On July 2 168.amwith the caption “Andranik Kocharyan’s son was invited to a training camp, it turned out that he is not liable to be called, and in the case of Ashot Pashinyan, the military specialization will not be published.” article: published, where in our written inquiry sent to the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, among other questions, one more question was about whether to invite his youngest son, Vazgen Kocharyan, to the 25-day training camp.

In particular, we were interested in Suren Papikyan, Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia: «NA: protection and: safety CommissionerVazgen Kocharyan, the youngest son of Andranik Kocharyan, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the Soviet Union, after completing his mandatory military service, did he ever receive a notice to participate in a training camp during these years, and if not, why, on what basis?

But at the same time we also tried to find out: “In general, can you name any official’s son who has participated in the training sessions?”

The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia stated in its response to our questions.

«Vazgen Andranik Kocharyan was invited to the military commissariat to participate in training sessions. and in accordance with Article 17 of the RA Law “On Military Service and the Status of Servicemen” was referred to the primary health care center, 2018 of the RA Government. to pass the examination defined by point 2.1 of Annex 2 of the decision N 405-N of April 12.

Based on the results of research conducted by the organization providing primary health care services in the established order, the Medical Commission of the Yerevan No. 2 Military Commissariat of the Republic of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, in accordance with the requirement of the 5th column of the Resolution N 404-N of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of April 12, 2018, was recognized as “not subject to being called up for training.”

As for the question of the participation of the sons of officials in the training sessions, such statistics are not maintained.”

In other words, only our request to the Ministry of Defense and the response of the department were presented. Moreover, we reminded that the son first served in the military in Artsakh, and then in Vanadzor, again based on official information. We did not ask any questions about what battles did his artillery boy who served in “Haykazov” participate in during the 44-day war, where and when did he come from Artsakh to Yerevan? Moreover, we once again included a question about Nikol Pashinyan’s son in our survey.

But now and then, Andranik Kocharyan was “excited” and during a briefing with journalists, when they asked him a question about his son, referring to our article, he responded.

“168.am received the answer. My son went through the war, we are talking about Vazgen, it is not by chance that I gave him that name, and it is not by chance that he was born and should have moved like that. He is an Armenian who participated in the 44-day war until the last day, and I am proud now. Whatever they say, they can write. It’s clear, isn’t it, that a guy who’s been through the war can’t shy away from the offer? But after the proposal goes to the medical examination, months before that my son had a very serious surgery, a shoulder joint, and a very serious one. When the next offer is to the defense department, he will undergo a medical examination again, and if everything is normal, he will definitely go to those meetings, don’t doubt it. Don’t fall into the waters of 168, lady Satenik Seyranyan has long been smitten with Andranik Kocharyan.”

As we can see, Andranik Kocharyan, “falling into the waters of 168”, reproduces what we wrote, supplementing the answer sent to us by the Ministry of Defense. But on the other hand, he is trying to distort the image and create the impression that we presented his son as a truant, where did he see this when there is no comment?

And this is done by a man who, during the days of the resistance movement in 2022, called on the RA Police and the National Security Service to collect the data of citizens participating in political events and actions of the opposition and transfer them to the RA Ministry of Defense, which, according to him, “will use these “well-trained” young people capable of following simple instructions to enrich the mobilization resources of our army and involve them in maintaining the security of the borders of Armenia and Artsakh.”

At the same time, information was spread in the press that summonses to participate in the three-month mobilizations of the Ministry of Defense were sent to the opposition, including Taron Manukyan, the son of MP Gegham Manukyan, who was in custody at the time and participated in the 44-day war. At that time, Kocharyan made a similar call to journalists as well to address

Let’s not forget that some time ago, during a briefing with journalists, Andranik Kocharyan, addressing the journalist’s question as to why his eldest son did not serve in the army, answered: “My son is a very high class boy, even if you have his knowledge, you will not serve.”

This statement of Andranik Kocharyan caused criticism among the public. Kocharyan’s post was also addressed by RA Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan, whose two sons are currently serving in the RA Armed Forces, after which Kocharyan had to apologize.

By the way, can Andranik Kocharyan freely give details about what battles his son participated in during the 44-day war, when he left Artsakh, maybe he was wounded or not, like Nikol Pashinyan’s son who volunteered for the war (for which we are happy, they are young), if one day we decide to send an inquiry about this as well, what we did, by the way, in the case of Ashot Pashinyan and not once did we get an answer as to where he was at that time.

And? 168.amAndranik Kocharyan himself has a reason to be “burnt” because we have always been correct in our military and war articles and “hit” the target.

In particular, at this moment, Andranik Kocharyan, the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly, according to our information, has taken a hard time and is in a bad situation, when we fixed it An episode of an interview given to “Armenia” TV on March 17, which was directly related to Nikol Pashinyan and Vazgen Sargsyan.

“I will suggest that we create an opportunity for Arman Tatoyan to stand by the positions he is talking about, and this should be initiated. He talks about positional changes that did not happen. The best solution is for Arman Tatoyan to go to those positions and show which positions have been changed. Such a story it was in the 1990s, when some media made such wrong statements, Vazgen Sargsyan did not hesitate and provided a helicopter, he said: go to Kelbajar and see if we actually provide service in Kelbajar or not,” he said.

According to various reports, the name of journalist Nikol Pashinyan is connected with this story. This is the first.

Secondly, we pay attention in the case of an interview given to another media invite that Andranik Kocharyan made a dangerous declassification and talked about a “secret operation” that was not approved by ICAO, and which could put Armenia in serious trouble because Aliyev tried to get it approved.

Moreover, if this is true, then we are dealing with the publication of a “pure” state, military secret, and that too by the chairman of the 44-day investigative commission.

We are still putting aside some of the illegal statements made during the work of the 44-day investigative commission, and finally, the problem with the investigative commission’s report, which is why it was also not presented. At least that’s what NA Speaker Alen Simonyan said publicly.

The series of interesting episodes related to Andranik Kocharyan can be continued, but we do not want to go beyond the content and logic of the previous article, so let’s limit ourselves to this.

By the way, Andranik Kocharyan would do well not to hide behind Vazgen Sargsyan at every opportunity.

—

168TVof “Trigger” the guest of the program Doctor of political sciences, Russian Turkologist Vladimir Avatkov.

During the program, the results of the parliamentary elections held in Armenia and their possible recognition by the Russian Federation were discussed.

Special attention was paid to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s visit to Moscow, the role of Russia and Turkey in the South Caucasus, EU and EAEU relations, as well as energy security issues.

In addition, Israel’s decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh and the prospects for further development of regional processes in the South Caucasus were discussed.

Hayk Derzyan

—

Ruben Rubinyan, the candidate of the ruling “Civil Pact” party for the position of president of the to-be-formed National Assembly, will not continue to be Armenia’s special representative in the negotiations with Turkey, if elected. Ruben Rubinyan stated this in a conversation with journalists today.

It should be reminded that Ruben Rubinyan, the Armenian envoy to the Armenian-Turkish negotiations, was chosen by the “Civil Agreement” as a candidate for the president of the National Assembly, which will be formed as a result of the June 7 elections.

“Since I was elected as a candidate for the President of the National Assembly, if elected, I will obviously not continue to be a special representative of Armenia in the negotiations with Turkey,” Rubinyan announced today. He also mentioned that as far as he knows, it is not yet known who will replace him as the envoy of the Armenian side. “But the prime minister and the government will discuss,” said the NA vice-president.

By the way, it is noteworthy that the special representative of Turkey, Serdar Kilic, recently congratulated Ruben Rubinyan in the process of normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations. Kilch wrote on X’s microblog page:

“I congratulate Ruben Rubinyan, my partner in the process of normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations, on the occasion of his election to the position of speaker of the Armenian parliament. Over the past four years, we have created a productive work culture and sincere friendship. I wish him continued success in his new position.” Turning to this congratulation, Rubinyan said why Kilic should not have congratulated him, he received congratulations from Russia and other places in the same way.

The departure of Ruben Rubinyan from the position of the special representative of Armenia in the Armenian-Turkish settlement process essentially provides an opportunity to reassess the real effectiveness of the negotiation platform formed in recent years. Although many meetings took place during this period, joint statements were published and external dynamics of dialogue were maintained, the process never turned into negotiations leading to a result.

And most importantly, the Armenian-Turkish border continues to remain closed, although the Turkish side has no political reason to keep it closed due to the policy of the current RA authorities. And recently, the Turkish side explains the fact that the border is closed simply by technical preparatory processes. However, analysts dealing with Turkey’s regional policy clearly know that Turkey’s slowness is due to coordination with Azerbaijan.

168.amin a conversation with Russian Turkologist Viktor Nadein-Raevsky said that that platform solved the problem to the extent that it showed that Armenia and Turkey are negotiating, but the problem is not even the personalities of the negotiators, but the process, its structure and a number of key regional realities. According to him, the key decisions of Armenian-Turkish relations are made not at the level of special representatives, but by the highest political leadership of Turkey, which in turn consistently connects this issue with the development of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

“Ankara has never hidden that it considers the full regulation of relations with Yerevan within the framework of coordination with Baku, actually giving up the opportunity to form an independent agenda. Under these conditions, the format of special representatives gradually turned into a political communication rather than a real negotiation tool. It ensured the continuity of contacts, but did not create such mechanisms through which it would be possible to overcome the main political contradictions. In fact, a process was formed where the visibility of the negotiations was maintained, but the preconditions ensuring their results were missing,” said Victor Nadein-Raevsky.

According to him, Ankara continues to condition the Armenian-Turkish agenda exclusively on the course of the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, which means that the appointment of a new special representative of Armenia will not change the essence of the process itself. In other words, in his opinion, only the negotiator will change, while the negotiation logic will remain the same, maintaining the imitation of dialogue without a real possibility of a political breakthrough.

He mentioned that Turkey’s regional policy in recent years has been more emphatically built on the principle of “one region, one strategy”, where the South Caucasus is considered not a separate direction, but a component of the joint Turkish-Azerbaijani geopolitical space.

Therefore, according to Viktor Nadein-Raevsky, Ankara never separated the regulation of relations with Armenia from the interests of Azerbaijan and continued to consider it as a logical continuation of the partnership with Baku.

In his assessment, Turkey’s policy towards Armenia remains conditional, every important step is evaluated in the context of coordination with Azerbaijan, and only after that, from the point of view of the Armenian-Turkish bilateral agenda.

This reality means, according to the analyst, that Turkey’s policy towards Armenia continues to remain not an independent foreign policy direction, but a tool for broader regional calculations.

“Ankara strives to maintain leverage in the South Caucasus, while strengthening its position as a regional power. Therefore, until Turkey reviews the fundamental approaches of its policy towards Armenia and does not separate the Armenian-Turkish relations from the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiation process, it is difficult to expect that even the negotiation formats will be able to provide a different result,” said Victor Nadein-Raevsky.

—

The government of Armenia approved the signing of the agreement on raising a loan of 80 million euros with the OPEC development fund at the session held recently.

The document was published on the government website. “According to the agreement, the International Development Fund of OPEC undertakes to provide the Republic of Armenia with a budget support loan in the amount of 80 million euros,” it is said in the justification of the decision. The loan is provided for a period of 18 years with a grace period of five years. The interest rate is floating, six-month Euribor (European Interbank Offered Rate) plus 1.56%. As of June 18, it was 4.166%.

In the broader context of external borrowing, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved more than $25 million in loans to Armenia shortly after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party won the parliamentary elections.

It is reported on the website of the IMF that the executive board of the fund has completed the first review within the framework of the “Stand-by” loan agreement (SBA) with the republic. This It gives Yerevan access to an amount equivalent to 18.4 million SDRs (Special Drawing Rights), which is about $25.1 million.

The SBA program aims to support government policies and reform programs to maintain economic and financial stability and to ensure sustainable, inclusive and long-term economic growth.

The total availability under the agreement reached 36.8 million SDRs (about $50.2 million). It was approved by the IMF Board on December 1, 2025. Armenian authorities continue to consider it as a precautionary measure.

“Precautionary arrangement” is a credit program status in which the member country has the right to receive the agreed amount, but is not obliged to do so and can refuse it.

In general, the program in Armenia is proceeding according to plan, notes the IMF.  At the end of December last year, all quantitative performance criteria were met. The fund noted the need to continue efforts aimed at increasing the stability of the economy and announced that they welcome structural reforms aimed at diversifying exports and improving the business environment.

As of the end of 2025-beginning of 2026, the external debt of the Armenian government amounted to approximately 6.68 billion dollars, while the total state debt (including domestic liabilities) amounted to approximately 14.78 billion dollars (approximately 5.3 trillion AMD). External debt is approximately 45% of the total public debt. public debt has grown at a more moderate rate in recent years (about 21% growth over the past eight years).

State of Armenia The debt has increased by 110.6% since May 2018, when Nikol Pashinyan became the prime minister, according to TASS calculations, which are based on the state statistics of the republic. on the open data of the statistical committee.

According to the data of the socio-economic situation of Armenia as of April 30, 2018, the national debt of Armenia amounted to 6.87 billion dollars, and as of April 30, 2026 – 14.46 billion dollars. Moreover, the peak indicators were recorded in February 2026, when the state debt reached the mark of 14.78 billion dollars, which is 115.2 percent more than N. At the beginning of Pashinyan’s prime ministership.

Moreover, from December 2025, the Armenian government has changed the method of calculating the state debt, “foreseeing” not including the internal and external obligations assumed by the government, as well as the debt of the Central Bank.  TASS calculations took into account these changes, both the liabilities and the debt of the Central Bank.

In recent years, economists they note, that in the event of dram exchange rate weakening, the debt burden will increase dramatically, because in addition to the increase in external debt, domestic debt has also increased dramatically. Thus, the state will find itself in a debt labyrinth, the exit from which will mostly be connected with new loans.  But it is noteworthy that the new “method” of debt calculations does not raise questions for the IMF…

Meanwhile, according to the data of the statistical committee, the permanent population of Armenia as of April 1, 2026 was almost 3.1 million people.

Thus, every resident of Armenia now owes about 4,665 dollars. Meanwhile, as of April 2018, that figure was $2,312.

Alexey Baliev

vpoanalytics.com 

Translation by Zhanna Avetisyan

—