63 Armenian citizens stranded in UAE flown out via Oman

Ani Tigranian

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Sixty-three Armenian citizens who were in the United Arab Emirates returned to Yerevan on March 8 via a flight from Muscat, Oman, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

“In Oman, the consul of the Armenian Embassy welcomed citizens who used the transfer arranged by the Armenian Embassy in the UAE at the UAE–Oman border crossing and escorted them to Muscat Airport, where they received the necessary assistance,” the ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry had earlier stated that it would provide free transportation from the UAE to Oman for citizens stranded amid flight cancellations, to connect with the Muscat–Yerevan flight.

Thousands of flights were cancelled amid the Middle East escalation. 

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Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 09-03-

Emma Jilavian

Economy17:02, 9 March 2026
Read the article in: ArmenianRussian:

YEREVAN, 9 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 9 March, USD exchange rate down by 0.02 drams to 377.29 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.66 drams to 436.15 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.0448 drams to 4.8215 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.12 drams to 503.49 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 282 drams to 62198 drams. Silver price down by 22.8 drams to 998.8 drams.

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Supporters of jailed Armenian govt critic clash with police

Karapet Navasardian
Big News Network
Mar 14 2026

RT.com

Samvel Karapetyan is in pre-trial detention after being arrested last June on charges of inciting a coup and money laundering

Three people have been detained outside a court in the Armenian capital Yerevan as protesters called for the release of jailed billionaire and government critic Samvel Karapetyan, Sputnik Armenia has reported.

Scuffles broke out between the demonstrators and law enforcement officers as the court deliberated whether to prolong the tycoon’s pre-trial detention, as seen in a video published by the outlet on Friday.

The businessman, who also holds Russian citizenship, was arrested last June on charges of inciting a coup and money laundering. Karapetyan, who had publicly condemned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s crackdown on the clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, dismissed the process as politically motivated.

Tensions between the prime minister and the national church date back to 2020 when its top cleric, Catholicos Garegin II, called on Pashinyan to step down after Armenia ceded land to neighboring Azerbaijan. The decision caused mass protests at the time, with demonstrators accusing Pashinyan of betraying Armenia’s interests.

The prime minister responded by arguing that Garegin was unfit for his position. Several senior clerics have since been arrested by the authorities on charges of abuse of power and fraud.

Last October, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan was sentenced to two years in prison for inciting a coup – a case he described as politically motivated.

That same month, Vardan Ghukasyan, the mayor of Gyumri and a vocal critic of Pashinyan’s pro-Western foreign policy shift, was placed in pre-trial detention on bribery charges.

Critics have accused the prime minister of using law enforcement to suppress dissent and consolidate power amid declining popularity.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that while political turmoil in Armenia is an “internal matter,” Moscow is closely following the developments there.

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Armenia chairs 69th session of UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs

Hagop Kamalian

Politics17:37, 9 March 2026
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The 69th session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the main international forum on drug-related issues, opened on March 9 under the chairmanship of Armenia.

The session is chaired by Armenia’s Ambassador Andranik Hovhannisyan, Permanent Representative of Armenia to the international organizations in Vienna.

The five-day meeting is attended by more than 2,000 delegates from around 130 member states, as well as over 100 international, regional and non-governmental organizations, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

Discussions during the session will focus on the global drug problem, policies aimed at addressing it and international cooperation. Participants are also expected to adopt several normative decisions related to the sector.

The Commission will consider five draft resolutions aimed, in particular, at strengthening mechanisms for the early prevention and control of synthetic drugs and precursors, preventing the illicit use of equipment and supply chains for their production and trafficking, and enhancing public health responses and alternative development programmes.

The Commission will also review recommendations by the World Health Organization on adding new substances to international drug control conventions.

The session is expected to finalize the establishment of a new multidisciplinary expert group to assist the Commission in reviewing the implementation of the conventions.

About 170 side events and 24 exhibitions will be held during the session.

Armenia has been a member of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs since 2024 and holds the chairmanship for 2026.

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Armenpress: Armenian delegation participates in discussions on COP17 presidenc

Garnik Zakarian

Armenia19:30, 9 March 2026
Read the article in: ArabicՀայերենRussian

By decision of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, an Armenian delegation is participating in meetings organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal, Canada, on March 9–11.

The meetings focus on shaping the priorities of the COP17 presidency and related preparatory work, Armenia’s Minister of Environment Hambardzum Matevosyan said on Facebook.

According to the minister, the key directions for organizing and preparing for COP17 in Armenia will be discussed during the three-day meetings.

A working meeting is also planned to address logistical and organizational issues of the summit, including the organization of the event, technical support for sessions, logistical processes, and information dissemination.

Matevosyan noted that the discussions represent an important step toward effective preparation for COP17 and will help coordinate approaches with international partners to ensure the summit is organized at a high level.

He added that the meetings will also provide an opportunity to gain new knowledge and experience, deepen cooperation with the CBD Secretariat and representatives of partner countries, and participate in the official sessions of the summit.

Read the article in: ArabicՀայերենRussian

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Lemkin Institute: Statement on Aliyev’s Recent Holocaust Analogy

Emil Lazarian
Mar 12 2026
Statement on Aliyev’s Recent Holocaust Analogy 
March 12, 2026

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention expresses grave concern over recent remarks by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in which he compared Armenian political detainees and prisoners of war to Nazi leaders convicted at the Nuremberg trials. During a 13 February interview with France 24 TV channel, Aliyev stated: “[c]alling for the release of the former [Nagorno-]Karabakh leaders is the same thing, even worse. Their crimes are worse than what the Nazis did during World War II.” Aliyev then argued that requests that he release Armenian detainees are akin to asking the Allies to free Nazi officials before their sentences. This statement is particularly dangerous in the context of the Israel-U.S. war of aggression against Iran, which has catapulted Azerbaijan into a position as a critical wartime ally, granting President Aliyev even greater impunity than he has thus far enjoyed.

Aliyev’s comparison does not reflect historical reality. It distorts it. It weaponizes it.

Aliyev’s comments were made just a few days after his meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, in which Vance raised the issue of releasing Armenian hostages still being held by Baku. Aliyev’s comments demonstrate his ongoing disrespect for U.S. leadership, whose small requests on behalf of Armenians he routinely dismisses. His rhetoric is further a prime example of “mirroring,” a common tactic used by leaders accused of serious abuses of international law. While there is absolutely no credible evidence that any of the Armenians currently being held by Baku have committed any crimes, much less crimes against humanity and genocide (some of them are in fact POWs that Azerbaijan was supposed to return to Armenia in 2020), Aliyev and his government stand accused by credible observers and international legal experts, including at the Lemkin Institute, of genocide and crimes against humanity for conduct in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan’s military attacked and invaded the Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent state with a population that was 99 percent Armenian, resulting in the forced displacement of the entire population of the region – more than 100,000 Armenians. Independent experts, including former International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, have determined that Azerbaijan’s prior 10-month blockade and the September military assault demonstrated genocidal intent. The Lemkin Institute’s 127-page report, Risk Factors and Indicators of the Crime of Genocide in the Republic of Artsakh: Applying the UN Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes to the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, published on 5 September 2023, discusses Azerbaijan’s genocidal intent towards Artsakh Armenians in detail. The International Association of Genocide Scholars later also found that Azerbaijan had committed acts of genocide against Armenians. As part of its attack, Azerbaijan took many officials in the Artsakh government hostage. They have since been subjected to inhumane conditions of detention and show trials.

The Lemkin Institute considers President Aliyev to be the leader of a genocidal state – a state whose institutions are suffused with genocidal ideology, whose policies are formed by genocidal agendas, and whose genocidal rhetoric serves as an important ballast for domestic legitimacy. President Aliyev has institutionalized genocidal Armenophobia across state agencies and public life. Before 2023, he frequently referred to Armenians as “dogs,” “jackals,” “rabbits,” and terrorists in public speeches. After the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, he built a “Trophy Park” in Baku to celebrate Azerbaijan’s supposed victory in the war, which included dehumanizing wax models of dead and dying Armenian soldiers with exaggerated, grotesque features that Azerbaijani visitors were encouraged to mock. Being one of the most openly and unapologetically racist acts of the 21st century, the Trophy Park garnered some attention and criticism in the Western world, and Azerbaijan was forced to remove the figures. However, the Trophy Park itself remains, as does the genocidal Armenophobia that informed it.

It appears that in exchange for a green light from the international community to invade Artsakh, the Azerbaijani President has had to tone down his Armenophobic rhetoric. Now, instead of shouting epithets, he pursues false charges against the Armenians still in his control and justifies his illegal actions by comparing them to Nazi war criminals and architects of genocide. The only “crime” committed by the Armenian representatives of the former Artsakh government being held in Baku is that they exercised their right to self-determination and sought to protect the Armenian residents of the enclave – whose presence dates back four thousand years – from Azerbaijani aggression. Unfortunately, the leaders of the world seem all too willing to countenance international crimes from the now respectable genocidal dictator whom their appeasement has enabled, even granting him the honor of hosting COP29 in 2024.

Beyond mirroring, President Aliyev’s remarks are illustrative of another common and very effective tactic employed by genocidal states – what psychologists call DARVO: Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. Aliyev denies credible allegations of atrocity. He attacks Armenians as supposed war criminals. He then reverses reality by portraying Azerbaijan as the real victim and Armenians as existential threats. Such rhetoric does more than increase tensions. It encourages people to see genocide as justified.

Aliyev’s remarks constitute a dangerous form of genocide denial. In a few sentences that diminish the Holocaust, he simultaneously denies the destruction of Armenian life in Nagorno-Karabakh. He denies responsibility for the mass forced displacement his government engineered. And he inexcusably minimizes the Holocaust by abusing its memory as cover for his overall genocidal aims in the South Caucasus. The Holocaust, it must be remembered, was a systematic attempt to annihilate European Jewry and is one of the most comprehensive and all-encompassing genocides in human history. Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and millions more people were killed in the global war that the Nazis started. It is impossible for any international crime to be “worse than” the Holocaust, or, to quote Aliyev, “worse than what the Nazis did.” Invoking it to justify the continued detention of Armenian prisoners who were defending their homeland diminishes the Holocaust’s unique history and moral weight.

Genocide prevention requires accuracy. It does not allow leaders to use false comparisons to distract from present abuses. The international community must push back against President Aliyev’s ongoing genocidal rhetoric against Armenians and sovereign Armenian territory in order to support clarity within discussions of genocide. It must not tolerate his genocidal denial.

The continued detention and prosecution of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan raise serious concerns under international humanitarian law. The Third Geneva Convention requires humane treatment and prohibits coercive prosecutions of prisoners of war. Throughout the entire process of the trial, there has been evidence of torture of the Armenian prisoners by the relevant Azerbaijani agencies. Amnesty International and others have expressed concerns over the rights of the captured former leaders of Artsakh, particularly in terms of their right for fair trial. Azerbaijan must either release these detainees or provide transparent legal proceedings consistent with its international obligations.

History shows that perpetrators of atrocity often rely on extreme rhetoric to legitimize extraordinary measures. They cast targeted groups as criminals, terrorists, or existential enemies. They invoke past traumas to justify present repression. They frame collective punishment as a moral necessity. Such patterns function as early warning indicators of further abuse.

The Lemkin Institute calls on the Azerbaijani government to cease its dehumanizing, genocidal rhetoric against Armenians, to refrain from using the Holocaust to justify its crimes, and to release all Armenian prisoners immediately. Since President Aliyev has himself stated that he will not do this, the international community must pressure him to do so. Coordinated pressure must be placed specifically on the person of President Aliyev, who relies a great deal on the good graces of the Western world in particular for his continued power. If the Western world does not act and continues to embolden the Azerbaijani President, they will face even worse problems down the road. The greater the impunity extended to President Aliyev, the more he will seek to realize his dreams of a “Greater Azerbaijan” encompassing the current independent Republic of Armenia.

Genocide prevention requires clarity. Leaders who project their own actions onto victims promote mass atrocity rather than address it. They undermine justice rather than uphold it. The international community must not allow historical memory to be manipulated in service of ongoing genocidal agendas.

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Opposition MP: Azerbaijan consistently advances its goals while Armenian autho

Boris Nahapetian
Panorama, Armenia
Mar 13 2026

Opposition MP Tigran Abrahamyan stresses that Azerbaijan has made no official statements regarding the incursion of its troops into Armenian territory or the occupation of Armenian border areas, adding Baku has expressed no willingness to negotiate the issue.

In a social media post on Friday, Abrahamyan, who represents the Pativ Unem faction, pointed to Azerbaijan’s significant investments in fortifications and infrastructure in the territories it currently controls, arguing that such spending suggests Baku does not expect to withdraw from those areas in the near future.

“If those territories were to be returned in one, two or three years, why would Azerbaijan spend such large sums there?” he wrote.

Abrahamyan criticized the Armenian authorities, saying the government’s response has largely been limited to occasional brief statements referring to the uncertain process of border demarcation between the two countries.

“Unlike the local authorities, Azerbaijan is consistently setting and advancing its agenda,” he said, adding that these developments are unfolding “at the expense of Armenian interests”.

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Artsakh parliament speaker says Pashinyan government not authorized to speak f

Hagop Kamalian
Panorama, Armenia
Mar 13 2026

The speaker of the Artsakh National Assembly states the Armenian government has never been authorized by the Artsakh people to represent them or treat the territory as a bargaining tool in political negotiations.

In a statement released on Friday, Artsakh parliament speaker Ashot Danielyan criticized comments made by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in recent appearances before the European Parliament and at press briefings, saying they were based on “ignorance and falsehood” about Artsakh and the Karabakh movement.

Danielyan said the remarks had angered thousands of displaced Artsakh Armenians who have not accepted the occupation of Artsakh carried out through crimes against humanity.

“The people of Artsakh have never authorized the current authorities of the Republic of Armenia to speak on their behalf or to treat Artsakh as a bargaining chip,” he said.

Danielyan also defended the historical Karabakh movement, saying attempts to portray it negatively cannot discredit the people’s “heroic struggle for freedom and peace.”

He argued that the authority of any government, including Armenia’s, is limited to its own borders and that making decisions affecting another state’s population violates fundamental principles of international law.

Danielyan questioned the characterization of recent developments as a peace process, asking why Azerbaijani troops remain on 240 square kilometers of Armenian territory and why around 150,000 displaced Armenians from Artsakh have not been able to return to their homes.

He also cited Armenian detainees held in Baku and destruction of Armenian cultural and historical heritage in Artsakh.

Danielyan said presenting a distorted version of the Karabakh movement before European lawmakers, who in recent years adopted resolutions condemning Azerbaijan’s actions and Turkey’s involvement, shows “disrespect toward that institution”.

He further criticized attempts to frame the conflict as merely a territorial dispute, saying that for decades the people of Artsakh pursued self-determination in full accordance with international law and with support from international organizations.

According to Danielyan, changing international attitudes toward the issue in recent years has been influenced not only by geopolitical developments but also by the Armenian government’s approach to Artsakh.

“The inalienable right of the Artsakh people  to self-determination, to return to their homeland, live safely and determine their own fate cannot disappear through lies and distortions,” he said.

Danielyan added that Artsakh’s elected institutions would continue to pursue “all legal means and mechanisms” to restore the violated rights of Artsakh Armenians with support from individuals and groups concerned about the issue.

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Pashinyan calls Declaration of Independence a ‘conflict charter’

Yeghisabet Arthur
Panorama, Armenia
Mar 13 2026

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said the country’s Declaration of Independence should be removed from a new constitution, describing it as a “declaration of conflict” rather than of statehood.

In a live broadcast on Friday, Pashinyan argued that the 1990 document was rooted in the Nagorno-Karabakh movement and territorial claims, rather than the security and welfare of Armenian citizens. “It’s not a declaration of independence, but of conflict,” he said.

The prime minister warned that continuing the Karabakh movement would inevitably lead to “new war”, while abandoning it would open the path to peace. He framed Armenia’s political debate as a choice between a “peace party” and a “war party,” urging voters to decide the country’s direction in upcoming elections.

“Peace will grow stronger every day, and Armenia’s independence and sovereignty will grow stronger every day,” Pashinyan declared, positioning his Civil Contract party as the only force advocating for a constitution without reference to the declaration.

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Levon Ter-Petrosyan predicts ‘capital overhaul’ if opposition wins elections

Babken Chilingarian
Panorama, Armenia
Mar 14 2026

Former Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan believes the country could undergo a major transformation if the opposition wins the upcoming elections.

“I believe if the opposition secures victory in the upcoming elections, a true capital overhaul will take place in the country,” Ter-Petrosyan said in a message addressed to participants of the 5th Congress of the Armenian National Congress.

The message was read aloud during the congress by Avetis Avagyan, a board member of the party.

In his address, Ter-Petrosyan wished the congress participants success and productive work, expressing hope that they would achieve the desired outcome in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. He also commended their efforts to form alliances ahead of the vote.

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