Airbus Helicopters and the Republic of Armenia signed an agreement to purchase six H145 helicopters. This was announced by the company, news.am writes.

Airbus Helicopters and the Republic of Armenia signed an agreement to purchase six H145 helicopters. The agreement, which was finalized during the official state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Yerevan, recently entered into force, becoming an important milestone in the strengthening of bilateral relations between France and Armenia.

Multipurpose H145 helicopters will be used for transportation tasks. This purchase is the first contract signed with Airbus Helicopters in Armenia’s history and symbolizes the modernization of the country’s helicopter fleet with one of the most versatile and reliable vehicles in its class.

“It is a great honor for us to officially welcome the Republic of Armenia to the Airbus Helicopters family. This first contract testifies to the development of the partnership between our company and Armenia, and we are proud to be able to support the country in modernizing its aviation capabilities,” said Ludovic Boistot, Vice President and Head of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus.

“The H145 is a time-tested work vehicle that will provide the flexibility and reliability needed by the Armenian authorities to perform the most complex transportation tasks. We expect long-term and effective cooperation, as our partnership will continue to develop in the coming years,” he added.

The H145 helicopter is known for its high performance characteristics, especially in high-altitude and hot climates, which makes it ideally suited for Armenia’s diverse and mountainous terrain. The five-seat version of the H145 provides increased payload, smoother flight and simplified maintenance.

Currently, more than 1,800 H145 family helicopters are in service worldwide, with a total of more than 8.5 million flight hours. Equipped with two Safran Arriel 2E engines, the H145 has a FADEC digital engine control system and a Helionix digital avionics complex. The helicopter is also equipped with a high-performance four-axis autopilot, which increases flight safety and reduces pilot workload. Thanks to its particularly low noise level, the H145 is considered the quietest helicopter in its class, and its CO₂ emissions are among the lowest compared to its competitors.

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The “Armenian Hamazkayin Miastunyun” party, emphasizing national unity and the joint struggle for Armenia and Armenianness, joins the call of Samvel Karapetyan, the leader of the “Strong Armenia” alliance, to unite all opposition forces. This is stated in the statement released by the party.

“We welcome and support the process of forming a post-election opposition coalition, being convinced that only with united efforts is it possible to overcome the challenges facing the country and ensure Armenia’s dignified future.

Strength is in unity,” the statement said.

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The famous person provokes the opposition to go out on the streets and he needs it right now.

Why?

The legitimacy of the elections, and due to the annulment of the results of the three precincts, also the legality, is under question.

It causes serious problems for him both within the country and, especially, on international platforms, with potentially serious consequences.

Having lost his legitimacy as a result of the elections, he tries to restore it on the street, which he literally announces. He wants to show that he will bring more people to the streets than the opposition, thereby trying to show that he has more support. And its justification is that, according to its claim, the opposition bought the votes with money.

This is his post-election strategy, which he cannot do alone. To dance tango, you need a partner, to the opposition that refuses to dance with you.

In other words, he urgently needs post-election processes.

Political scientist Stepan Danielyan

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A new criminal case has been initiated against the second president of RA, Robert Kocharyan.

Let’s start from the beginning.

On June 14, President Kocharyan’s office announced that he was leaving Armenia on a three-day visit. The office, well aware of the working style of this government, emphasized: “We have never provided information about the president’s many previous visits in advance because of their private nature. However, taking into account the recent lies spread by the authorities regarding the visits of representatives of the opposition, we consider it necessary to protect the public from the expected dose of government lies.”

At the end of the same day, President Kocharyan’s office reported that the president’s exit from the country was prohibited illegally and without any reason. “The petty dictator has actually turned the “bastion of democracy” so praised by his European masters into a “democracy concentration camp”. If anyone wearing Aliyev’s shoes even thinks that President Kocharyan can flee the country, he is terribly mistaken. “One person will escape from Armenia, and that one person is Aliyev’s aide (if, of course, he is lucky enough to escape),” the message said.

The investigative bodies of Armenia informed the press that Robert Kocharyan’s border exit was not restricted within the framework of any proceedings being investigated in their structures. It turns out that this was done on the illegal instructions of a specific person.

Two days later, on June 16, it turns out that the prosecutor’s office filed criminal charges against the second president. Well, what is it about?

And so, the 2nd president of RA is accused of abuse of official position and money laundering, allegedly for “2004 being the President of the Republic, having selfish motivations to alienate the state property to his son at a low price, instructed the members of the Government to adopt a decision by which the educational institution “Tennis Olympic Shift Children’s Sports School” owned by SNOC, c. 29,033 square meters located at 7/1 of Tsitsernakaberd branch, Yerevan. meters of land and the 1705 square meter building on it were sold to “Kinetik” LLC company for about 12 mln. in drams, when that property was valued at 1.1 billion drams in 2006.” Moreover, they claim that this property was not subject to alienation, because it belonged to the educational institution, and the Law on Education provided that the property of the educational institution, when alienated, should be used exclusively for educational purposes.

Also, it is noted that then 50% of the share of “Kinetik” LLC company was acquired by “Stream Force” SP company owned by Sedrak Kocharyan, and with that, they allegedly justify money laundering, considering that, after all, the property acquired at a cheap price actually passed to R. Kocharyan’s affiliated company.

According to the accusation, as a result, significant damage was caused to the state and severe consequences arose, because the process of privatization of property was grossly violated, the possibility of participation of other persons in that process was limited, 12 million drams of property with a cadastral value and a market value of 1.1 billion drams were withdrawn from the state property fund through a corruption scheme, and the sports school was also deprived of its property for educational purposes. from the law.

Well, what is the participation of President Kocharian here? the fact that he ratified the Government’s decision with his signature, and that a part of the property, after all, was transferred to the company belonging to his son.

This is the whole irony of the accusation. like this

In 1995 According to Article 86 of the Constitution of the editorial office, “Government decisions are signed by the Prime Minister and ratified by the President of the Republic.” According to Article 89 of the Constitution, “The Government manages state property”. According to Article 85 of the Constitution, “The Government consists of the Prime Minister and Ministers.”

There is no legal act that authorized the President of the Republic to, so to speak, veto the decisions of the Government, not to ratify them, or to check the legality of those decisions before ratification. There is no known case (during the 1995 edition of the Constitution, that is, until 2005) when the President of the Republic did not ratify any decision of the Government that the Prime Minister had signed. Moreover, the authority to manage state property belongs to the Government. therefore, in this regard, the President of the Republic was not authorized to interfere in the activities of the Government.

By validating the decisions taken by the government (that is, the collegial body, the Prime Minister and the ministers), the President of the Republic cannot bear any responsibility for the consequences of those decisions.

In other words, the allegations about the crime are irrelevant, and the Government’s decision to ratify the action is completely within the framework of the immunity granted to the President of the Republic, that is, the law enforcement agencies are not authorized to make this action the subject of investigation on their own.

Even though initiating such a criminal case against President Kocharyan is a joke in itself, this criminal case is illogical even if President Kocharyan’s name was not circulated. There are no grounds for considering the decision adopted by the government to be illegal. Why?

In the context of the regulations of the “Education” Law, “Olympic Tennis Children’s Sports School” is not considered an educational institution. Moreover, in the founding decision of that SNOC, it is also mentioned that the main purpose and object of its activity is the implementation of physical culture-health and sports activities. Therefore, the restriction of Article 45, Part 4 of the Law on Education did not apply in this case.
Even if that SNOC was an educational institution, it was not property belonging to SNOC that was expropriated, but state-owned property that was given to SNOC for free use (it was taken back and expropriated).
And finally, by the decision of the Government, it was stated that the person acquiring the property should maintain the activity profile of the sports school, that is, the property should continue to be used for the same purposes as the purposes for which it was given to SNOC for free use.
The reasoning of the Prosecutor’s Office that the transfer of state property to another person by direct sale disrupted the privatization process, limited the possibility of participation of other persons in that process, is also groundless, because the 2003 RA Government Resolution According to the decision No. 882-N of June 13 (which defined the order and methods of expropriation of state property), it was planned that the state alienation of property is carried out by auction, tender or direct sale based on the decision made in accordance with this order.

In other words, in 2004 Chief: expropriation of property in the form of direct sale was provided for (now there is also such a possibility) by RA legislation, so it cannot be considered as an illegal act in any way.

What about the selling price then?

According to the government’s decision on property expropriation and the justifications of the draft decision, it is obvious that the land was not sold first (it was given on lease), but buildings considered to be in a third-degree emergency (by the way, the Prosecutor’s Office did not object to the conclusion that the building was in an emergency), so it is natural that the estimated value of the property should be lower than its cadastral value.
In 2005, the leased plot of land was transferred to the acquiring company as ownership. on the basis of the adopted Land Code (provided that the Organization will be obliged to pay its cadastral value when expropriating that property). It is assumed (and the prosecutor’s office confirms in its decisions) that the cadastral value in the amount of 444,489,528 AMD was paid during the privatization in 2021 (while part of the land remains leased).
According to the government’s decision, the buyer of the property should invest AMD 200,000 in the first year, 300,000 in the second year, and 300,000 in the third year. Therefore, the value of the property as of July 2006, taking into account the reconstruction of the buildings and the acquisition of ownership rights to the leased land based on the Land Code, could be estimated at 1.1 billion.
What about the relationship of Sedrak Kocharyan regarding the acquisition of property? First of all, it should be noted that the founder of the company acquiring the property was the President of the Tennis Federation, Harutyun Pambukyan, who, wanting to give a second life to the tennis sports school, applied to the Government with an appropriate investment program (this fact is also indicated in the justification of the draft decision of the Government), and the Government, assessing that the school was in a poor state at that time, approved the investment program, which, by the way, was implemented, and we currently have an international tennis sports school that meets the standards.

What about the company owned by Sedrak Kocharyan in 2009? The acquisition of a 50% share of “Kinetik” LLC was due to the fact that after the crisis of 2008, Marzadprots had financial problems and was looking for suitable investors. S. acted as such an investor. The company “Stream Force” owned by Kocharyan (including Harutyun Pambukyan and Sedrak Kocharyan also knew each other before that), which, by the way, acquired the shares through a bank transfer at a rather impressive price – 1 billion drams.

In fact, this also refutes the hypothesis of the Prosecutor’s Office that from the beginning the motivation of this property expropriation was to transfer state-owned property with a high market value to the son of the President of the Republic for a small amount of money.

CONCLUSION:

The Prosecutor’s Office, without examining the circumstances of whether or not the SNOC is an educational institution (in the sense of the Law on Education), the circumstances of whether or not the expropriated property is the property of the latter, not even having information at the level of supposition, by what action the President of the Republic abused his powers, and only having the information that part of the shares of the company acquiring that property was acquired by the company owned by Sedrak Kocharyan 5 years after its acquisition (and a significant amount paying), rushes to accuse R. Kocharyan, who did not have any authority regarding property alienation. Moreover, the charge was brought under such articles of the Criminal Code, the statute of limitations has expired.

Let’s emphasize: if we, as a news-analytical site, are able to bring all this up from publicly available sources, the law enforcement officers were surely obliged to do so before initiating criminal prosecution.

Ստացվում է՝ Ռոբերտ Քոչարյանին տասնյակ տարիներ մեղադրել են աշխարհի բոլոր մեքերի մեջ, բայց գործնական փուլում կա՛մ մեղադրանք են հարուցում հակասահմանադրական հոդվածով կամ էլ՝ հազիվ կարողանում են գտնել 22 տարի առաջվա կառավարության որոշում և մեղադրում են այն վավերացնելու մեջ։ This is even in the case when the president of 22 years ago, according to the Constitution, did not have the authority to disapprove the decisions of the government.

Աղբյուր՝ Yerkir.am

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The Constitutional Court will examine the application of the “Strong Armenia” alliance to cancel the results of the parliamentary elections held in Armenia or to appoint a second round and will make a decision no later than 15 days after the date of receipt of the application.

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia issued a message about it.

“On June 19, 2026, the representative of the alliance of parties “Strong Armenia” submitted an application to the Constitutional Court challenging the decision made by the results of the elections of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on June 7, 2026. The Constitutional Court decides the admissibility of the application in a regular session within two days after the application is submitted.

If the application is accepted for proceedings, a reporting judge is appointed, who prepares the case for trial. Disputes regarding the results of the National Assembly elections are heard through an oral procedure. The Constitutional Court is obliged to examine the case and make a decision no later than 15 days after the date of filing the application.  

To remind, the “Strong Armenia” alliance announced on June 19 that it filed an application with the Constitutional Court with the demand to cancel the results of the parliamentary elections held in Armenia on June 7 or to appoint a second round of elections. The “Armenia” alliance and the “Prosperous Armenia” party have also announced that they will submit an application to the Constitutional Court today, demanding the annulment of the election results.

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Against the backdrop of Moscow’s political disagreements with Yerevan, the possible revision and increase in Russian gas tariffs could have a severe multiplier effect on Armenia’s macroeconomic stability, leading to a sharp drop in consumption, loss of competitiveness of local producers, and weakening of the energy system. Economist Vardan Aramyan gave such a warning in a conversation with VERELQ.

Referring to the observations that the disruption of trade and economic ties with Russia may cause the GDP to fall by 10-20%, the expert refrained from precise percentage forecasts, noting that they require serious calculations, but detailed the main ways of impacting the economy.

Moscow’s warning and Yerevan’s assurances

Russia has warned Armenia in an official letter that it may suspend or cancel the agreement on the supply of natural gas, oil products and rough diamonds signed in December 2013, if Yerevan continues its political course of joining and approaching the European Union. The agreement envisages duty-free supplies of gas and oil products from Russia to Armenia, with domestic consumption volumes and without the right to re-export to third countries.

Statistics show that Armenia is highly dependent on Russia in terms of energy. In 2025 alone, Gazprom supplied the country with about 2.7 billion cubic meters of gas, while another 476 million cubic meters were obtained from Iran under the gas-for-electricity scheme. The price of Russian gas for Armenia is currently highly preferential and is 177.5 dollars for 1000 cubic meters.

In response to the warnings from Moscow, the Armenian side is trying to ease the tension. The RA government responded that they do not expect an increase in gas prices at the moment. Official Yerevan assures that there are existing contracts, and relevant departments are working intensively and daily with the Russian side to discuss the issues that have arisen in a partnership atmosphere and to ensure the fulfillment of obligations.

Double price increase of gas

Despite the government’s reassuring statements, independent analysts warn of impending dangers.

According to Aramyan, despite the government’s assurances about the existing contracts, the possible doubling of the price of gas on the border (for example, from $177 to $350 per 1,000 cubic meters, which is still below the exchange rate of $400-600), will directly double the final price for both the population and businessmen.

“If in the past 570 million dollars were flowing out of our country to import gas, now that number will reach more than 1 billion dollars,” the economist noted. He added that only the non-market subsidy of the gas tariff will cost the state at least half a billion dollars in annual losses.

Referring to the aid packages offered by the European Union, Aramyan described them as insufficient in comparison to the ongoing damages. He reminded that the announced package of 270 million euros is intended for 3-4 years, a significant part of which is technical support, and the cash allocation is only 50 million.

A hit to consumers and producers

According to the expert, the increase in the price of energy carriers will trigger an economic chain reaction, first of all through the reduction of consumption. Doubling of utility payments will force citizens to reduce spending in other areas with the same income, which will affect the demand for local products.

In parallel, business production costs will increase sharply. As a risk zone, Aramyan pointed out the greenhouse farms, which will lose their competitiveness in the event of an increase in energy prices and will be pushed out of the market by cheaper Central Asian, particularly Uzbek and Tajik agricultural products (tomatoes, watermelons, etc.). As a result, many businesses will be forced to cease operations.

Energy security and the price of “tolerability”.

Vardan Aramyan drew special attention to the vulnerability of the country’s energy system. About 30% of electricity in Armenia is produced in gas-fired thermal power plants, of which Russian fuel serves as raw material for at least half, and Iranian gas for the other half.

The economist critically approached the position of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) that the possible impact of inflation would be “tolerable” for the economy. He warned that the severity of the consequences depends on whether the pressure will be one-time or consecutive.

“When a person gets a stroke and is confined to bed, the situation may be ‘tolerable’: he is still alive, but he cannot move, and even after recovery, his body will not be the same again,” the economist noted, concluding, “Therefore, we must clearly understand whether it is worth the political price that we are going to pay today.”

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Today, at 16:30, the application challenging the results of the National Assembly elections of the “Prosperous Armenia” party will be officially submitted to the Constitutional Court.

This was reported by PAP spokesperson Iveta Tonoyan.

To remind, earlier today the alliance of parties “Strong Armenia” submitted an application. The CC informed that the decision will be made no later than within 15 days.

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A regular cultural diplomacy event organized by the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs took place, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the Byurakan Observatory named after Victor Hambardzumyan and the 15th anniversary of the inclusion of the First Byurakan Tour photos of the Byurakan Observatory in the UNESCO “Memory of the World” register.

The event, which was organized in cooperation with the observatory, was attended by ambassadors accredited to the Republic of Armenia, diplomats of international organizations and different countries.

General Secretary of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs Davit Karapetyan and Director of the Byurakan Observatory Areg Mikayelyan gave a speech of welcome. Davit Karapetyan noted in his speech that the above-mentioned anniversaries not only emphasize Armenia’s outstanding achievements in the field of astronomy and scientific discoveries, but also document a legacy that crossed national borders, contributing to the enrichment of the collective knowledge and cultural heritage of mankind.

The Secretary General emphasized the role of the Byurakan Observatory as a symbol of Armenian scientific thought and achievements, and noted that the discoveries made in the observatory from the very first years of its establishment transformed our understanding of the universe and made a significant contribution to the development of astronomy.

During the event, the guests took a tour of the observatory, getting acquainted with its history, scientific achievements and astronomical research. The participants visited Viktor Hambardzumyan’s house-museum, telescopes, got acquainted with the observatory’s activities and observation instruments, as well as Armenia’s involvement and initiatives in promoting international scientific cooperation in the field of astronomy.

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