The credit market has shown high activity in Armenia in recent years. Financial institutions provided a large number of loans. The volumes of loans have increased both year by year and month by month, sometimes quite sharply. Of course, there were individual months when a certain passivity was shown, the portfolio decreased, but there were no drastic and significant changes in that regard. What was recorded in April of this year does not fit into the logic of the previous period.

It seems that the credit market, which has grown at an extremely high rate in recent years, simply collapsed before the elections, banks stopped lending. In that month, a sharp reduction of the credit portfolio provided by banks to residents was recorded.

The data published by the Central Bank prove that in April, the credit portfolio of commercial banks decreased by almost 413 billion drams or 1.1 billion dollars in just 1 month.

Such a drastic change in the banking system, and in such a short period of time, has not been recorded not only in recent years, but also at all. Even during the pandemic and the 44-day war, there were no such big changes in the credit portfolio of banks. They did not happen before the previous parliamentary elections either.

What happened in the credit market in April, it is difficult to say unequivocally at this moment. It can only be assumed that it was somehow connected with the elections, because before that, in all the previous months of this year, the credit portfolio of the banks grew exclusively, and that too at a fairly active pace. Compared to the end of the previous year, the credit portfolio of banks increased by 354 billion drams in the first quarter. Not only did the growth stop in April, but also an unprecedented decrease in the credit portfolio took place.

This gives a reason to say that, in fact, before the elections, the participants of the financial system, in the form of banks, had certain fears and therefore “froze” lending, thus trying to insure themselves against possible losses.

Such phenomena usually occur when the participants of the financial system have doubts about the ongoing political processes, stability and especially the reproduction of the authorities.

There may be other reasons related to purely economic processes. Of course, the banks could have sufficient grounds for this, taking into account both the significant slowdown of the economic growth rate at the beginning of the year, as well as the most serious problems facing the economy recently, which, if continued, may simply collapse the entire economic system, leading to deepening of social tension.

All these are risks for the financial system, which is usually very sensitive to possible shocks. It is not excluded that such a sharp passivation of the credit market was connected with other factors as well.

If in March the credit portfolio of the banking system reached 8.140 trillion drams, in April it decreased to 7.727 trillion drams.

This is the lowest indicator of the bank’s loan portfolio this year.

It is almost 59 billion drams less than the level of December last year.

In April, a decrease in the credit portfolio of banks was recorded in almost all credit markets. And the biggest decline was registered in the case of consumer loans.

Compared to the previous month, the portfolio of consumer loans of banks was reduced at once by more than 138 billion drams. From last month’s 1.909 trillion, the portfolio of consumer loans decreased to 1.771 trillion drams.

Let’s remind that this is the credit market, about which the president of the Central Bank recently expressed serious concerns, calling on the commercial banks to be careful in the future when providing consumer loans. The concerns of the president of the Central Bank were related to the fact that consumer loans are growing at a much faster pace than the incomes of citizens, who are the main beneficiaries of these loans.

In April, not only the consumer market, but also the mortgage market became passive. The portfolio of mortgage loans of banks was reduced by almost 71 billion drams that month. After the reduction, it amounted to 1.633 billion, which is 30 billion drams lower than the figure at the end of the previous year.

Trade lending was also reduced by more than 70 billion. And what is more worrying, the credit portfolio of the industrial sector has decreased. Credit injections made in this sector of the economy in April amounted to 647 billion drams, which is 62 billion less than the previous month.

According to that indicator, the credit portfolio of the banks provided to the industry is inferior to the level of the end of the previous year. In April, it was almost 80 billion drams less.

Construction lending, which was in a state of high activity in recent years, has also been reduced. there is a decrease of almost 20 billion in the loan portfolio, according to the results of April lending.

Service loans, which are still connected with construction and citizens, also decreased, by almost 47 billion drams in 1 month.

The exception was agricultural loans, which continued to increase. But against the background of general passivity, it did not create a situation. The general credit market was in a deep recession, banks suddenly withdrew from active lending, froze lending. It is not yet known whether this was a short-term manifestation or whether it continued later. It will be possible to talk about it after the publication of May data.

HAKOB KOCHARYAN

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The residents of Armash village of Ararat marz are going to block the road and demand the government to solve the problem of mulberry export. They have not been able to export the mulberries for several days now, instead, the residents throw them away.

Armash resident Avik Mkrtumyan, who is both a producer and an exporter, informed that they demand to solve the issues of apricot and mulberry export.

“The mulberries are now falling under the trees, because we have been harvesting for 20-25 days, and we are already collecting a part of the apricots today. We collect apricots and take them to the market, but in two days it will not be possible to take them to the market or do anything else.

Mulberries are categorically not exported to Russia, you know that the road has been closed, and apricots will definitely not go either.” of 168.am Avik Mkrtumyan said in a conversation with

To the question: Are mulberries not exported to any European country, because Nikol Pashinyan and Gevorg Papoyan made such a statement at the Government session, our interlocutor answered.

“I’ll bear your pain, there is nothing like that, they just say, send a person, let them come here and see, did any of those who said something come here, did they talk to the people?”

We demand that our goods be exported, if they don’t receive anything or receive only partially, at least they give compensation to the people, give long-term or zero-percentage loans, so that people can pay off the loans they took, live in a way, until we understand what will happen next year.

Entering the European market is not so easy, we also understand that.”

Our interlocutor says that at least Gevorg Papoyan and Nikol Pashinyan should go and talk with them and make a decision.

“This compensation does not apply to mulberries, and as for apricots, only exporters are given 200 drams. If, for example, apricots have to go to Europe for 8,000 dollars per bushel, they subsidize 4,000 dollars. I am speaking now both as an exporter and as a producer. But this is not serious either, because no one is familiar with the European market, we do not know if this harvest and good of ours corresponds to European standards.

I repeat, 1 kg of goods from our place is not exported to Europe, maybe they take strawberries and flowers, we don’t have both of them,” stressed Avik Mkrtumyan.

He also said that they hoped that the export issue would be resolved, but as of now, the issue is not resolved, moreover, none of the relevant bodies are meeting with the people, nor are they agreeing on anything.

“This year, the apricot harvest is generally small, but one thing is that it should be exported.

We elected our Government, 70 percent of the village elected the Government, but today we have a problem, we want that problem to be solved. We, as exporters, have already spilled several tons of mulberries, I went to the city hall and the marzpetal hall about this issue, but I did not get any full answer. We wanted to meet with the Deputy Minister of Economy Khojoyan, but it didn’t work out, it was a meeting, we also wanted to meet with Papoyan, but we had to make an agreement beforehand.

Our question is urgent, let them know that the question is urgent, they say: wait until Thursday, how much goods should we dump before Thursday? In the past, up to 30 tons of mulberries were exported from our village, what should the people do now?” emphasized Avik Mkrtumyan.

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Two days ago, the Central Electoral Commission made a decision to invalidate the results of two electoral precincts: 35/65 and 10/51. According to the CEC, the number of voters in those constituencies was recorded as the total amount of inaccuracies.

After that, the members and supporters of the “Prosperous Armenia” party carried out an action in front of the CEC building, protesting against the cancellation of the voting results in two precincts by the CEC.

Aram Orbelyan, manager-partner of “Concern Dialog” law office, specialist in international law, lawyer regarding this issue, he applied to both the court and the Central Electoral Commission.

“We appealed to the court to dispute two decisions of the Central Election Commission. As you remember, the CEC invalidated the results in two polling stations and we will decide the two “254 and 255 A” decisions of the CEC in court. There are a number of arguments, but the most basic one is that the CEC does not have such authority when referring to Article 48.1 of the Electoral Code, which does not give them such authority.

Now we have appealed to the court so that those decisions are recognized as invalid.” of 168.am Aram Orbelyan elaborated in a conversation with

He mentioned that the Central Electoral Commission should summarize the voting results tomorrow, June 14, there was a preliminary summary, they are in the stage of recalculations, as a result of which the final results should now be available.

“The Electoral Code envisages the adoption of a number of decisions during the summary, including re-voting. We will submit a corresponding position-demand, the application has not yet been submitted, by which we justify that at least in those two polling stations, but in fact in all polling stations where they were declared invalid, a re-voting should be scheduled, because the following picture is obtained: the basis for invalidating, regardless of whether we appeal or not, is that according to the CEC, it was impossible to find out in whose favor the votes were cast in those polling stations, the violations were such. that it was not possible to find out. Basically, they entered the polling stations after 20:00.

Taking into account the fact that the “Prosperous Armenia” party is borderline in terms of the 4% threshold, and as a result of the recount, it had more votes than those percentages before it was declared invalid, accordingly, re-voting is mandatory in order to be able to find out whether PAP collects that 4% or not. Otherwise, the results of the general vote are generally questioned,” Aram Orbelyan added.

According to the lawyer, he expects a positive outcome from all this.

“It is expected that the court will examine the case today,” emphasized Aram Orbelyan.

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After the National Assembly elections in Armenia on June 7, Israel is also on the list of countries congratulating the ruling power on the victory.

In particular, the congratulatory letter of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar published on June 8 in the message it is mentioned.

“Prime Minister Pashinyan has shown qualities of a leaderleading his country to peace and reconciliation with Azerbaijan, which will contribute to regional stability and cooperation.”

A few days after this, the Azerbaijani media are spreading Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s letter to Aliyev on the occasion of Azerbaijan’s Independence Day, in which it is said:

“I highly appreciate your efforts that contribute to regional stability, play an important role in promoting peace and bring us closer together. to the realization of our common goals, as well as your decisive position in the fight against extremism.

I am especially grateful for your country’s unwavering support and solidarity with Israel after the heinous attack by Hamas on October 7, as well as your fight against regional threats.

It affirms the trust and respect on which a true partnership between our governments and peoples is based.

I look forward to the further expansion of our bilateral relations and cooperation in various directions, which include the fields of artificial intelligence, aviation, tourism and academia.”

First of all, let’s remind that in 2023 On October 7, the militants of the Hamas group attacked Israel, as a result of which 1,200 victims and about 250 prisoners were reported in Israel at that time, the purpose of which, according to the Azerbaijani sources, was to disrupt the process of normalization of relations between the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia.

And that attack by Hamas was condemned by many countries, because innocent people were killed, naturally, there were cautious condemnation statements from the Azerbaijani side, and this is in the case that on September 19-20, 2023, Baku carried out military and ethnic cleansing operations in Artsakh.

But in this case, our task is to attract another attention On Netanyahu’s admission that Baku’s current actions in Aliyev’s region, including in the name of the peace agenda, bring Azerbaijan-Israel closer to the realization of common goals.

This became especially possible in the context of the increasing role of Azerbaijan as a result of the 44-day war, and Baku also owes its victory in the 2020 war to Israel, in particular, in terms of the supply of weapons, moreover, not so long before the war, Slovakia’s weapons to Azerbaijan has arrived through Israel.

In the context of the 44-day war, experts, speaking from Israel’s interests, noted several important circumstances:

– First, Azerbaijan, occupying a leading position among the countries that import Israeli weapons, conscientiously fulfilled its contractual obligations, so Tel Aviv could not ignore the needs of its partner during the critical period, especially when these contracts were signed before the 44-day war, and then the testing of modern Israeli weapons during the hostilities in Artsakh and its demonstrated effectiveness could increase the demand for Israeli weapons. on the world market, and it would help to make correct calculations in their own military plans.

– Second, The developments after the 44-day war showed that Israel became one of its beneficiaries. And this is not only because Baku had to sign new military-technical agreements with Israel, but also because positive perspectives were being drawn in connection with Tehran in terms of strengthening its own positions in the South Caucasus, in Azerbaijan. Moreover, we have not once written that the Azerbaijani airports in the occupied Artsakh territory can easily serve as a platform against Iran, that is, it is possible to carry out reconnaissance flights or even air attacks.

In December 2025, “Azerbaijan opened the brackets for the visit of Daniel Gold, responsible for Israel’s defense development. Who was it addressed to, what role was assigned to Baku? to publish where we referred to the advancement of the Azerbaijan-Israel strategic union to a new level, the American factor that makes the interaction between Baku and Israel more significant, etc. Of course, a lot has happened between the end of 2025 and now, but by and large, the Netanyahu administration’s global plans for Iran have not changed, nor have relations with Baku been revised. So it’s no surprise that a few days ago, CNN, citing its sources, was reporting circulate, that during the war against Iran, Israel secretly deployed elite military and intelligence units to Azerbaijan, including Mossad agents, and that it was part of a network based in various parts of the Middle East, including the UAE and Iraq, to ​​carry out operations against Iran.

We are still in the last year warned that Israel is trying to strengthen its position in Iran’s immediate neighborhood, not only technically, but also in terms of human, intelligence and regional presence. In other words, the creation of technological capabilities near Iran’s borders is of strategic importance for Tel Aviv.

And the Baku-Israeli strategic relationship is not affected by the Erdogan-Netanyahu skirmishes, and also by the fact that Israel, in fact, is not yet ready accept Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan put forward the conditions for the settlement of relations between Turkey and Israel: the creation of two states, the cessation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
And Israel, for several years, has been discussing plans to implement more serious investments and projects in the occupied Artsakh.

By the way, on June 12 In an interview with Iran expert, political analyst Aram Shahnazaryan we touched on the consequences of the possible settlement of Turkey-Israel relations in the region. The expert noticed.

“From Iran’s point of view, the settlement of relations between Turkey and Israel can be perceived as an element of a new regional power arrangement. Tehran is traditionally sensitive to such processes that can increase Israel’s political, economic or security presence in Iran’s immediate neighborhood. Therefore, if the Ankara-Tel Aviv dialogue is restored, Iran will most likely try to activate its relations with other regional partners and strengthen its own deterrence mechanisms.

At the same time, the settlement of relations between Turkey and Israel does not necessarily turn into an anti-Iranian alliance.

Ankara usually strives to maintain its strategic independence and foreign policy maneuverability. Therefore, it is more likely that Turkey will try to use the settlement of relations with Israel as an additional diplomatic and economic resource, rather than getting involved in an open war architecture against Iran. Still, even such a limited settlement could affect Iran’s strategic calculations and become an important external factor in future conflicts.”

And it is too early to talk about stable peace in our region and around it is of the opinion also Turkish President Erdogan, according to whom, our region and, perhaps, the whole world are witnessing the most fateful events since the end of the Second World War. Moreover, according to Erdogan, we are living in a time when one crisis is not yet resolved, another one begins, so
no one can predict what will happen tomorrow, or where the sounds of guns will be heard.

In other words, in the best case, we can try to avoid falling into the “shooting” that activates from time to time in the region, but does this indicate stable peace? Of course not.

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