Warning: This is a rush transcript generated automatically and may contain errors.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hello, everyone.
Asbed Bedrossian: This is the Armenian News Network Groong Week in Review for July 26, 2026. We have a few topics on the docket for you guys. Ukraine striking Iran, deteriorating health of Armenian POWs , geopolitical dance macabre continuing all over the world, and Armenian real estate has suddenly become open to everyone except locals who can’t afford the real estate anymore. Also, one more topic that I had in my mind was that Pashinyan called Putin regarding the issues that Armenia is having with Russia banning a bunch of exports.
We’ll talk a little bit about that as well. Hovik, where do you want to start?
Hovik Manucharyan: The war, I don’t know if this is the Iran-US war now or the Ukraine war, because there was an attack on an Iranian ship by Ukraine, and they openly admitted it, claiming that it was transferring weapons from Iran to Russia. And this is a serious escalation, probably the most eastward escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, and essentially has a lot of analysts worried. So the event happened on July 25th, and as a result of the incident, one Iranian died. Ukrainians are saying that this was a soldier, a military person, While Iranians claim this was an ordinary sailor.
And it has had already clear repercussions. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which is a vital oil export route from Kazakhstan through the Caspian Sea, was forced to temporarily halt their operations and reduce oil output. You know, Tehran of course is We’re now essentially seeing the potential of The expansion of both conflicts and also maybe a merger of the two wars, which would entrench this, make this one regional war with the potential to go global.
Asbed Bedrossian: So, Hovik, when I read about all this stuff, initially I thought maybe there was a missile attack, like a ballistic missile, which would have gotten from Ukraine to The shores of the Caspian in, I don’t know, let’s say 10 to 20 minutes or drones in about 18 hours. Which one? I mean, and then I read that it was actually through drones. How did this happen?
How did nobody notice these things going over their countries?
Hovik Manucharyan: So yes, it was drones, and just like attacking the depths of Russia, you are able to accomplish these attacks through very careful coordination. You have to figure out which air Which air defenses are lighted up, which air defenses are blind currently, and craft a flight path that would avoid air defenses. But I find it very difficult to believe that you could send a long Still, you can send a long-range drone from Ukraine to Russia or around Russia’s southern periphery, whereas if the depth of Russia is not that well protected because it’s a soft Inside, with a hard shell, its borders are very well protected and watched, right?
So it would have to pass through multiple stations, radar stations, and if that is a narrative. So there are several scenarios, and let’s analyze them. One of them is from Ukraine through the Black Sea. One is through the South Caucasus and hitting the Caspian.
The other is maybe through Turkey somehow and from the Middle East. But what many analysts have not mentioned is that Israel has very long-term and secretive bases in Azerbaijan, including the occupied territories of Artsakh , where it’s possible that it could have just been a surprise launch from there. So the details, I don’t think any of the details have been leaked, but There is surprising escalation between Iran and Azerbaijan now going on where Iran has banned Azerbaijani media and Azerbaijan has reciprocated. So I’m wondering if that has something to do with it.
But, you know, I follow the principle of Occam’s razor. We can go through very complex mathematics. How many radar stations this road would have to pass and would have to be missed versus a very simple attack?
Asbed Bedrossian: Let’s take one example. If it starts in Ukraine on the north side of the Black Sea, it has to go through the Black Sea. Then it has to either go through something like Georgia and Azerbaijan or it has to go through Turkey. And then Georgia and Azerbaijan, all of these countries, including Turkey, which is a NATO ally and has the latest, greatest technologies, they would have to either allow these things to fly through their airspace or they would have to be completely bizarrely missed.
Also, another thing is that to hit these targets over such long distances, let’s say, if it were to start in Ukraine and then go and hit something on the shores of the Caspian, with that kind of accuracy to hit a boat, that requires the kind of ISR that is only available to NATO.
Hovik Manucharyan: More precisely, the United States, because only the United States has the amount of satellite coverage, I would say, that would make such an attack possible, just like the other attacks that have hit the depth of Russia from Ukraine. It’s clear that, to me at least, that the U.S. is providing or provided very detailed and very elaborate intelligence support for this operation. Let me also mention one thing.
Asbed Bedrossian: When I was reading some of the information available out there, and they were analyzing also Iran’s response, reaction to this attack, where They complained to the United Nations that this was an illegal attack, and they reserved the right to respond. And they reserved the right to respond not only to the offender, but also to auxiliaries of the offender. And all of the analysis that I read had to do with Saudi Arabia and various Gulf countries, Gulf states. Interestingly, not a single mention of Azerbaijan, which is, like you said, the simplest case.
Hovik Manucharyan: How else?
Asbed Bedrossian: I mean, it has to be a very, very short distance for everybody in the world to miss these drones going from their takeoff to their target.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah. And it essentially appears to be a very calculated move to merge the wars. But the question that remains, who benefits from this, right?
Hovik Manucharyan: This is a goldmine for Zelensky. If these wars were merged, then he would be assured that it has the support of the US in fighting the war on its front. If we’re talking about, let me mention Russia or Iran, just to clear the obvious. It would not benefit Russia or Iran to do a false flag like this and expand and merge the wars.
None of them are interested in conflating each other’s wars because it will make that A more protracted conflict and more difficult to solve conflict. And I don’t think either Russia nor Iran want to complicate their wars even more. And of course, Eurocrats, I don’t think the Europeans, ordinary Europeans benefit from this, but given the amount of support that Europe has provided Ukraine, it seems like very suicidal, maybe one more suicidal act could be I don’t know.
Asbed Bedrossian: It doesn’t make that much sense to me, I have to say. For the Europeans, it doesn’t make that much sense. For one thing, destabilizing the entire middle corridor that’s going from Azerbaijan, and it’s one day going to go through dual rail between Georgia and Armenia, it doesn’t make sense for them. Especially in light of the next topic we’re going to talk about, the Merz and Aliyev meeting, where they talked about something on the order of about 2 billion cubic meters of gas flowing through Azerbaijan to Europe.
It doesn’t make sense to jeopardize that for this.
Hovik Manucharyan: And that’s exactly what’s going to happen here. So that leaves one more power in the world to think about, the United States. And I am a big fan of an analyst called Hakob Badalyan, an Armenian analyst. He appears on Aravot.
He has daily…
Asbed Bedrossian: And he seems to appear on our podcast every week these days.
Hovik Manucharyan: Through me, yes. But he essentially believes that this was, just like the Iran War, just like other activities of the US in the region, this seems to be a long-term move against China, especially this vital China-Europe link, what they call the Middle Corridor. And it’s not so much against China, but it will basically make Europe completely dependent on the United States. So this way, Europe would have to buy more U.S. gas, it would have to buy other U.S. sources of energy, and essentially nips this whole China-Asia-Europe trade in the bud.
And he sees a lot of parallels with the motivation of the U.S. to also invest in TRIPP because of this. Essentially, TRIPP is another project to put U.S. boots or U.S. control on this European-Asian trade.
Asbed Bedrossian: What does Hakob Badalyan think about the implications of all this to Armenia specifically?
Hovik Manucharyan: Of course, you know, these are outside of Armenia’s controls, right? Any such major war in the world has implications on Armenia. And I think that the statement that he made was a normal leadership in Armenia would be able to orient itself to react to these incidents without any issue. But it doesn’t take a super genius analyst to figure out that the Armenian government is basically Flailing and just cares about its own survival.
I don’t see any long-term strategic moves that would show any indication that the Armenian government is prepared for any contingencies related to this. Consultations, offering to mediate, Armenia basically follows the tune. Basically has no agency is what you’re saying. Today’s leadership of Armenia is completely controlled by foreign powers and I don’t think that’s very controversial.
The only thing that I would leave is that it’s not like the war in Ukraine was far from Armenia, right? But if the escalations against the Caspian do increase, then there may also be attacks again. There may be false flag operations like we’ve seen before. So this is a very critical time, I believe.
And Armenians and Armenians need to be very ready for any potential such activity, including false flags, but also Azerbaijan essentially seizing the opportunity and Turkey in the midst of all this to Capture some more to land, to increase their gains, and this is what is worrying many Armenians right now.
Hovik Manucharyan: I know that Rubio and Lavrov had a meeting last week. I think you’re better read on this topic than I am, so let us know what was the result of the meeting and what were the details.
Asbed Bedrossian: We can almost skip the meeting because there were really no results of the meeting. But yes, you’re absolutely right. Lavrov and Rubio did meet on the sidelines of the ASEAN countries in Manila. The foreign ministers, I believe, met.
And both sides, the US and Russia, sort of wanted to kind of dance around each other. They were trying to figure out where the diplomatic concessions are at this point in time. How to head off the issue of Ukraine and somehow stop the war. But basically, Lavrov demanded a complete stop of Western arms supplies to Kyiv and reiterated Moscow’s commitment to terms from the 2025 Anchorage summit.
You know, that’s where they stand. And Rubio emphasized that any resolution requires new ideas and fresh terms acceptable to both sides, noting also that earlier proposals are no longer viable given changing battlefield realities. I think they were talking past each other, unfortunately. It seems to me that Putin is saying this is what we agreed to, referring to Anchorage summit last year, and Rubio is saying those things are no longer valid because so much time has passed and the war is not the same anymore.
I’ve read someplace and you asked me to find the link and I didn’t find the link at this present, but I’m just going to say it in here. If I find the link, I’ll put it in the show notes that Russia is now essentially Putin is now considering the Anchorage summit a failure and has decided that possibly Europe has to be at the table, not just the United States. Why do you think that’s not very likely?
Hovik Manucharyan: I think it would essentially be seen as capitulation by Russians if Russia negotiated away anything to Europe and perhaps some kind of a, you know, you know, so when you say that Europe has to be at the table, it means that. They will have a direct say in the war and in how these issues are resolved. At this point, I don’t see, based on what I’ve seen in terms of Russian statements and Russian media reports, that this is an existential war from both sides. Europe is gearing up towards a war with Russia.
Europe has invested so much in shattering Russia and dismembering Russia. And I just fail to see how now even Europeans will change their mind and say, OK, now and what concessions would Russia have to make for them to change their minds? Now, on the other side, I think that Russia does have the upper hand. I don’t think Russia is in a quagmire.
I don’t think Russia is in a quagmire. I mean, it’s moving slowly, but in order to ensure long-term survival, I think Russia has to prevent NATO weapons and NATO from operations inside its former areas of influence. If it compromises on that, then I think this whole war was about that. All the stakes were that.
So it would mean a defeat of Russia if Russia would compromise on those stakes.
Asbed Bedrossian: Can I respond to that for a second? We’re probably going to have to agree to disagree because I do believe Well, I did until these latest attacks between Ukraine and Iran. I did believe that Russia was in a quagmire, was unable to retrieve itself out of it, and we’re stuck. Otherwise, how is it that it’s like four years and going and they haven’t been able to finish anything?
Every day they’ve taken a village, they’ve given a village. To me, it’s become nonsensical. However, the fact that Ukraine is interested in opening a second front on the South. And of course, Ukraine cannot be thinking about this all by itself.
Just like you said, its ISR is coming from the United States, its money is coming from Europe, so its patrons are definitely on board with this. They’re trying to start a second war or second front on the war because they see that they have absolutely No winning scenarios between Ukraine and Russia. So they need to start, they need to make it larger, widen the war to have any kind of hope. So maybe it’s not a quagmire.
In any case, that was a very long answer to what you were saying. Sorry.
Hovik Manucharyan: No, I think that there is some credence to the criticism that, okay, why is it taking so long? But I think that there are just very vested interests in this war continuing, unfortunately. I’m not a military expert, and what I will criticize is that when I read the readout from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this meeting, it still made references to the To the Anchorage summit, it praised the full cooperation between Roscosmos and NASA on space. It expressed hope for normalization of conditions for the functioning of Russian and U.S. diplomatic missions.
So I am sorry, but what is Lavrov smoking?
Asbed Bedrossian: You’ll notice that I left those things out of the show earlier when I talked about what was going on because I thought exactly the same thing as you. It’s like, what are you guys smoking? It’s like, these are completely irrelevant things trying to put lipstick on a pig here.
Hovik Manucharyan: It is the U.S. Maybe you can say it’s a subsection of the U.S. deep state that is orchestrating these attacks, that is controlling these wars, that is controlling the escalations. I’m not sure what Russia gains by singing this tune that, okay, we’re going to normalize diplomatic relations between U.S. and Russia. But at the same time, the only way I see it resolving is on the ground, right?
And we keep talking about this. So Russia has essentially to prove on the ground that it will be taking more territory as much as necessary in order to make this war stop. And I think that’s happening, albeit slowly. You know, I would much rather that there is peace sooner than later, but I don’t think that any solution that is on the table right now for Russia is acceptable.
So the military will be.
Asbed Bedrossian: But while Europe is pumping 90 billion at the last time into Ukraine and now, by the way, I don’t have this in my notes or anything to talk about, but there was A new bill that was passed in the US Senate and they’re giving Trump the 73 billion dollars for the Iran war that he wanted. They basically slapped him on his hand saying that we did not allow this war for you to start and prosecute. But here’s a blank check. Here’s 73 billion dollars to continue the war.
So while Ukraine is actually getting a lot of money. I think there are some indications that Europe is trying to find a way out. And we’re going to talk about that in just a minute, but because I want to go through our narrative, Hovik, why don’t you talk to us about Aliyev in Berlin?
Hovik Manucharyan: Ilham Aliyev was in Berlin on July 21st, exactly a week ago, last Monday. And is an indication that the cooperation between Europe and Azerbaijan as a dictatorship is unprecedented. I think the major centerpiece of this agreement was increased throughput through the Southern Gas Corridor, which is big pipeline that goes from Azerbaijan to Georgia to Turkey and to Europe. So Europe is increasing its dependence.
So at the same time, while we’re seeing this news about the disruptions in the Caspian, Europe is increasing its dependence and its bets on getting energy through Azerbaijan, because that’s the only way it can get energy through Central Asia. And incidentally, the Southern Gas Corridor opened One month after the war in Artsakh was over. I think just three days after the ceasefire on November 9, they announced the gas pipeline opening as if it was no big deal, it was a major accomplishment.
It just goes to show European policy in the Caucasus, in the region, is fully aligned with its energy requirements, nothing else, and that means a rock-solid partnership with Azerbaijan, and that’s what Aliyev was there to provide.
Hovik Manucharyan: And what was interesting is that during, yeah, so right the day after that meeting, Merz called Pashinyan and he encouraged further peace steps. He was happy that Pashinyan had capitulated half of Armenia. He praised the 2025 agreement in the White House and said that there needs to be further peace steps. One wonders what else does Europe want, you know, demanding from Azerbaijan or from Armenia through Azerbaijan.
I mean, we can probably guess, we can probably guess that it involves some kind of a You know, urging to go through with rewriting the Constitution, satisfying any of the outstanding demands from Azerbaijan. But I don’t think the details of this call were made public, so we’ll see.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, we don’t know the details, but just like you said, I think that the Constitution issue is first and foremost on their minds. Now that Pashinyan doesn’t have a very clear majority that can take him to a referendum, he’s going to have to take a few steps that are not so clear, let’s say. And he’s going to need the backing of Europe to close their eyes to every kind of undemocratic processes that go on in Armenia. And that’s the kind of support that Aliyev is asking from Merz.
And Merz is coming around and basically telling Pashinyan, we need you to continue with this and do what you need to do because we’re going to be there.
Hovik Manucharyan: And of course, Europe, you know, over the past, I guess, several weeks has expanded its rapid response team. We initially, it was reported to be just for the election, you know, sort of pre-election fake news monitoring, but it seems like the rapid response team is getting a more permanent presence in Armenia and will continue to Provide Pashinyan with information support as he tries to hammer through these demands that Aliyev wants of Armenia.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, I want to take this whole visit of Aliyev in Berlin to another little mishap or mis-event that happened. During Aliyev’s visit, they of course had a press conference. It was revealed that German and Russian representatives had held some kind of a secret backchannel talk in Baku just a few days earlier. I think it was July 17 and 18, reportedly.
And the disclosure caused unexpected public friction at the chancellery press conference because Merz initially denied any knowledge of the meeting. And then Aliyev suddenly immediately counters and confirms that the Azerbaijani border records had verified that the participants had arrived All the alleged participants had actually arrived in Baku and were in Baku at the times that the press was asking about. And then Aliyev goes on and clarifies that foreign actors had utilized Baku without informing the government. You believe that, right?
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, dictatorship of Baku, right.
Asbed Bedrossian: Right. And he noted that, of course, any effort to facilitate peace can only be welcomed in Baku. So anyway, the funny thing about this is that the incident exposed sensitivities around unsanctioned Track 2 diplomacy. And it, of course, underscores that Baku is emerging as a geopolitical crossroads hub.
And supposedly the reason why it was held in Baku was that there are direct flights from both Berlin and Moscow, and it’s accessible without Western sanctions on Baku and the ability to operate there quietly. So essentially it was the real world Casablanca. They all went to Rick’s Cafe and had their secret meeting. And we’re talking about reasonably high-level people.
The Germans was attended by Chancellery Chief Ronald Pofalla, so it’s essentially the Chief of Staff, and former Brandenburg Premier Matthias Platzeck on the German side. And then on the Russian side, it was Viktor Zubkov, who is a former Prime Minister, and Presidential Council Chief Valery Fadeyev and academic Alexei Gromyko. And these are Fairly well connected people. So it’s definite track two, it’s definite back channel that’s going to get to the halls of power in both places.
Funny enough, because Merz had to deny initially, I’m not sure how much he’s going to be able to take all their suggestions that came back and proceed with them.
Hovik Manucharyan: I mean, just the fact that Aliyev can, in Merz’s territory, in the same press conference after Merz’s denial, Basically throw him under the bus and say, yeah, it happened. It was unsanctioned.
Asbed Bedrossian: Let’s see if that’s going to have any kind of repercussions, right?
Hovik Manucharyan: It won’t because that shows how much by the balls Azerbaijan has Europe.
Asbed Bedrossian: Remember what Ursula von der Leyen said, reliable partner. Europe’s reliable partner, Aliyev. So there were, just to mention and close with this, the secret sessions apparently aimed to test parameters for ending the war in Ukraine and probing whether coalition politics in Berlin could be nudged towards Kremlin acceptable peace terms. So that’s what I was talking about a little bit earlier when I said, Europe is looking for ways out.
This is kind of a quagmire for them. And unless something happens, this is kind of a forever war for the West.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s plausible that track two diplomacy could happen. I just don’t think that direct negotiations between Russia and Europe would happen. And if the negotiations do happen, it would be on the terms of surrender, I believe. It won’t be framed that way, but that will be what’s happening.
Because I don’t see this ending in any other way, given the potential of the countries involved in the So, coming to Armenia, I guess let’s talk about the major event that happened today. Finally, Pashinyan and Putin had a phone call.
Hovik Manucharyan: The Russian side made it clear that this phone call was initiated by the Armenian side about trade restrictions on Armenian exports. And around the same time, I believe just yesterday or today, Armenia was subjected to increased restrictions by Russia. No dairy products now can be exported from Armenia to Russia. So in this phone call, apparently Pashinyan and Putin had a discussion about the trajectory of relations and it appears that Putin continued his rhetoric about Armenia holding a referendum on EU integration or Eurasian integration or EAEU integration as a choice that Armenian citizens have to make.
I don’t know what to make of it. I think that it sort of proves my point that Russia will eventually Accept Pashinyan as the de facto leader of Armenia to deal with. I don’t think it will mean that Russia will be happy with it, but from the looks of the rhetoric, it seems that Russia is not backing down in terms of any of the sanctions or any of the restrictions that it has placed. Perhaps maybe Some analysts believe that this is related to Russian demands to be involved in TRIPP, so maybe they’re looking for more concessions from Armenia.
But it’s unclear to me where this trade embargo will go.
Hovik Manucharyan: And one more thing that is interesting that happened just today, there was an announcement that Armenia and Iran are seeking to increase the consumption of Iranian gas. So it seems to me that Armenia is desperately trying to prepare for very cold winters, and that involves purchasing Iranian gas. And I’m pretty sure that Iran would not be able to sell gas to Armenia at the same price that Russia is. We’re going to have a discussion with Pietro Shakarian this week about some of these things, so we’ll explore them more.
But these are the news that are in Armenia right now. Of course, I should also mention that August 2nd,
Hovik Manucharyan: I think, is the day that the Armenian parliament starts its work and the new session of the parliament begins. But it should go without mention that even as this is happening, Armenian authorities have applied to nullify the immunity by various opposition members, MPs. So Narek Karapetyan is now under restrictions. He can’t travel outside the country.
Initially, they wanted to arrest him. Several other opposition members are now also under increased scrutiny and increased restrictions.
Asbed Bedrossian: So I think in the case of Narek Karapetyan, they’ve actually lifted the immunity, but they have forbidden the NSS from arresting him. So it’s a bit of a sort of Damocles that they are dangling. And I think they’re just going to try and blackmail him for votes. And we’ll see how that goes.
Hovik Manucharyan: Between this period, between the election and when the parliament starts, it’s a very gray zone because, I guess, by law, the Central Electoral Commission has the authority to lift immunity and to authorize arrests, but I think they basically said that the Armenian authorities should apply to the new parliament, new seating of the parliament, in order to continue their criminal Well, of course, in the
Asbed Bedrossian: case of Artur Sargsyan, they said that the immunity had been lifted in the previous seating of the parliament, and therefore that was in effect until the next parliament is fully in swing, and therefore they arrested them, I believe.
Hovik Manucharyan: So I think that what we can look forward in the coming months, until September probably, more arrests of opposition members, more repressions by the Pashinyan regime, but otherwise it will be politically, it will be a very boring period because I think everyone will be gearing up towards a very hot September and October in terms of politics.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, we should definitely mention About the plight of the POWs,
Asbed Bedrossian: the Armenian detainees in Baku. I was reading an article by Azatutyun Radio. They were quoting Siranush Sahakyan, a noted human rights lawyer who represents the 19 or so Armenian POWs in Baku at the European Court of Human Rights. She has described them to be in very poor health with Injuries that include bone fractures.
Reportedly, some of them have no teeth. They do not receive health care. So the situation is pretty dire. I think there was another article About one of the prisoners, I think his name was Ludvik Mkrtchyan, and he was captured in 2020, and he is apparently in very poor health.
His wife apparently gets to talk to him every couple of months or so, and she said that he has shortness of breath, dizziness, heartaches, heart and lung problems.
Hovik Manucharyan: This isn’t fighting for his life.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, basically he is. That’s right.
Hovik Manucharyan: And if you’re watching this podcast for a while,
Hovik Manucharyan: then you wouldn’t be surprised that there’s not a peep from the Armenian government about any of this. It seems like the Armenian government is completely content with leaving these prisoners in Baku.
Asbed Bedrossian: It’s more than that. I’m sorry. I have to be that guy again. But it’s almost a certainty that Pashinyan is doing everything he can to keep the prisoners in Baku.
He does not want them to come back. In the case of some of them, for example, Ruben Vardanyan, he would become a complete political liability to Pashinyan. I don’t believe that Pashinyan would have ever been At 49% or whatever he was after the elections, Ruben Vardanyan would probably have become prime minister had he been free. So there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s not.
I mean, last year, do you remember last year in the White House? Trump actually explicitly on video asked Pashinyan, saying, don’t you want your guys back from Baku? And Pashinyan, what did he say? He said, let’s not talk about that during the peace process because it could Block the peace
Hovik Manucharyan: process. That’s right.
Asbed Bedrossian: A hundred percent certainty that he is complicit in keeping them jailed in Baku.
Hovik Manucharyan: It’s kind of surreal to imagine this, and I know that everyone wants to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t think there’s any other explanation for what’s happening other than this. If the Armenian government wanted to have their prisoners back, they could leverage Trump. They had the opportunity to leverage Trump and they didn’t. So that should tell you everything you need to know.
The sad reality is that if they were ever released from Baku,
Hovik Manucharyan: most of them would probably end up in jail in Yerevan anyway. There was this incident of a farmer in Yerevan where a pro-Nikol Pashinyan blogger intimidated and incited him on video and essentially the farmer Told him off. And the guy said, I’m going to put you in jail. He called the police, and guess what happened?
He ended up in jail. That’s how things work. It’s very Stalinist, but that’s how things work in Armenia. The farmer was arrested for hooliganism despite this loudmouthed blogger being the one who is inciting things and trying to escalate.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, you’re absolutely right.
Hovik Manucharyan: The Pashinyan regime, we’ve talked about this frequently, the Pashinyan regime has relied increasingly on this charge of hooliganism for anything related to free speech. You know, you have people killing each other on Yerevan streets and they’re walking free on bail, but if you actually call some Pashinyan supporter or Pashinyan himself a traitor, You will go straight to jail because you are a hooligan and the definition of that is whatever the Armenian government defines it on that day. Inciting disturbances and very vague definition in the law that allows them to craft it for whatever purpose they want.
They interpret it in whatever way they want.
Asbed Bedrossian: I didn’t see the video that you’re referring to. I’m aware of it because I read the article. We’ll put the link in the show notes. But this guy goes up to these fishermen who have lost their markets.
Europe just is not accepting their products, so they have a problem. And this blogger goes up to them and basically says their problems are because of Kocharyan. Robert Kocharyan is the reason why they have lost their markets. And one of the farmers basically says, so you’re a propagandist for the traitor.
And he goes, who are you referring to as the traitor? And he says, you know, the people who gave up our lands in Artsakh. And he goes, when I leave this place, you are going to be arrested. And so later in the day, they show up and they arrest the guy for hooliganism.
That’s what’s going on.
Hovik Manucharyan: Imagine losing your livelihood because of all of these policies and not even having the right to be upset about it. Yeah, that’s why a lot of businessmen, a lot of farmers stay silent through all this because it’s better than the alternative.
Hovik Manucharyan: So one topic that I want to cover is that the Pashinyan regime passed a regulation last week through the Cadastre committee, essentially. That will allow foreign citizens, anyone in the world, to electronically purchase apartments in Armenia without visiting the country even or having the power of attorney. If you’re in Armenia and if you want to purchase property, you have to go through this very dedicated dance, going to the notary public, having all the paperwork from the banks and everything.
But Apparently now you can just simply, if you’re a foreign citizen, you don’t even have to visit Armenia and you don’t even have to get a power of attorney. Is this a bill or is it a law? It’s a regulation from the Cadastre Committee that essentially allows three-way contracts between the bank, the purchaser, and the property developer specifically. So if you’re developing brand new properties, all these brand new buildings, Then all you need to do is have a three-way contract that is electronically signed and Armenia will honor it.
If these restrictions were uniformly reduced or streamlined, I would say one thing, but the restrictions are not being streamlined for Armenian citizens, they’re being streamlined for foreigners who don’t even have to visit Armenia. But even worse than that is there are tens of thousands of these apartments being built. Actually, I’ve heard number 50,000 housing units that are now in construction. Is that for housing Artsakh refugees?
Of course not. But so if you assume like, okay, four people per family, that’s like 200,000 people. Who is going to buy all that expensive property? Property in Armenia is now more expensive than some European countries.
So now they’re essentially making it easy to be done electronically and you don’t even have to visit Armenia. I’m sure the target of this is not diasporans because most diasporans that I know who are interested in purchasing property in Armenia would actually visit Armenia in the first place to see their property.
Asbed Bedrossian: Is it to align the country more with the EU demands by any chance?
Hovik Manucharyan: I don’t know about that. Essentially, the only way I can think about it, you would have to have a very good feeling about Armenia as a very booming place, but not so much that you wouldn’t visit Armenia to make your property acquisition, and you would just do this for investment purposes, for flipping. Or if you’re a state that is interested in weakening Armenia and getting more rights for your citizens in Armenia, you could just support purchasing of your citizens buying property in Armenia just online. Let’s talk about Turkey.
As one of our neighbors, right? Armenia has the honor of being one of the, I think, four countries in Turkey whose citizens are not allowed to buy property. The other three are Syria, Cuba, and North Korea. So we’re dealing with a neighborhood in that state, and those are norms.
You can’t buy property, Armenians can’t buy property in Azerbaijan. So in a conflict-ridden zone, what What is the strategic impetus for loosening all these restrictions? And what is Armenia trying to do? What is Pashinyan trying to do?
I still don’t know.
Asbed Bedrossian: There’s probably a good reason. And I would say follow the money.
Hovik Manucharyan: Who are the developers of these 50,000
Asbed Bedrossian: apartments? They are all government attached. They’re all Civil Contract cronies. You know, follow the money.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, so it might be a way to bail out these property developers who have built too many apartments to sell and they’re essentially going to allow foreigners to flip property in Armenia. But you would have to have some vested interest to invest in Armenia. And if you can’t even bring yourself to visit Armenia, I don’t see what would motivate you to purchase property there. But even worse, you know, Armenia The amount of extreme poverty in Armenia is staggering.
Pashinyan has not managed to make a dent in this number despite being in power for eight years now. And most people in Armenia can’t buy this property, right? 99% of them can’t. Most people in Armenia live in property that was acquired by their older generation during Soviet times. And people have just continued living in those apartments, even increasing growing their families.
Now the children having children and bringing their families to live in the same apartment because they can’t afford apartments. If Pashinyan wanted to bail out anyone, it should have been those people. Those people should have gotten some incentives to purchase these properties with some very attractive loans.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, as we close the show, a couple of things. First of all, you have made a note that we have a couple of errata to announce, and then maybe we can talk about some reflections on our conversation with Barsamyan a few days ago.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yes, of course. Apparently, we have listeners. We thought we were just talking into the ether, but in episode 567, I made an erroneous statement, and I said that Gurgen Arsenyan, Armenia’s ambassador to Russia, is related to the famous Arsenyan family that controls a lot of businesses in Vayots Dzor, including Jermuk mineral water. Thank you for correcting me, anonymous listener, and I just want to state again that Jermuk’s owner, Ashot Arsenyan, is not related to Gurgen Arsenyan.
Asbed Bedrossian: Okay.
Asbed Bedrossian: So, a few days ago, earlier this week, we actually talked to Anthony Barsamian, who has been chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Armenian Assembly of America, and he had many interesting thoughts to share. What did you think? What stayed in your mind, Hovik?
Hovik Manucharyan: Well, it was an interesting interview to me. You know, first I want to say that, you know, there are a few people that you can point to that have invested their whole lives to supporting Armenia in the way that they think they should support it. And I think that Anthony Barsamian is one of them. So when I reached out to Barsamian, it was around I believe sometime last year or early this year when Barsamian co-signed that letter, essentially supporting the Catholicos.
And then the strong reaction that that letter got from Pashinyan. So I was hoping to understand that better. I mean, I’m not naive and I know that there are differences, political differences between various Armenian groups and various Armenian advocacy groups in the United States. But I was a little bit surprised, you know, with all due respect to Mr.
Barsamian, I was a little bit surprised at the, I guess, Equivocation in terms of condemnations against the church because the letter that I read was very, I would say, firm. It was respectful. But at the same time, it delineated the red line that many Armenians should have between the church and the state. But I almost heard Mr.
Barsamyan apologize for writing that letter, which was a big surprise to me. And I realized that various groups have different political interests. I think that that equivocation, if that was the case, maybe I’m misinterpreting, but if that was the case, then I don’t think that equivocation will cool everyone down. It will only encourage the Pashinyan regime to increase its effects against the Armenian Church , which is my worry.
Asbed Bedrossian: But what are your thoughts? Personally, I didn’t feel like there was anything to apologize for as he wrote that letter. But I think that the blowback and the reaction from the government was so harsh that maybe a few people decided to think, to have second thoughts about it. Not me.
I felt like they were fine. In fact, I still think that they were somewhat soft on the government and its attacks on the church. My concern is that through a lack of direct critique, you’re kind of silent and you’re legitimizing their actions. But I mean, I completely understand that Barsamian Has a different relationship with Armenia than I do.
I’m talking about it right now, but he has a number of concerns that he is trying to realize. Just like he said, there are people with expertise who are dedicated to carrying forward those activities. People in technology, people in eco initiatives and so on and so forth. I get that.
And another thing I remember that he said was, he said, why isn’t Vehapar calling for the church council?
Hovik Manucharyan: It was both Vehapar and also he said, why aren’t the lay members of the church calling for the church council?
Asbed Bedrossian: Right. Why isn’t there a call for the governing body of the church to meet? Okay. I understand there should be a call, there should be an effort to meet, but look, what are the conditions here?
There are diasporans who are not allowed to travel to Armenia. They’re stopped at Zvartnots Airport and they’re sent back, right? They don’t ever know that they’re going to make it there. And there are so many archbishops and Vehapar who are under travel bans that they can’t go anywhere.
Where are you reliably going to have this meeting under the current circumstances?
Hovik Manucharyan: And the government basically claimed that the meeting that they had in Austria was illegal to begin with. But, you know, I question that premise. It’s like, you know, you’re being arrested, right, by this regime. Someone is saying, well, you know, you should have a family meeting and try to figure out why you’re being arrested.
I feel it places the blame on the church a little bit. It distributes the blame, essentially, both ways.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah. So the fact that Barsamian was saying, why isn’t anybody calling for this governing meeting so that the church can show that it is taking care of its own internal problems and the government Does not need to interfere, does not need to come in or anything. I felt like it doesn’t take into account all of the concerns that Vehapar and the church have in having this meeting. So suddenly I felt there is, I’m not ascribing this to Anthony himself.
He didn’t say these things, so I’m not putting words in his mouth, but it came across like if the church is not going to take care of its problems, it is okay for Pashinyan to jail bishops, maybe even the Vehapar and say, you’re not taking care of the problems, then I’m going to care. There’s absolutely no basis for Pashinyan to come in under any circumstances to deal with it. If the church is not taking care of its problems, the church will become irrelevant. But it’s not for the government to try and fix it.
And I felt like it gave the government a little bit of an out to say, oh, well, they’re not taking care of the problem, so we have a legitimate right to come in and take care of the problem.
Hovik Manucharyan: I think our ideas and my idea is that the separation between the church and state is sacrosanct. The state never has a right to encroach on the church. Meanwhile, church leaders have a right for political expression and they’re normal citizens. And this is enshrined in the Armenian Constitution.
And we should encourage a more principled stand for constitutional rights in Armenia. Given the attacks that are happening right now.
Asbed Bedrossian: We promise that we will have Anthony Barsamian back on the show and talk about various Armenia and diaspora relations. He is interested. I hope that he will continue. Like I said, I’m not putting words in his mouth.
I just felt those were my feelings. But I think we’ve talked about this whole week. I want to start this kind of conversation about where the Armenia Diaspora relations are headed under the current circumstances if working out like I said during the show, if we’re going to have to live with Pashinyan in leadership for the next one year five years whatever, where do Armenia diaspora relations go under such a divisive leadership, and I would like to have this kind of conversation with. We want to have it with the AGBU leadership.
We want to have it with any of the thought leaders and we know many of them. So we will start having this conversation series.
Hovik Manucharyan: We know many of them and this is an open invitation. We have in the past reached out to many of them as well. This also goes for business leaders. I have to say we find it especially difficult to talk to Some of the people behind large business projects.
Maybe it’s our fault, maybe we’re not going to rewrite channels, but we are going to have more discussions about these AI data centers, nuclear power And we’re going to be talking to all different aspects. So I’ve reached out to some people about the AI data centers. They have like five unreplied messages from me. So I promise I won’t bite.
Please come on our show and explain your case and explain why you think that’s a good idea. But we want to give everyone a fair chance.
Asbed Bedrossian: This is a good time to remind everyone that these are all Great ideas and we want to pursue them, but we are two people. And we are always looking for your support. So please go to podcasts.groong.org slash donate and become a sustaining member. Help us out so that we can actually bring these things.
That was our Week in Review show recorded on July 27, 2026, and we’re finishing it on July 28, 2026. Hovik and I working at midnight after midnight. For more information on both of us and our ideas, go to the show notes. I’m not going to tell you where that is.
You know where that is. That will be a first. Click on the links and we will provide the links to many of the articles that we have referenced here.
Hovik Manucharyan: Thank you everyone and we hope you found this interesting. Feel free to suggest also people who you would like us to interview and we’ll try to make it happen.
Asbed Bedrossian: I’m Asbed Bedrossian.
Hovik Manucharyan: And I’m Hovik Manucharyan. Have an excellent week.