Episode 471 | Recorded: September 8, 2025
This week’s Week in Review with Hrant Mikaelian covers mounting tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and the risk of renewed war, Russia’s muted stance on the TRIPP corridor despite U.S. and Turkish advances, fresh data from the MPG poll on Armenia’s politics and society, and the state of Armenia’s economy at mid-2025, with particular focus on re-exports, debt, and government underperformance.
On August 8, 2025, an agreement was signed in Washington between Azerbaijan, Armenia’s government, and the United States regarding the TRIPP corridor. This agreement provides for certain communications and infrastructure to pass through Armenia and Azerbaijan. What is your attitude towards this agreement, according to the following options?
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Overall:
The declaration reaffirmed that Azerbaijan and Armenia are committed to opening communications. These efforts also include ensuring communications between the main part of Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic of Armenia through the Syunik region, with mutual communication opportunities for Armenia. Do you support the opening of such a road through Syunik?
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Do you agree that the Washington agreements will contribute to long-lasting peace in the region?
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According to published information, Azerbaijan has emphasized constitutional changes in Armenia as a condition for signing a peace agreement. Which statement do you support the most?
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Question 1 (left side)
Do you think there are political prisoners in Armenia today?
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Question 2 (right side)
If yes, who do you consider to be a political prisoner? (multiple answers possible)
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Samvel Karapetyan, the founder of the Tashir Group, businessman and philanthropist, spoke out in defense of the Armenian Apostolic Church, after which he was arrested shortly after. By court decision, he was detained for 2 months, and on August 15, 2025, the detention was extended for another 2 months. What do you think of this approach by the government?
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Archbishop Michael Ajapahian and Bagrat Srbazan were arrested and detained at the end of June 2025. Then, in August, the court decided to extend their detention. How do you evaluate this decision?
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If snap parliamentary elections were held this Sunday, which party or bloc would you vote for?
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Non-voters / undecided:
The Luys Foundation released its report on the Armenian economy in the first half of 2025. As expected there is some slowdown which may have bottomed out in March or April and since then it has been rebounding. The slowdown is attributed to a 12.1% decrease in the industrial sector, which itself is being blamed on the very significant decrease in the re-export sector, which last year had reached (I think) the $12.4B mark, and as Russian deputy PM Alexei Overchuk has been citing, it’s barely over $6.1B in 2025.
Of significant concern is that many areas of the government’s programs have been underperforming, under-executing their planned projects in 2025.
We can see that a significant number of these areas haven’t even achieved half of what they were supposed to do. The Luys report highlights important programs:
One odd aspect of this underperformance is that the government has not been spending at the level that it thought it would, so it has a lot of cash lying around, sitting in banks and earning some interest. So now all that money looks like an over-fulfillment of revenues in the state budget, or maybe a lower budget deficit. Exactly the opposite of what the government predicted would happen.
Despite all of these issues, the economy seems to be on the rebound. If we start including July numbers, we see that
That’s our Week in Review, we hope you found it helpful. We invite your feedback and your suggestions, you can find us on most social media and podcast platforms.
Thanks to Laura Osborn for the music on our podcasts.
Hrant Mikaelian, a political scientist and multidisciplinary researcher in social sciences based in Yerevan. He is also a senior researcher at the Caucasus Institute. Hrant is a co-founder of the Armenian Project.
Hovik Manucharyan is an information security engineer who moved from Seattle to Armenia in 2022. He co-founded the ANN/Groong podcast in 2020 and has been a contributor to Groong News since the late 1990s.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by Hovik Manucharyan on the ANN/Groong podcast are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of his employer or any other organization.
Asbed Bedrossian is an IT professional with extensive experience in enterprise IT infrastructure, IT security, enterprise applications, data center operations, high performance computing, ITSM, ITPM, and more.
Asbed is founder of the Armenian News Network Groong (ca. 1989/1990) and co-founder of the ANN/Groong podcast in 2020.