At the session of the Government of the Republic of Armenia on March 12, the decision to provide additional remuneration to the employees based on the results of the evaluation of the performance of the state bodies was unanimously adopted, the main purpose of which is to promote the quality and efficiency of the public service.

Deputy Prime Minister reporting the issue Tigran Khachatryan reminded that this pilot program aimed at the modernization of the state administration system was approved last year. The initiative is designed to materially encourage employees who have shown high results, thereby contributing to the maintenance of competitive and professional personnel in the system, the attraction of new specialists and the more effective management of state resources.

According to the data of the Deputy Prime Minister, 3.6 billion drams of additional remuneration fund was already allocated to 15 administrative bodies for the results of the first half of 2025 for the works performed in 57 different directions. Now, summarizing the data of the second half of the same year, a figure close to the maximum possible was recorded. Based on these results, another 4.6 billion drams will be provided for the additional remuneration of employees of state bodies.

Tigran Khachatryan specially emphasized that at this stage it will also be practically checked how the officials who were encouraged in the previous semester fulfilled the mandatory requirement of making financial investments in their education. It is planned that the successful course and analysis of the pilot program will allow to submit a new legislative package to the National Assembly already this year, which will move these public service payment mechanisms to a long-term and legally regulated dimension.

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The RA government continues administrative territorial reforms. according to the new decision of the executive, nine communities are united in three regions, as a result of which the total number of local self-government units in the republic will be reduced to 64.

Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures at the March 12 meeting Davit Khudatyan presented a new project, by which it is planned to form three enlarged administrative units. In particular, Stepanavan community will be created in Lori region, including Stepanavan, Gyulagarak and Lori Berd (20 settlements in total).

In Syunik, the enlarged Goris community will be formed by uniting Goris, Tatev and Tegh (total: 28 settlements), and in Vayots Dzor, as a result of the merger of Yeghegnadzor, Areni and Yeghegis, the new Yeghegnadzor community will emerge (total: 32 settlements). Reacting to this decision, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the enlargement process gives exclusively positive results, significantly and several times increasing the subsidy possibilities of local bodies and improving the socio-economic condition of settlements.

The head of the government also emphasized the development of new mechanisms for increasing the efficiency of the work of community authorities and active and simple communication with the population about the process.

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Harutyun Agha-Sargsyan, president of the Pan-Armenian Council for the Protection of the Armenian Church, made a statement regarding Nikol Pashinyan’s remarks against the Armenian Church in the European Parliament.

The statement says:

“From the podium of the European Parliament, Nikol Pashinyan carried out an open and brazen attack against the strongest pillar of Armenian statehood, the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church. Instead of protecting the interests of the country, he used that high pulpit for the insidious purpose of defiling national sanctities and degrading the Church in the eyes of the enemy.

This was not just another political slip or ignorance. this was a direct, deliberate and treacherous blow to the two-thousand-year-old spiritual backbone of the Armenian people. When the appointed head of the country declares his own Church to foreigners as a nest of conspiracies and a security threat, he ceases to be just an opponent. he goes directly to the service in the camp of those who annihilated the Armenian identity.

The Armenian Church is not a den of agents, as the adventurers who sold their souls to foreigners try to represent. The Armenian Church is the guarantor of the existence of the Armenian people, its memory, blood and non-negotiable sanctuary. Any person who throws mud on that sanctity in international courts commits the gravest state and national crime, undermining the spiritual security and protection of the entire nation.

This shameful campaign should be considered in one single, destructive chain. when the statehood and sovereignty of Armenia are consistently destroyed, the turn has come to the last citadel of the people’s resistance, the Church. A program of national dismantling is imposed on our people with the false and disgusting packaging of “peace” and “democracy”. This attack against the Armenian Church is not an internal political dispute, this is a nationalistic war against the Armenian species.

We strongly condemn and consider unacceptable this anti-church, anti-national behavior of Nikol Pashinyan. Selling national sanctuaries in order to find external sponsors for attacks on the Church is a pathetic and shameful move.

Let everyone clearly record and finally understand that the Armenian Church is not a political toy of the rulers of the day and will never become their sacrificial lamb. Whoever dares to lay a dirty hand on the Mother Church will receive the blow of the righteous anger of the Armenian people and the merciless judgment of history.

Pashinyan’s statements against the Armenian Church in the European Parliament are just the peak of national shame.

This is not just a fight between the clergy and the laity. this is a sacred struggle for our existence, Armenian gene and dignity. And in this struggle, conciliation and silence are tantamount to suicide.

We will not be silent. We will not allow it.”

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There should be no reference to the Declaration of Independence in the new Constitution, because the Declaration of Independence is built on the logic of conflict.

RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this today, March 12, during a briefing with journalists in the government building.

“We cannot rely on the logic of conflict and want to build an independent state. I will not go into too much detail about what I mean, I have expressed my position in detail in my messages dedicated to the day of the declaration of independence,” he said.

The head of the Armenian government assures that there will be no food security problem in our country against the background of military operations in neighboring Iran and restrictions on food exports as a result.

In a briefing with journalists after the government session held on March 12 Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the bans applied by Tehran are not a reason for serious concern. The head of the executive reminded that Armenia itself is a state that exports agricultural products and supplies foreign markets with tens of thousands of tons of food. Therefore, according to the Prime Minister, there is no need to worry in this direction.

Referring to the risks of possible inflation caused by the war situation in the neighboring country, the head of the government noted that the relevant bodies are monitoring the market on a daily basis, and appropriate preventive steps will be taken if necessary.

It should be reminded that the Iranian government imposed restrictions on the export of food after the military operations started by the USA and Israel on February 28, in response to which Tehran attacks Israel and the American military bases located in the Persian Gulf.

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In 2026 On March 11, the user xanabat muhavizə registered on the TikTok social network published another video from the Khnapat village of the Askerani region of the Republic of Artsakh, temporarily occupied by Azerbaijan. This was written by Artsakh cultural heritage ombudsman, vice president of “Azkayin” historical and cultural NGO Hovik Avanesov.

“It is clear from the video that under the pretext of “construction works” the 12th century khachkar under the fir tree in the village was destroyed.

This fact is another evidence of the systematic policy by which Azerbaijan is consistently eliminating the Armenian cultural heritage of Artsakh. It is even more worrying that the Azerbaijani state propaganda machine is trying to present the monuments of Artsakh from the same period as “alhvanic” heritage on the one hand, and on the other hand, these same monuments are being deliberately destroyed. This controversial but well-aimed policy shows that the “attribution” and physical destruction of historical heritage are carried out in parallel, in a coordinated manner at the state level.

It is also noteworthy that not only the propaganda structures are involved in that process, but also the armed forces of Azerbaijan and other power units, which makes the destruction of cultural heritage a part of state policy. Dozens of such cases were recorded both in Artsakh and Nakhichevan, where the systematic removal of Armenian monuments was carried out in previous decades.

In 2026 On February 2, the “Geghard” scientific-analytical foundation alerted that the Church of the Virgin Mary of Vaghuhas village of Martakert region was targeted by Azerbaijani vandalism. According to the published information, the Azerbaijanis broke at least one of the khachkars installed in the church yard and tore out the icons of the church.

It is important to emphasize that the cultural values ​​located in the territory of Artsakh are not only Armenian, but also a heritage of universal significance. Their destruction is aimed not only at the falsification of history, but also at the elimination of complete cultural memory.

At the same time, it becomes obvious that the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem’s way of destroying and usurping the Armenian cultural heritage is not limited only to Artsakh or Nakhichevan. A similar methodology is also used in various regions of the Middle East, where the policies implemented towards historical and religious monuments resemble the same handwriting. This proves that Turkey and Azerbaijan act not only as states that carry out cultural genocide, but also as exporters of this political methodology.

In this context, it is important to emphasize that such actions cannot be considered only as internal cultural policy of individual states. They relate to international legal norms and obligations related to the protection of universal cultural heritage, which are binding on all states. Therefore, the targeted destruction of historical and cultural values, particularly Armenian khachkars, goes beyond the scope of regional conflicts and enters the sphere of protection of international law and world cultural heritage.

Targeting khachkars is prohibited by international laws and is considered a serious crime against all humanity, because “The art of Armenian khachkars. The symbolism and craftsmanship of khachkars” since 2010 has been included by UNESCO since 2003. accepted in the “List of Intangible Cultural Heritage” and is considered universal value. This means that khachkar art has an exceptional comprehensive universal value and additional international protection.

Khachkar culture also has additional protection during and after the war. In particular, according to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflicts. additional to the convention, 1999 According to the principles of the second protocol adopted, the entire Khachkar culture has enhanced protection, and any harm done to it is, according to Article 15 point a of the protocol, a “serious violation” that can be prosecuted as a war crime in international courts. This is documented by the 10th article of the mentioned protocol on the enhanced protection of cultural values, according to which the cultural heritage of the greatest importance for humanity should be under enhanced protection, and UNESCO, in fact, since 2010, has considered the entire Khachkar culture as such. According to Article 12 of the protocol, in the occupied territories, the state party to the protocol, namely Azerbaijan, must ensure the inviolability of cultural values ​​under enhanced protection, refraining from making such values ​​the object of attack or reprisals.

Many such facts show that the actions of the Azerbaijani authorities can be considered as a manifestation of one of the biggest cultural genocides of the 21st century, the purpose of which is to eliminate the historical and material evidence of the Armenian presence in the region,” he wrote.

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Narek Apitonyan, Deputy Minister of Economic and Technological Development of Armenia, received George Akhalkatsi, head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Armenia office.

According to TKEN, during the meeting, current projects implemented in the energy sector and possible directions of future cooperation were discussed.

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The military conflict of the USA and Israel with Iran has created a new geopolitical reality on the southern borders of Armenia. In the conditions of an unprecedented regional crisis, official Yerevan is forced to play a complex diplomatic game, from maintaining pauses and operational contacts with Ankara and Baku to multi-vector rhetoric on European platforms. About what is hidden behind the foreign policy maneuvers of the authorities, will the country manage to avoid isolation, and is Armenia’s economy ready for inevitable logistical shocks? VERELQtalked to a political scientist and an economist Hrant Mikayelyan with.

In the photo: Hrant Mikayelyan, source: 168.am

VERELQ: In the very first hours of the American-Israeli operation, the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was a shock for many. However, official Yerevan maintained a pause of almost three days before establishing direct contact with Tehran. How would you explain this silence? Was this political paralysis in the face of the unexpected scale of the escalation, waiting for a response from global players, or cold, calculated pragmatism?

Hrant Mikayelyan. The fact that Yerevan was late in contacting the Iranian side to express condolences could, of course, be partially attributed to unprofessionalism and the weekend. Although I believe that the authorities would have responded more promptly to a situation of such importance if they knew exactly how to respond. Therefore, most likely, it is really a matter of pragmatic calculation.

After the serious clashes in Iran in January 2026, many believed that the Iranian regime was no longer able to resist and might actually fall. Considering the very tough attitude of the Americans, this situation could have bad consequences for Armenia, especially since the Armenian government is now actively developing relations in the Western direction, including the American one. Besides, Armenia does not have its own security parity with Azerbaijan.

It seems to me that the Armenian side wanted to maintain a pause until it became clear that Iran will endure, and will definitely endure, at least in the foreseeable future. It is clear that we cannot make predictions for an indefinite period, but now we see that the initial goals of the Americans have not been realized and most likely will not be realized. It was not so obvious in the first two days, so the Armenian government pragmatically refrained from a clear response. In the end, however, condolences appeared.

VERELQ: Against the background of this “Iranian pause”, the actions of Armenian diplomacy in the Turkish-Azerbaijani vector look especially contrasting. Yerevan contacted Baku and Ankara very promptly after the incidents of the downing of Iranian drones on their territory. What lies behind this arrangement of priorities? Is this an attempt to insure Armenia against a regional fire, a gesture of loyalty to the Western coalition, or a signal to neighboring countries about Yerevan’s strict neutrality?

Hrant Mikayelyan. I think that in this case this is a gesture of loyalty to the Western coalition. It is not only Azerbaijan and Turkey. Yerevan MFA has also established contact with Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. All these are the countries that were subjected to the Iranian strikes. It is clear why this is done. if Yerevan strictly maintained neutrality, it could simultaneously reach out to both Iran and Azerbaijan, urging both sides to de-escalate and expressing its concern or hope for regional stability. But that was not done, contact was established only with the Azerbaijani side. Moreover, I do not think that the Armenian side should have maintained neutrality in the situation of conflicts between Iran and Azerbaijan.

VERELQ: Meanwhile, as soon as the identity of the new Supreme Leader was clarified in Tehran, the slowness of Yerevan immediately disappeared. the Armenian authorities reacted quite promptly, congratulating him on the occasion of his election. How would you explain such a sudden change in tempo? Does this mean that Armenia was simply waiting for the intra-elite turbulence in Iran to end, for fear of making the wrong bet?

Hrant Mikayelyan. I think the answer to this question follows from my first answer. From the moment it became clear that the Iranian regime had resisted, there was no longer any need to pause before taking sides. It became clear that Iran and its current system, the Islamic Republic, are preserved, and good relations with it must be maintained. Not to mention the fact that immediately before the American-Israeli attack, the dialogue between Armenia and Iran in the field of strategic relations was actively developing. It is interesting, of course, how it will develop in the future. it is possible that the dialogue will resume as soon as this war is over. It is possible that the process will be delayed, but most likely we will only have a pause, not a complete cessation of contacts.

VERELQ: On March 11, in the European Parliament, Nikol Pashinyan demonstrated diplomatic equilibrium. He called Iran a “good neighbor”, but immediately curtsied to the USA and the Gulf countries. And he positioned Armenia itself as a “small state”, which can only pray for the wisdom of the leaders of world powers in order to end the war diplomatically as soon as possible. How viable is such a strategy of total egalitarianism and abstraction? Does Yerevan, trying to please everyone, not risk ending up in isolation?

Hrant Mikayelyan. The policy of “low profile” is justified in the case of Yerevan, and there is nothing surprising here. Advancing against someone makes sense only when you can influence something. With its anti-Iranian, anti-American or any other actions, Armenia will not affect the outcome of the war between America and Iran. Moreover, Armenia can suffer from it, but it cannot gain anything, so such a policy is completely logical.

But I would not call it complete neutrality. Pashinyan accused the clerics of working for the KGB (KGB) without any evidence, and his speech had an implicit anti-Russian character. Conventionally speaking, trying not to take sides in the conflict between Iran and the USA, he took an anti-Russian position, for which the European audience thanked him. It is not neutrality. That is why Yerevan will not remain isolated. The anti-Russian position is in the greatest demand today from the collective West. As for the isolation in the format “for no one”, Armenia was in such a situation until 2018, and it was not a big problem.

Another question is: how well is this policy being implemented, and are the levers supporting diplomacy developing? Diplomacy does not exist in a vacuum. it relies on military-political instruments, a system of alliances and a network of contacts, including economic ones. There are questions about how well this is done.

The statement that if you do not take any specific position, you will end up in isolation, is not very true. Especially taking into account that today they do not pay for the position with strategic support. they can only express thanks and provide hidden political assistance. Instead, you can pay very dearly for a certain position. we see that many Gulf countries paid for their evasive stance, and Iran made them the target of its strikes in the framework of the conflict with Israel.

Therefore, Armenia definitely does not need to position itself on one of the sides of the Iranian-American confrontation. Although at some point, when the situation stabilizes, Armenia should provide charitable and humanitarian aid to Iran, as Azerbaijan did. In addition, it would be advisable to send specialists to clean up the rubble and provide technical assistance, which is not military, but will help maintain a friendly image in the eyes of the Iranian partners.

VERELQ: Let’s move on to the economy. Iran is not just a neighbor for Armenia, it is a logistical and energy hub of critical importance. In the conditions of a large-scale war near the southern borders, what macroeconomic risks threaten Armenia in the first place? And the main thing. Do you see a real anti-crisis plan for diversifying those risks in the government’s current actions, or is Armenia just hoping for the best for now?

Hrant Mikayelyan. It is very difficult to develop an anti-crisis program in one week. Armenia’s logistics do not allow to redirect flows so easily and quickly. Iran is not only a source of goods or a consumption market, but also a logistic route through which the products reached Armenia. Another logistics destination is the emirate of Dubai, which has also been badly affected, and I cannot say with certainty that supplies from there are now continuing at full volume. Therefore, at the moment there is no such plan, and there is nothing surprising in this, because the situation is developing very quickly.

Is such a program necessary? I think that in the future, strategies should be developed in different directions, including the Iranian one. But it is difficult to assume that this war will continue for months. This is not a contact, but an air war with a large number of expensive missiles. On both sides, that stockpile has already been depleted in huge quantities, and the military potential diminishes as munitions are used up or stockpiles are destroyed. Already after a month, the ability of the parties to continue combat operations with the same intensity will be many times lower, so the crisis will begin to fade one way or another. at least that’s how it seems now.

I don’t think that at this moment it can lead to a large-scale economic crisis, but it should be assumed that Armenia is starting to live in the realities of the post-globalized world. That world will be much less connected to long logistics chains, and they need to be optimized. Today it is the Iranian crisis, tomorrow it may break out in another place. Իրանը, Իսրայելը և ողջ Մերձավոր Արևելքը լարվածության կետ են տվյալ պահին, բայց նման կետեր կան ամենուր՝ Լատինական Ամերիկայում, Հարավարևելյան Ասիայում, Արևելյան Եվրոպայում։ Not to mention the fact that similar points also exist in Armenia itself and on its borders. Therefore, the state should first of all increase the level of self-sufficiency, self-sufficiency and food security, as well as create large strategic reserves in case of communications failure.

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