Gandzasar Erasure, Chips for Territory, Russian Money & Pashinyan in Space | Ep 585, Sep 13, 2026 [EP585]

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Topics:

• 2022 border war and its legacy
• Hajiyev spouts hate, EU reps giggle
• Armenia’s muted response to Azerbaijan
• TRIPP, NVIDIA chips, and sovereignty
• Pashinyan’s Paris space summit visit
• Russian money flows through Armenia
• Russia-Iran coordination in South Caucasus
• Political prosecutions and Grigoryan reshuffle
• What does it say that foreign diplomats laughed during a presentation mocking Armenian cultural heritage?
• • Who is Magdalena Grono anyway?
• Magdalena Grono is not a lightweight or a newcomer to the South Caucasus. She’s a Czech diplomat and conflict-policy specialist.
• About 25 years of experience in foreign policy and conflict resolution
• Strong focus on the former Soviet space and South Caucasus
• Educated at Charles University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
• Served as Chief Diplomatic Adviser to European Council President Charles Michel
• Participated directly in the Brussels Armenia-Azerbaijan process
• Worked with the European Commission, OSCE, and EU conflict-mediation structures
• Managed work on Armenia-Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Central Asia, and the Eastern Partnership.
• The point is she’s a seasoned diplomat, exposed many times before to Azerbaijan’s revisionism. So if that is the reason for excusing her both sideist comment about “deeply diverging views”, then her giggling and lack of response to obvious revisionism spewed directly in front of her is worthy of true criticism.
• Is Hajiyev’s presentation an isolated incident, or part of a broader Azerbaijani state policy toward Armenian heritage in Artsakh?
• Azerbaijan’s constant historical revisionism about Armenian artifacts being Caucasian Albanians and Armenians being gypsies who migrated from India aside, there is a stark record of Azerbaijan’s activities and this is NOT a country that is seeking peace.
• Spring 2026: Satellite imagery showed that Holy Mother of God Cathedral, the main Armenian cathedral in Artsakh, had been completely demolished. They built a park on it.
• Before April 28, 2026: St. Jacob Church, Stepanakert: Satellite imagery also confirmed that St. Jacob Church had been demolished.
• July 14, 2025 to April 25, 2026: Armenian Genocide Memorial, Stepanakert: CHW determined that the Armenian Genocide memorial and associated complex were destroyed during this period.
• May 9 to May 14, 2026: Old Armenian-Russian Cemetery, Shushi: Satellite imagery shows the cemetery was completely cleared during these five days for a wastewater and stormwater facility.
• December 28, 2023 to April 4, 2024, Kanach Zham, Shushi: Caucasus Heritage Watch narrowed the complete demolition of the 19th-century Armenian St. John the Baptist Church, known as Kanach Zham, to this period.
• October 2023 to April 4, 2024: Ghazanchetsots Cemetery, Shushi: Damage began in October 2023. By satellite imagery dated April 4, 2024, the old Armenian cemetery had been completely destroyed.
• The list of erasures is truly endless by now…
• Why did Pashinyan himself not condemn the incident?
• Why did the Foreign Ministry not issue a formal protest?
• Is calling the statements “baseless” and “not useful” remotely sufficient?
• Why was Grono welcomed without a public challenge over her office’s framing of “diverging narratives”?
• Does the “two narratives” language create false equivalence between documented history and state-sponsored revisionism?
• Should Armenia have demanded clarification or an apology from the EU side?
• Does Yerevan’s restraint encourage more of this behavior by signaling that there will be no diplomatic consequences?
• If Gandzasar does not merit an unequivocal response, what does?
• Can peace be called dignified when one side’s senior officials continue to erase and ridicule the other side’s cultural history?
• Does the absence of war alone qualify as peace?
• What would genuine reconciliation require from Azerbaijan in terms of Armenian heritage and historical memory?
• Is Hajiyev’s conduct compatible with the peace narrative promoted by Pashinyan?
• If Azerbaijan’s rhetoric has not changed, what evidence is there that the underlying hostility has changed?
• Has the Armenian government defined peace so narrowly that cultural erasure no longer counts as a violation of it?
• What are Armenia’s red lines under this peace, if attacks on Gandzasar do not cross them?
• https://x.com/EUSR_SCCiG/status/2099078616814416111?s=20
• https://www.thearmenianreport.com/post/azerbaijani-official-mocks-armenian-christian-heritage-at-gandzasar-as-yerevan-remains-silent
• https://www.azatutyun.am/a/33853873.html
• https://armenpress.am/en/article/1260398
• https://vz.ru/news/2026/9/5/1449035.html
• https://www.wsj.com/world/u-s-used-promise-of-nvidia-chips-to-broker-armenia-azerbaijan-peace-deal-b6c7cb6e
• the Armenia-France strategic partnership;
• economic cooperation and Armenia’s economic diversification;
• the French-backed Bargushat tunnel;
• “regional processes” and steps toward “strengthening peace”;
• Finally, “cooperation in space”.
• France played a major role in launching Azerbaijan’s first satellite, Azerspace-1, which was carried into orbit in 2013 on an Ariane 5 rocket operated by the French company Arianespace.
• French aerospace giant Airbus Defence and Space manufactured Azersky, an Earth observation satellite bought by Azerbaijan’s space agency, Azercosmos.
• France provided technical training and resource management for Azerbaijani engineers through partnerships with Airbus and French academic institutions.
• Early space initiatives were supported by French financial institutions, including export credits from France’s COFACE to help fund satellite infrastructure.
• French technology firms like Thales Alenia Space signed agreements to help develop Azerbaijan’s satellite ground networks and telecommunications capabilities.
• Active space cooperation has stalled due to growing political tension, driven by France’s diplomatic and military backing of Armenia following conflicts with Azerbaijan.
• https://armenpress.am/en/article/1260147
• https://armenpress.am/en/article/1260092
• https://armenpress.am/en/article/1260091
• https://armenpress.am/en/article/1260000
• https://168.am/2026/09/09/2478713.html
• Western sanctions
• Restrictions on Russian banks
• Reduced access to international payment systems / SWIFT
• Political and currency risk
• Concern about future capital controls
• Western sanctions tighten;
• Armenian banks face stronger compliance pressure;
• Russia imposes stronger capital controls;
• Armenia-Russia relations deteriorate;
• international banks become more cautious about transactions connected to Armenia.
• Bottom Line
• Coordination Center: https://x.com/AlphaNewsAM/status/2098197231899934873?s=20
• Russia talked about the treaty of Turkmenchay
• Iranian official said that Syunik must be controlled by Armenia or a power that is friendly with Iran
• https://news.am/en/news/1060110
• Gagik Tsarukyan’s detention extended
• Criminal case against Alen Ghevondyan stopped: https://news.am/hy/news/1059629
• The charge: “made public calls on his Facebook accounts to seize power and forcibly overthrow the constitutional order”
• Just a way to shut him up.
• He was arrested back in June.
• Hovik, do you find a lot of this Armen Grigoryan-side shuffling a little weird, do you think it needs a deeper look? After 8 years, what could have caused the his apparently abrupt firing?
• June 7, 2026: Pashinyan “wins” the elections. Softness is over.
• June 14, 2026: Hikmet Hajiyev visited Armenia on his first official visit.
• After that visit, Azerbaijan aggressively ramped up its rhetoric about constitutional changes, etc…
• July 2, 2026: Alen Simonyan resigns parliamentary role.
• At the time, it was leaked that Simonyan had “lost the backing” of the ruling Civil Contract party to continue as Speaker. In hindsight, this was a carefully orchestrated and planted leak.
• August 13, 2026: Armen Grigoryan is dismissed and Alen Simonyan appointed as NSC.
• This was such a tightly guarded secret that the media reported about it only 2 hours before.
• Sep 1, 2026: Simonyan and Hajiyev meet for the first time in Bishkek, following the meeting between Pashinyan and Aliyev.
• Either Azerbaijan wasn’t happy with Armen Grigoryan’s actions?
• Maybe Armen Grigoryan didn’t bow down deep enough to Hajiyev when they met.
• Other external powers demanded this change.
• Can we draw any conclusions?
• Analysis?
• Speculation?

Episode 585 | Recorded: September 14, 2026

#Armenia #Artsakh #Gandzasar #TRIPP #SouthCaucasus #Azerbaijan #Russia #Iran

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