Category: Politics

In this episode of Groong Week in Review, Hovik and Asbed break down Pashinyan’s territorial swap proposal with Azerbaijan, examining the strategic implications for Armenia’s 29,743 square kilometers and the security of border communities. We discuss the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Process, contradictions between government officials on formal negotiations, inadequate housing aid for Artsakh refugees displaced during the ethnic cleansing, UN inaction on Armenian Prisoners of War, and Gyumri’s emergence as an opposition stronghold ahead of municipal elections.

Martirosyan calls Armenia’s COP17 hosting mostly PR, benefiting hoteliers and Pashinyan’s image more than national interests.

Martirosyan points out the US has no operational small modular reactor, undercutting a key piece of Armenia’s nuclear bluff with Russia.

Martirosyan argues a settlement built on one side’s wrongdoing cannot hold, and that Pashinyan’s version of peace is unilateral concession.

Martirosyan explains how Aliyev extracts concessions by threatening war, especially when Armenia’s leadership primes its own public to concede.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Arthur G. Martirosyan about Armenia at a crossroads in politics and security. We discuss the Shaki infiltration incident and government accountability, Pashinyan’s standoff with Russian Railways over the rail concession, nuclear energy options including Western SMRs versus Russian reactors, TRIPP’s implications for Armenian geopolitics, and environmental destruction at COP17.

Armenia says raising Azerbaijani forest destruction at the COP17 biodiversity summit it hosts would violate the presidency’s principles.

A fading Save Amulsar graffiti prompts the hosts to revisit how an environmental cause used for regime change was quietly abandoned.

A gambling ban with an online loophole funneled an industry worth billions to an official’s close benefactor, the hosts explain.

Asbed argues Armenia has more leverage over Russia than over the US or France, and that nuclear dependency on Moscow may be the least-bad option.

In this week’s episode of Groong Week in Review, Hovik and Asbed examine Pashinyan’s abrupt reversal on nuclear energy policy, shifting from Western small modular reactors to consideration of a Russian gigawatt-scale plant amid surging data center demands. We discuss the security implications of long-term energy dependency, the geopolitics behind Armenia’s power infrastructure choices, and ongoing concerns about Azerbaijani infiltration, opposition unity under Samvel Karapetyan, and corruption at COP17.

Sassounian says Pashinyan told parliament he consulted nobody and made his own decision, calling it one-man rule.

Sassounian describes Pashinyan posting a toothbrush on Facebook, then writing his UN General Assembly speech mid-flight to New York.

Sassounian calls it shameful that the head of the first Christian nation is taking the Catholicos to court, with prison a possible outcome.

Sassounian says Trump offered to call Aliyev to free Armenian prisoners in Baku, and Pashinyan never took him up on it.

Sassounian recounts reconciling with Levon Ter-Petrosyan after years of tension, with a two-word answer, to work together for Armenia.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Harut Sassounian about Armenia’s identity crisis amid escalating conflict between the Armenian government and the Armenian Apostolic Church. We discuss Catholicos Garegin II’s statements at the May 2025 World Council of Churches conference in Bern, Pashinyan’s public attacks on senior clergy, the constitutional role of the Armenian Church in national identity, and the deeper geopolitical questions surrounding Armenia-Diaspora relations following the June 2026 Armenian parliamentary elections.

The Prime Minister’s office published a 74 page report describing a Church crisis and laying out a roadmap to remove the Catholicos.

On the sixth anniversary of the 2020 war, thousands streamed to Yerablur while state TV aired a pop concert and no Civil Contract official appeared.

Pashinyan fell short of 50 percent, then the annulment of three polling stations stripped Prosperous Armenia of five mandates and handed Civil Contract a three-fifths majority.

In this week’s Groong Week in Review, Hovik and Asbed mark the sixth anniversary of the 44-Day War and examine Armenia’s deepening crisis over historical memory and national identity. We discuss the Armenian government’s controversial response to September 27 commemorations, escalating tension between the state and the Armenian Church, international concern over election integrity, and Armenia’s isolated position as Azerbaijan demolishes Artsakh’s Armenian cultural heritage while Turkey advances regional integration plans.

Aghajanian says Russia’s 102nd base in Gyumri still matters to Armenia, keeping Turkey at bay, and warns removing it would leave the country totally alone.

Aghajanian argues the September 2022 Jermuk fighting was orchestrated by Western actors, Azerbaijan, and Pashinyan to draw Russia into a second front.

Aghajanian says Armenia has no judicial system left, with 75% of judges appointed by the ruling group and orders coming from above.

Aghajanian says Armenian soldiers fought back at Jermuk against government commands, pushing Azerbaijan back from a strategic corridor toward Nakhijevan.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Dziunik Aghajanian about shifting geopolitical pressures on Armenia following Russia’s September 2026 parliamentary elections. We discuss Putin’s strengthened domestic position, the Armenia-Russia confrontation over the 102nd base, asset confiscation and anti-corruption efforts targeting Russian interests, and how Middle East escalation and the Iran War reshape Armenia’s strategic environment amid ongoing Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Process tensions.

Arthur Khachatryan warns that Pashinyan’s threats and talk of mob justice signal Armenia is racing toward dictatorship.

Khachatryan compares Civil Contract’s rhetoric about eradicating the ARF to a 1915 Turkish line about keeping one Armenian in a museum.

Khachatryan details how confiscated hotels and villas are resold at deep discounts to Pashinyan-linked buyers while families get nothing.

Hovik breaks down a fivefold hike in Armenian citizenship fees and a tenfold increase to renounce, and argues it is deliberate diaspora policy.

Hovik recounts how Goris mayor Arush Arushanyan, jailed for protesting Pashinyan, saw his case dropped a week after allying with Civil Contract.

Hovik demands the names of those killed in the 2020 war and after, arguing the government’s silence hides a story of betrayal.

In this week’s Groong podcast episode, Hovik and Asbed reflect on Armenia’s 35th independence anniversary amid ongoing regional tensions and unresolved conflicts. We discuss the state of Armenian statehood three years after the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, Armenian prisoners of war still held in Baku, rising citizenship costs, government opacity over war casualties, and deepening Turkey-Azerbaijan strategic coordination.

Warwick Powell on the poison pill clauses in U.S. tech deals that lock smaller states into a single ecosystem, using Malaysia as a case with lessons for Armenia.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Hrant Mikaelian about chip diplomacy, the TRIPP framework, and Armenia’s structural economic vulnerabilities. We discuss how the U.S. fast-tracked advanced AI exports to secure the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Process agreement, the massive energy demands of the planned Firebird data center, Armenia’s deepening education crisis, and the risks of energy dependence as the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant approaches shutdown.

A Wall Street Journal report says the U.S. dangled NVIDIA AI chips to get Armenia to sign the TRIPP corridor. The hosts weigh revocable chips against a 99-year deal.

Artsakh analyst Alen Ghevondyan was jailed over Facebook posts, then freed months later as a court dismissed the case. The hosts call it a repeating pattern.

As Pashinyan attends a Paris space summit, Hovik notes France helped build and launch Azerbaijan’s satellites, later used against Armenia in war.

EU Special Representative Magdalena Grono called the Gandzasar dispute a matter of “deeply diverging views and narratives.” The hosts call it false equivalence.

In this Groong Week in Review episode, Hovik and Asbed examine the fourth anniversary of the September 2022 border war, Azerbaijan’s ongoing occupation of Armenian territory, and Pashinyan’s political trajectory toward recognizing Artsakh’s loss. We discuss Hajiyev’s inflammatory rhetoric, Armenia’s muted diplomatic response, TRIPP and semiconductor sovereignty, Pashinyan’s attendance at a Paris space summit, Russian financial flows through Armenia, and Russia-Iran coordination in the South Caucasus.

Non-combat deaths in Armenia’s army are rising sharply since the declared peace. The hosts detail a case of conscripts run over while forced to jog at night.

Pashinyan reportedly explains rising army deaths by saying that with no enemy shooting, soldiers grow lax and fight over who sleeps on watch.