Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is reportedly planning to attend the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that will begin in Tehran on July 4.
The six-day ceremony is expected to draw millions of Iranians and representatives of around 30 foreign countries. The Iranian ISNA news agency on Tuesday quoted an ethnic Armenian member of Iran’s parliament, Ara Shahverdian, as saying that Pashinian “expressed readiness” to join them when he met with Iranian Vice President Hamid Pourmohammadi in Yerevan late last week. The Armenian government has not yet made any statements on his participation.
Khamenei was killed by U.S. and Israeli forces at the start of their air strikes against Iran on February 28. Pashinian praised his contribution to “the development of Armenia-Iran relations” in a letter of condolences sent to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. He afterwards congratulated Khamenei’s son Mojtaba on becoming the Islamic Republic’s new supreme leader.
Yerevan reacted cautiously to the war. It called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict but refrained from criticizing the U.S.-Israeli military campaign. Also, Pashinian’s government pressed ahead with plans to open a U.S.-administered transit corridor for Azerbaijan that would run along the Armenian-Iranian border.
Iranian officials, notably Ali Khamenei’s top foreign policy aide, voiced serious concern over the planned Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) in the months leading up to the war. They feared that the transit arrangement could lead to U.S. security presence along the border. Senior Iranian diplomats reiterated Tehran’s concerns in late May.
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Opposition Election Candidate Fired From Armenian College
- Susan Badalian
In what she sees as political retribution, an Armenian college administrator and lecturer has been fired following parliamentary elections in which she ran as a candidate of the main opposition Strong Armenia alliance.
Hayastan Hakobian, who has worked at the state college in the town of Armavir for over 30 years, announced her dismissal on Monday, saying that she lost her job “due to my political views.” She said on Tuesday that she will challenge its legality in court.
“The college director carried out a [political] order,” Hakobian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The director, Jemma Sargsian, denied that. She said she fired Hakobian because during the election campaign the latter took a leave of absence but still visited the college, talked to students and made “some statements that may have been motivated by [political] propaganda considerations.”
Hakobian brushed aside the claim. She said she submitted last week a written explanation insisting that she never used her position to campaign for the opposition bloc led by billionaire Samvel Karapetian.
Another college lecturer, who is affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract party, avoided dismissal despite finding herself in hot water during the election campaign. An opposition party publicized Lusine Grigorian’s voice message to her students seemingly ordering them to attend Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s campaign rally in Armavir in breach of Armenian law.
An Armenian law-enforcement agency launched a criminal investigation into the audio. The college director claimed on Tuesday that Grigorian told the students to show up for an open-air concert, rather than Pashinian’s rally.
She at the same time said: “That audio is now being investigated by competent bodies and the case is not yet closed. So let the competent bodies investigate the case and draw their conclusions.”
No government official or public sector employee is known to have been sacked or prosecuted for abusing their powers in the ruling party’s favor. According to the Armenian opposition and independent media, such abuses were widespread during the election campaign. By contrast, quite a few individuals holding managerial positions in the public sector have reportedly been told to resign or sacked in recent months because of being related to oppositionists or critical of the government.
They include Lilit Ghazarian, the sister of another Strong Armenia member who ran for the parliament. Ghazarian was sacked last week as deputy head of the Armenian government’s drug regulatory agency, a position she held for 22 years.
She said the head of the agency, Arayik Baghrian, told her to resign for “known reasons” the day after the June 7 elections. She said she refused before being notified that her position has been abolished.
Ghazarian claimed that Baghrian’s “illegal” decision to lay her off was ordered by Health Minister Anahit Avanesian, who is also a senior member of Pashinian’s party. Avanesian again denied that on Monday.
The Yerevan daily Hraparak reported last Friday that the director of a rural kindergarten in the southern Ararat province married to an opposition party member is being pressured by the provincial administration to step down. Earlier in June, a local government employee in another Armenian village claimed to have been forced to resign after dismissing as misleading the official election results in her community.
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Karapetian ‘Still Undecided’ On Parliament Seats
- Ruzanna Stepanian
Billionaire Samvel Karapetian said on Tuesday that his Strong Armenia alliance, which finished second in the disputed June 7 parliamentary elections, has still not decided whether to take up its seats in the country’s new parliament.
Virtually all opposition contenders have rejected as fraudulent the official election results that gave victory to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. Only two of them, Strong Armenia and former President Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan alliance, will be represented in the 105-members National Assembly with 29 and 12 seats respectively.
Many of their supporters want them to spurn those seats in order to undermine the parliament’s legitimacy. The leaders of both blocs seem to be leaning against the boycott.
Karapetian told journalists that he and his entourage will make the decision by the end of July. He said they are now waiting for the Constitutional Court’s ruling on separate appeals against the election results filed by Strong Armenia and six other opposition groups. They want a rerun of the polls because of what they call widespread irregularities.
Karapetian’s bloc has also suggested that the court alternatively order a run-off vote between it and Civil Contract. Virtually all of the judges considering the opposition appeals have been installed by the ruling party. The latter denies rigging the elections and claims that its main opposition challengers themselves garnered most of their votes through bribes.
Earlier this month, Karapetian proposed that the country’s leading opposition forces set up a “coordinating council” that would discuss and take joint actions against the Armenian government. Kocharian was quick to welcome the idea. But other opposition leaders have been cautious about it so far.
The Russian-Armenian tycoon said he is continuing to negotiate with Hayastan and other opposition groups. He said he expects to meet with their top leaders after the Constitutional Court ruling which will be announced before July 5.
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RFE/RL – Murals Of Fallen Soldiers Removed From Yerevan’s Streets
- Gayane Saribekian
Municipal authorities in Yerevan have started removing murals of Armenian soldiers killed in fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, causing outrage among their families, opposition figures and other citizens.
Virtually all of the murals were painted on walls and buildings across the city after the 2020 war with Azerbaijan that left at least 3,833 Armenians dead. Many of them also appeared in other parts of Armenia.
In recent days, at least five images of fallen soldiers were scrubbed from the walls of underground pedestrian passes in downtown Yerevan. One of them depicted Haykaz Mkrtchian, a 19-year-old conscript who was critically wounded and died on the last day of the six-week war. Also removed was a portrait of Robert Abajian, another soldier venerated in Armenia as a hero of four-day hostilities that broke out in Karabakh in 2016.
The municipal administration told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the walls were cleaned as part of a renovation of the underpasses. Mkrtchian’s mother Anna dismissed the official explanation, linking the removal of the murals to Pashinian’s statements that Armenians should not have fought for Karabakh’s unification with their country.
“They want to erase everything that is connected to Artsakh even with the most invisible threads,” said Anna Mkrtchian.
Arega Hovsepian, a senior member of the main opposition Strong Armenia alliance, likewise claimed that murals are removed because Pashinian has promised Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to “erase our heroes and victories and everything Armenian from the memory of the Armenian people.”
“But he didn’t take into account the fact that the Armenian people have not lost their resilience and will not lose their memory,” she said in a social media video filmed against the backdrop of another underpass wall that bore until this week the images of three other fallen soldiers.
There are still murals in and outside the city center untouched by the authorities. A spokesperson for the Yerevan municipality did not deny that they too will be removed if the “renovation” works reach those public areas.
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Armenpress: Thirty-five community service improvement projects implemented in
A closing event titled “Local Leadership, Partnerships and Impact” was held under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiative “Resilience from the Start,” the UN Office in Armenia said in a statement.
Between 2024 and 2026, UNDP, with financial support from the Government of the Republic of Serbia and in cooperation with Armenia’s Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, implemented the “Resilience from the Start” programme.
The initiative aimed to strengthen the resilience of refugees and host communities through innovative and gender-responsive models for designing and delivering services, community-driven solutions, and investments in sustainable infrastructure.
A total of 35 micro-projects were implemented under the programme to improve community services, transform public spaces, develop irrigation infrastructure and introduce renewable energy solutions.
According to the statement, opening remarks were delivered by Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to Armenia Tatjana Panajotović Cvetković, UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia Natia Natsvlishvili, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Arnak Avetisyan, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arthur Martirosyan, and Head of the UN and Sustainable Development Division at Armenia’s Foreign Ministry Hrachuhi Katvalyan.
The event brought together representatives of government institutions, local self-government bodies, development partners, diplomatic missions, civil society organisations, as well as community officials and sector experts.
The programme’s key results were presented during the event, including achievements in promoting the participation of women and refugees, establishing multifunctional public spaces, improving energy efficiency and expanding access to water. Communities also shared their experience in co-design and service evaluation processes, while videos showcasing the programme’s impact and achievements were screened.
Thanking the Government of Serbia for its financial support, UNDP Resident Representative Natia Natsvlishvili stressed that resilient communities cannot be built through one-sided initiatives.
“They require comprehensive solutions that improve services, strengthen institutions and create opportunities for people to participate in shaping their own future,” she said, emphasizing the importance of investments that deliver sustainable, long-term results by supporting stronger institutions, more inclusive governance and more resilient communities.
The initiative included the creation of multifunctional public spaces in the communities of Masis, Vagharshapat, Ijevan and Pambak, improved access to community cultural services in Areni, the introduction of a digital community service assessment tool, and the development of irrigation and solar energy infrastructure in several settlements in Tavush and Lori provinces.
The multifunctional public space in Ijevan is expected to benefit around 19,000 people, 53% of whom are women.
In Areni, the number of potential beneficiaries is about 10,000, with women accounting for more than 50%. In Masis, the space is expected to serve more than 10,000 people, over 60% of them women. In Pambak, it will benefit more than 7,000 residents, more than 57% of whom are women, while in Vagharshapat the number of beneficiaries is estimated at around 8,000. Reservoirs constructed in the settlements of Hovnanadzor and Achajur provide irrigation for a total of 520 hectares.
The Hovnanadzor facility includes a daily regulating reservoir with a usable capacity of 8,900 cubic metres and a 450-metre supply pipeline, while the Achajur facility consists of a daily regulating reservoir with a usable capacity of 5,600 cubic metres and a 1,000-metre supply pipeline. Solar energy systems were installed at various facilities, including systems with a total capacity of 124 kilowatts in 14 residential buildings and systems with a combined capacity of 99 kilowatts in 13 public facilities across several communities in Tavush Province and the Pambak community in Lori Province.
According to the statement, these measures have strengthened community resilience, enhanced social cohesion and created more inclusive and sustainable development opportunities for both refugees and host communities.
A key component of the programme was its participatory co-design process, through which representatives of local self-government bodies, women, young people, refugees and other community members jointly identified priorities and developed solutions tailored to local needs.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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Armenpress: Human Rights Defender receives Estonia’s Prosecutor General
Armenian Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan has received a delegation led by Estonian Prosecutor General Astrid Asi, who is on a working visit to Armenia, according to a statement issued by the Office of the Human Rights Defender.
The meeting was also attended by Estonian Ambassador to Armenia Marg Mardisalu-Kahar and Estonia’s Chief State Prosecutor Alar Lehesmets.
The discussions focused on opportunities to expand cooperation in the field of human rights protection, including issues related to the effectiveness of the justice system, safeguards for the protection of rights and the improvement of legal procedures.
The sides also exchanged views on a number of challenges in the field of human rights protection, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and the exchange of experience.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the parties reaffirmed their readiness to continue cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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Verelq: Resignations and reshuffles are expected among governors
“Hraparak” newspaper writes:
“Although Nikol Pashinyan announced in a briefing last week that he does not plan any changes in the government, but they are expected in the composition of governors.
It is said that the governors of Armavir and Kotayk will say goodbye to the post of governor Vahram Khachatryan and Aharon Sahakyan. they will move from the executive to the legislature, in the capacity of a deputy.
Months later, the position of Lori governor will become vacant, because Aren Mkrtchyan they are considering a candidate for Vanadzor CP.
There are also rumors that Shirak may be the governor of the region Davit Arushanyan and return it to the parliament again. By 2028, the Institute of Governors will disappear.”
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The Minister of Economy published three days of export data
RA Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan published export statistics on his social network page.
“It was exported on June 26-28.
• apricots – 832 tons,
• cherries – 305 tons,
• pepper – 191 tons,
• flowers – 492 thousand pieces,” the minister wrote.
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The trial is not over yet, but the government is already distributing positions
A case related to the elections is being examined in the Constitutional Court, and the ruling power is already choosing the candidates for the president and deputy speakers of the new parliament.
It is clear that the Supreme Court has been tasked from above to follow the political decisions of the current ruler and issue judgments corresponding to them.
The government usurped the entire system, moving the processes to the field of destruction of law.
Tigran Abrahamyan, secretary of “I have an honor” faction
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The real purpose of von der Leyen’s visit
Ursula von der Leyen arrives in Armenia on July 2. His visit is presented as a demonstration of support to Armenia against Russian sanctions. And Von Der Leyen, of course, during his press conference in Armenia, may “consume” all the agricultural products of Armenia at once, in spite of Russia.
But, of course, all that is nonsense that will hang from the ears of the Armenian people, and the main meaning of von der Leyen’s visit will certainly be how Armenia will ensure the construction of the Trans-Caspian transport corridor, which is key to the European strategy, in other words, what legal status will it give to Europe? And before that, since this construction is not possible without Azerbaijan, Von Der Leyen, of course, before leaving for Baku, must get an answer to the question of what Yerevan will give to Azerbaijan in order for Azerbaijan to agree to the EU share.
Analyst Hakob Badalyan
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