Armenian News

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.

France helped lift EU sanctions on a Russian billionaire the same day Azerbaijan pardoned a French prisoner, while Armenian hostages stay in Baku.

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.

Steve Witkoff names his go-to advisors on Armenia: Turkey’s foreign minister and its intelligence chief, both spymasters.

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.

Hovik asks a simple question about TRIPP that no one will answer: can an Armenian board a train in one village and get off in the next?

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.

Khachatryan flips the question on Western journalists: if the Russian base leaves and Armenia is attacked, will NATO react?

Asbed lays out how Artsakh legally became a republic, following all Soviet and international laws, before Azerbaijan declared its own independence.

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 argues the Turkey-Azerbaijan bond is uniquely strong and that Armenia kept Turkey out of the conflict for 26 years until Pashinyan.

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.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Arthur Khachatryan, MP from Armenia Alliance, about opposition strategy following the June 2026 Armenian Parliamentary Election. We discuss the Established Opposition’s plans to counter Pashinyan’s agenda, territorial concessions including Tigranashen, Azerbaijani attacks on Armenian heritage, the role of TRIPP and Azerbaijan’s control over transit corridors, the future of Russia’s 102nd military base, and escalating threats against opposition parties.

Warwick Powell defines China as an enabling power that funds infrastructure, training, and open source models with very few strings, not an extractive hegemon.

Warwick Powell argues energy, not chips, is the foundational bottleneck for AI, warning that hyperscale data centers are creating an electricity have and have-not divide.

Warwick Powell on why Beijing stays relaxed about TRIPP and the Middle Corridor, and how the risk of any route becoming a chokepoint is managed by keeping alternatives.

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.

Warwick Powell explains how DeepSeek’s open source model broke the proprietary American AI moat and why safety talk now doubles as commercial cover.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Professor Warwick Powell about multipolarity, infrastructure, and the strategic implications of emerging power blocs. We discuss tangible outcomes from the SCO and BRICS summits, the shift toward local-currency settlement and financial alternatives to Western institutions, China’s role as an enabling power, and how countries like Armenia navigate the infrastructure competition between TRIPP and competing regional corridors. We also examine AI safety and digital sovereignty in a multipolar world, where both Washington and Beijing view artificial intelligence as a decisive strategic contest.

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.

At Gandzasar, an Azerbaijani official held up a blank-paged replica of an Armenian manuscript and called it empty, as European diplomats smiled.

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.

On the 35th anniversary of Artsakh’s independence, the hosts mourn a homeland emptied of its people and call it the cause of every Armenian generation.