Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the decision to dismiss Armen Grigoryan as Secretary of the Security Council was his own and should be viewed in the context of political developments that bring about changes and reshuffling.

Pashinyan said the decision was not driven by dissatisfaction with Grigoryan’s work.

On Thursday, Pashinyan appointed former Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan as the new Secretary of the Security Council, dismissing Armen Grigoryan, who had held the post since 2018.

Asked at a press briefing about the reason for Grigoryan’s dismissal, the prime minister said:

“It is not that I am dissatisfied with Armen Grigoryan’s work, but it is also not that I am so satisfied with my own work that I consider it perfect. I think such decisions are normal in politics. This is a discretionary position, and that discretion belongs to the prime minister. I have already thanked Armen Grigoryan for his work as Secretary of the Security Council, and I wish Alen Simonyan success as Secretary of the Security Council. I hope that Armen Grigoryan’s potential and experience will be useful. He has been involved in many important processes. We will still have opportunities to use his experience in building and developing the statehood of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan explained.

Pashinyan also said that he had offered Grigoryan a position in the Prime Minister’s Office, but Grigoryan had declined, saying that he wanted to take a break from working in the public administration system.

A serviceman has been found dead with a gunshot wound, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

The body of Grigor Zakaryan was found on August 13, Defense Ministry spokesperson Aram Torosyan said.

He said an investigation has been launched to determine the circumstances of the incident.

He added that the Defense Ministry expressed its condolences to the deceased’s next of kin.

Former lawmaker Martun Grigoryan, who unsuccessfully ran for parliament on the Prosperous Armenia ticket in the June 7 elections, has been arrested and charged in an investigation into an alleged electoral crime, authorities said Thursday.

The Anti-Corruption Committee told Armenpress that Grigoryan was taken into custody and will be brought before a court, where investigators will petition the judge to remand him in pre-trial detention.

Other details were not immediately available.

Formulating the return of the population of Karabakh as a state objective would mean reviving the logic of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, National Assembly Speaker Ruben Rubinyan said during a parliamentary session, responding to remarks by MPs from the Armenia faction.

Rubinyan was responding to MP Kristine Vardanyan’s observation that the signed document did not address the root causes of the conflict.

“Let us discuss what the causes of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict are. I want to remind you that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict did not begin in 1988. I believe there is a consensus among historians that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which lasted until August 8 of last year, began in 1905. At the time, these were called the Armenian-Tatar clashes,” Rubinyan said.

According to Rubinyan, one of the main causes of the conflict was the mixed settlement of Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the same geographical area. To support his argument, Rubinyan cited the examples of Bosnia, Cyprus, Kosovo and North Macedonia, saying that conflicts between small and medium-sized nations often arise when different ethnic groups live together in the same territory.

As a second cause, the National Assembly Speaker pointed to the influence of empires in the region. “It is no coincidence that this conflict began at a time when the Russian Empire was facing enormous problems — a revolution on the one hand and the unsuccessful Russo-Japanese War on the other.

By a very strange coincidence, conflicts like this begin when an empire has problems and is weakening, but also needs to maintain its influence in a particular region,” Rubinyan said.

According to him, when Armenia and Azerbaijan became independent and formed regular armies in 1918, the conflict escalated, while it was frozen after the establishment of Soviet rule. Rubinyan said the same cycle was repeated in 1988.

As an example of how conflicts have ended, he cited the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, saying it resulted in the formation of compact majorities in both countries, which, in his assessment, prevented another interstate ethnic conflict between Greeks and Turks.

“Yes, we have seen many injustices, pain, casualties and bloodshed. But today we have a situation where we Armenians live in the Republic of Armenia, together with our Yazidi, Kurdish, Assyrian and Russian sisters and brothers, as well as our dear sisters and brothers from Karabakh, who are not guests here at all but are in their homeland, while Azerbaijanis live in Azerbaijan. If we do not want to revive the cause of the conflict, then we should not restore or talk about restoring the architecture that would bring us back to roughly the same situation as in 1905,” Rubinyan said.

At the same time, the National Assembly Speaker stressed that an individual’s desire to return to their former place of residence may be justified from a human perspective, but making the issue a state objective could, in his view, have different consequences.

 “Therefore, all this talk about the return of the population is conflict-generating. I am not saying it is unjust; from a human perspective, it may be justified. From Ms Arega Hovsepyan’s perspective, of course, it is justified: she may say, ‘I want to go to my home.’

 But when you formulate this as a state objective, it means reviving the logic of conflict.

 We propose acknowledging the current situation, moving forward and ensuring 100 years of peace,” Rubinyan concluded.

Armenian authorities have denied media reports claiming that the state housing support program for families displaced from Karabakh is no longer viable.

Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs spokesperson Nver Kostanyan rejected a report published by the Hraparak newspaper, saying that official data present a substantially different picture.

“Hraparak is once again trying to distort reality with another article, claiming that the state housing support program for families displaced from Karabakh has allegedly become unviable. Meanwhile, official data present a substantially different picture.

As of August 13, 7,743 families (31,845 people) have already received certificates under the program, of which 7,147 families (29,921 people) received them under the home purchase component, 297 families (1,104 people) under the construction component, and 299 families (820 people) under the component providing assistance with repaying existing mortgages.

The process of using the certificates is also continuing actively: 4,146 families (19,098 people) have used their certificates, of which 3,853 families (18,134 people) under the home purchase component, 62 families (304 people) under the construction component, and 231 families (660 people) under the component providing assistance with repaying existing mortgages.

The regional distribution of certificates used under the home purchase and construction components is as follows: Vayots Dzor – 63, Tavush – 87, Aragatsotn – 135, Shirak – 147, Gegharkunik – 158, Syunik – 228, Lori – 368, Yerevan – 450, Ararat – 531, Armavir – 667, Kotayk – 1,081.

I call on the media, when covering the housing support program for our compatriots displaced from Karabakh, to rely exclusively on numerical data and factual evidence,” Kostanyan said in a Facebook post.

The Hraparak newspaper claimed that the housing support program for people displaced from Karabakh was facing numerous obstacles, as high apartment prices made it impossible to use the certificates to obtain housing.

The government will allocate more than AMD 5.3 billion (USD 14.70 million) to the Ministry of Economy to cover compensable obligations to businesses that exported goods in July 2026.

Acting Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan presented data on the volume of agricultural products exported in July at a Cabinet meeting.

He said around 200 tons of strawberries, 1,250 tons of tomatoes, 367 tons of cherry tomatoes, 2,325 tons of peppers, around 7,000 tons of apricots, 430 tons of plums, 1,715 tons of cherries, and 1,645 tons of peaches or nectarines, as well as 3.1 million flowers, were exported in July.

According to Khojoyan, over the past two months, Armenian flowers have been exported to 26 countries, fruit to 21 countries, and vegetables to 14 countries.

Addressing the government’s export promotion policy, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that for several years, the government has sought to assess the performance of Armenian embassies abroad partly based on the volume of Armenia’s trade and economic relations with the respective countries.

“For several years now, I have tasked our embassies and the Foreign Ministry with ensuring that the performance of an embassy is assessed, among other things, based on the volume of our trade and economic relations with the respective country. However, the distribution of these functions does not allow us to properly assess the work,” Pashinyan said.

According to Pashinyan, the decision to rename the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is a response to the new circumstances.

“This is a response to the new circumstances, so that the adaptation process can be carried out in a more coordinated manner,” he added.

Since May 2026, Russia has been imposing import restrictions on a number of Armenian-made products, including agricultural produce. Under these circumstances, the Armenian government has adopted a policy of diversifying exports and is supporting Armenian producers in exporting to different markets. The government subsidizes customs duties on agricultural products and flowers exported to European Union member states.

Armenian Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan met with Akbar Fathi, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Agricultural Jihad, on the sidelines of the seventh meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union’s Council on Agro-Industrial Policy, held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

According to the ministry’s readout, Papoyan said there is significant potential for cooperation between Armenia and Iran in the agricultural sector, particularly in crop production, livestock farming, agricultural processing, greenhouse farming, and the development of cold-storage and warehousing infrastructure.

“Armenia is interested in expanding the presence of competitive fruits and vegetables, processed products, dried fruits and other food products in the Iranian market, as well as developing supplies of high-quality Iranian products to the Armenian market,” Papoyan said.

In the context of modern climate challenges, the minister also emphasized the importance of sharing experience in efficient and water-saving irrigation systems, the digitalization of agriculture, and increasing productivity.

Minister Papoyan also proposed exploring opportunities to implement joint investment projects in various areas of agriculture.

The sides also discussed a number of other issues of mutual interest.

Two members of NASA’s latest lunar mission, the historic Artemis II mission — American astronaut Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — will participate as speakers at the Starmus VIII Festival.

The festival, which has been held since 2011 and was co-founded by Armenian astrophysicist Garik Israelian and astrophysicist and legendary Queen guitarist Brian May, will take place this year from October 17–22 on the Spanish islands of Tenerife and La Palma.

“It’s a great honour to be at STARMUS VIII alongside so many remarkable minds and leading figures from the worlds of science, space and culture, and to share the Artemis II experience with the STARMUS community. The festival creates a unique space where curiosity, discovery and the human spirit of exploration come together, and I’m delighted to be part of that conversation — exploring new ideas and inspiring the next generation to look up, dream boldly and explore,” Hansen said in a statement.

Ten years after the historic 2016 edition, Starmus returns to Tenerife — at the request of the Canary Islands Regional Government and the Cabildo de Tenerife — marking a decade since the first Hawking Medal ceremony was held there, organizers said. 

The Civil Contract faction has nominated its MP Sargis Khandanyan to return as chair of the parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee, a position he also held in the previous parliament.

Civil Contract MP Arusyak Manavazyan announced the nomination during Thursday’s plenary session.

Armenian Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan participated in the seventh meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union’s Council on Agro-Industrial Policy in Almaty, Kazakhstan on August 13.

The minister presented the state of Armenia’s agro-industrial sector and its development priorities, highlighting the intensification of agriculture, increasing productivity, the introduction of modern technologies, and the development of digital agriculture, according to a press release from the ministry.

The meeting also addressed the expansion of processing capacities, as well as the development of smart farms, drip irrigation, and satellite-based soil monitoring systems.

A number of other related issues were also discussed.