimed to immediately move the military operations to the line of contact with Artsakh.”

In these years, the July battles in the Armenian political field were also considered in the context of provocation, including taking into account Nikol Pashinyan’s decision to reward the participants of the July victory in Sardarapat a month before the 44-day anniversary.

Tigran Abrahamyan, secretary of the NA “I have the honor” faction in the conversation with, we tried to understand what happened militarily in July 2020, whether something much more serious was prevented, which is still unknown, especially when Armen Grigoryan, the Secretary of the RA Council of Ministers, admitted that a full-scale war could take place in Artsakh in July itself.

– In a large sense, the July 2020 battles were a test for the parties to understand who could solve what problem with their resources in large-scale operations.

It involved various military types, and the parties, to be honest, were also testing their strengths, both in terms of special-purpose units and unmanned systems, and certain management approaches. And in this review, the 3rd Army Corps of the RA Armed Forces recorded quite good results, and the corps commander Grigori Khachaturov had a rather big role in it.

Because the corps solved a rather big problem in terms of its overall combat ability and performance of operational tasks.

It is another matter that the topic was not discussed in RA in a much deeper context – the confrontation with Azerbaijan and the development of further events, but the government simply took its propaganda component, tried to build a “strong supreme commander” on it, trying to hide the adventurous behavior of the ruling power, the military-political leadership’s actions not in line with the situation. And later, the 44-day war showed that for the government it was not to analyze, study, realize the plans of the situation, political, military and more, but they simply needed it to blow a propaganda bubble and exclusively in domestic life. to use.

–In fact, how much did the July battles and the army’s actions affect the negotiation process, as once hinted Chairman of the National Defense and Security Standing Committee Andranik Kocharyan pointing the arrow at the military. Is it correct to consider those battles only from the point of view of provocation, when a serious problem was solved, or was the provocation in its political presentation? By the way, at the moment, the 3rd Corps has been without a commander for 2 weeks.

– The 3rd Army Corps has fulfilled the task assigned to it, and all the speculations related to that corps, its soldiers, have an internal political component. Because when this government needs them for their propaganda, they honor the military, when the opposite is needed, they target them, which we have seen many times in other cases as well.

– Let’s talk about it demarcation and: demarcation to the process, which expected is yet In Tavush: More,  July 9-in Nicole: Pashinyan journalists with briefing time a lot dangerous wording is արել՝ legitimizing Jermuk azerbaijani the invasion and: there Baku «rights“, when, in particular, he noted that “we are not sew with scissors that the map let’s cut and: ասենք՝ this the section expressed is, no expressed, if scissors let’s take, the map let’s cut, Azerbaijan email Jermuk, Tavushi Harvest sections will cut»:

This why?what? about risks is

– I think that Pashinyan at this stage is resorting to the methods of blackmail that he used many times, and especially during the “border liberation” in Tavush in 2024, in a much more disguised way. Pashinyan’s main messages, in general, although in slightly different wordings, are the same: if we do not give what Azerbaijan demands, then he will solve the issue at his discretion.

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According to the forecasts of the international rating agency Fitch, the growth of Armenia’s economy will slow down significantly this year. Economic growth of 5.2 percent is expected instead of 7.1 percent of the previous year.

Fitch has singled out the 2 main factors that will make it possible to mitigate the risks arising in the external sector and contribute to the formation of economic growth. The agency has high hopes especially with the start of operation of the Amulsar gold mine.

“We predict that economic growth will stabilize at around 5 percent in the medium term, as the impact of the shocks recorded in recent years on the supply side will gradually decrease. At the same time, the dynamically developing information and communication technology sector and the start of operation of the Amulsar gold mine will continue to contribute to growth,” Fitch noted.

At first glance, this may be an ordinary economic forecast, but in reality it is a direct assessment of the 8-year policy of Nikol Pashinyan’s governments regarding Amulsar. The program that was close to launch in 2018. After the revolution, it came under political intrigues and was conserved for years, bringing with it serious problems.

The start of the project was initiated by the previous authorities of RA, creating all the conditions for its implementation. We are talking about an unprecedented initiative in the scope of investments, which was obstructed by the current authorities for years, thus, on the one hand, raising the price of its implementation and putting the state in front of financial problems, on the other hand, they delayed the economic and financial benefits that we should have received a long time ago.  

The current government inherited not a project in the initial stage, but an investment program worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the start of production of which was planned already in 2018. But the implementation of the project failed due to the efforts of the government. Of all the possible options, the worst was chosen: not making a decision. The issue of Amulsar gradually moved from the scientific and legal field to the field of political calculations. The authorities were trying not to antagonize environmental groups, bear the legal responsibility of closing the project and lose a large foreign investment at the same time. It was not possible to realize those three goals together. As a result, the government simply postponed the resolution of the issue.

But it was not without loss. Each passing month and year increased the cost of mine operation, aggravated the investor’s financial problems, delayed exports, tax revenues and job creation.

Already in 2019 Recently, “Lydian International” appeared in the process of insolvency. After the restructuring, the assets of the project came under the control of the creditors. One of Armenia’s largest foreign investments, which planned to start production in 2018, became a bankrupt company within a few years, facing international disputes and problems finding new financing. 2024 it became known that the “Amulsar Investor Ventures LLC v. Republic of Armenia” case is being examined in the international arbitration court, and the government, in order to protect the interests of the state, is forced to involve an American law firm, paying millions of dollars for its services.

 The turning point related to the operation of Amulsar took place only in 2023. at the beginning, when the government, the Eurasian Development Bank and Lydian Armenia signed an agreement to restart the program. According to it, the Armenian government should receive 12.5 percent of the company’s shares free of charge and take measures so that the project is implemented without obstacles, and the Eurasian Development Bank should provide a loan of up to 100 million dollars for the continuation of the project, in parallel with the funds involved by the company.

 2024 in January, the government accepted 12.5 percent of the shares of “Lydian Armenia”. In the official message, it was specially emphasized that the state receives the shares without making a monetary investment in the capital of the company and “without any obligation on the part of the government”. But 1 year later, within the framework of the “no-obligation” shareholding, the government provided “Lydian Armenia” with a budget guarantee of up to 150 million dollars, so that the company could attract credit funds.

Thus, after years of delay and political games, the government returned to the same starting point. Only this time its price was much higher. The mine remained the same, the gold reserves remained the same, the technological program remained the same, only the amount of risk falling on the state changed.

At the moment, preparations for the operation of the Amulsar mine are still ongoing. So far, it is not known when the operation will start. But as we can see, Fitch has assigned a serious place to Amulsar in the forecasts of Armenia’s economic growth. It can help improve the foreign trade balance, create jobs, pay taxes and royalties, and stimulate economic growth. However, all that does not mitigate the losses that the economy and the state budget suffered during 8 years due to the fault of the authorities. Not counting that this whole process related to Amulsar was a serious blow to Armenia’s investment confidence.

 Although after years of delay it was finally decided to restore the operation of the Amulsar mine, no one was held responsible for the losses and damages caused by the unnecessary disruption of the project.

HAKOB KOCHARYAN

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