Nikol Pashinyan

Pashinyan intensifies crackdown against opposition figures post-election. Tsarukyan, Kocharyan, and Karapetyan face arrest and asset seizures as regime consolidates power.

Pashinyan plans 300 MW AI facility but would shut Metsamor nuclear plant, losing net power while creating dependency on Azerbaijani electricity imports.

Pashinyan frames the Third Republic as failed and proposes a Fourth Republic based on rejecting Artsakh claims and Armenian diaspora ties. Expert analysis reveals this mirrors Atatürk’s identity transformation strategy.

Pashinyan explicitly stated Armenia comprises 29,743 sq km, excluding Tigranashen. Expert analyzes this strategic territory’s importance and why Azerbaijan uses Jermuk occupation as leverage.

Pashinyan intensifies attacks on Armenian Apostolic Church after Catholicos speaks about Artsakh rights. Expert analysis reveals this targets the church’s diaspora ties and identity independence.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Arthur G. Martirosyan about Armenia’s post-election political crisis and Pashinyan’s governance agenda. We discuss the arrest of opposition leaders including Robert Kocharyan, attacks on the Armenian Church, border concessions including Tigranashen, the TRIPP corridor, and how the Established Opposition is strategizing under state repression in the Fourth Republic.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Dziunik Aghajanian about Armenia’s precarious position between Iran, Russia, and emerging Middle East power shifts. We discuss the Mecca joint defense pact signed by Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, Iran’s warnings over TRIPP, Ilham Aliyev’s militarization plans in Nakhijevan, Armenia’s growing energy dependence, Russian deadlines for Yerevan, and how the Established Opposition is testing its parliamentary strategy ahead of the 2026 Armenian Parliamentary Election.

Hovik profiles Aryeh Lightstone, the Orthodox rabbi and Abraham Accords architect now advising on TRIPP implementation in Armenia.

Hovik and Asbed detail how government officials’ wives are drawing astronomical salaries through rigged job contests while state enterprises decline.

Asbed and Hovik discuss Armenia’s impossible balancing act between EAEU membership and EU integration, and the economic and political consequences of Pashinyan’s refusal to choose.

The judge in the case against Catholicos Garegin II recuses himself citing a dubious conflict of interest, likely recognizing the case’s lack of legal merit.

Hovik condemns Pashinyan’s legal assault on Catholicos Garegin II, calling it an affront to Armenians worldwide and comparing it to past governance failures.

In this week’s Groong episode, the hosts examine Pashinyan’s confrontation with the Armenian Church, Armenia’s strategic positioning between Russia and the EU, and the geopolitical implications of TRIPP. We discuss the trial of Catholicos Garegin II, Iran’s military leadership realignment, the Turkey-Pakistan-Saudi Arabia defense pact, and how these shifts reshape Armenia’s role in the South Caucasus.

Hrant Mikaelian holds Pashinyan responsible for the 2020 war loss, alleging he dismantled the military rearmament plans developed by the previous government and failed negotiations.

Asbed Bedrossian warns that Pashinyan plans to finance the railway buyout through new European loans, burdening future generations of Armenians with debt repayment.

Hovik Manucharyan argues that Pashinyan has already agreed to hand over Tigranashen and is executing a piecemeal territorial surrender strategy, bypassing Soviet-era border protocols.

Asbed explains how Pashinyan has committed Syunik’s transit corridor simultaneously to Russia via the 2020 ceasefire and to the US-backed TRIPP framework, creating an irresolvable conflict.

Hovik reveals that Pashinyan’s sudden claims of Russian railway mismanagement appeared only after unnamed Western countries pressured him to remove Russian control, signaling geopolitical rather than operational motives.

New parliament speaker Ruben Rubinyan evades direct questions about whether Tigranashen, a strategically critical Armenian territory, falls within the government’s stated 29,743 square kilometers.

Hovik explains why Pashinyan’s proposed Gyumri-Kars railway through Nakhijevan is a fiction: Turkey already has a multi-billion-dollar direct line, and Aliyev has made clear no northern Armenian route exists.

Historian Pietro Shakarian explains why Pashinyan’s rejection of the Artsakh Movement is an attack on the very foundations of Armenia’s independence and statehood.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Dr. Pietro Shakarian about memory, repression, and state power in Armenia across Soviet and contemporary periods. We discuss the Great Purge in Soviet Armenia, the assassination of Aghasi Khanjyan, the suppression of Armenian national institutions under Stalin and Beria, and the parallels between Stalinist erasure and current efforts to control public memory, symbols, and mourning in post-Artsakh Armenia under the Civil Contract regime.

Arakelian argues that Pashinyan’s Western pivot lacks congressional support because it ignores the Armenian-American diaspora, capping Armenia’s influence in Washington and making the strategy vulnerable to changes in administration.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Christine Arakelian about American foreign policy fractures, Iran war risks, and Armenia’s pivot to the West. We discuss whether the United States has coherent foreign policy, the collapse of the MAGA coalition over Forever Wars, NATO 3.0 and Europe’s militarization, and how Pashinyan’s post-2026 Armenian Parliamentary Election government is navigating TRIPP amid global instability.

Hovik and Asbed dissect a new regulation allowing foreigners to electronically purchase Armenian apartments with no visit required, while most Armenians cannot afford housing and government property developers are Civil Contract cronies.

Asbed and Hovik describe the dire health of Armenian POWs detained in Baku and detail evidence that Pashinyan deliberately keeps them imprisoned to eliminate political rivals.

Hovik explains the strategic pressure Russia is placing on Armenia through trade restrictions, including a dairy embargo, as Pashinyan is forced to call Putin to negotiate while Armenia seeks alternative energy sources from Iran.

Hovik describes how a farmer was arrested for hooliganism after refusing to be intimidated by a pro-government blogger, exposing the regime’s weaponization of vague charges to silence dissent.

In this week’s edition of the Armenian News podcast, Hovik and Asbed analyze escalating regional tensions as Ukraine expands operations into the Caspian Sea, striking Iranian and Russian assets. We examine how this merger of the Northern and Southern conflicts affects Armenia, Kazakhstan’s energy security, and Pashinyan’s diplomatic positioning amid new pressure from Western capitals following Aliyev’s recent visits to Germany and Berlin.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Dr. Archil Sikharulidze about Russia’s shifting strategy in the South Caucasus and Armenia and Georgia’s diverging paths. We discuss Moscow’s assessment of Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Process developments, Georgia’s widening dispute with Europe, Armenia’s shift away from Russia, and how regional transit corridors reshape geopolitical competition between Moscow, Brussels, and Washington.

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Anthony Barsamian about Armenian Diaspora advocacy, Armenia-Diaspora relations, and the next phase of Armenian-American activism. We discuss decades of work securing U.S.-Armenia relations and aid packages, the achievement of U.S. Armenian Genocide recognition and what comes next, and the role of the Armenian Republic in promoting international genocide recognition—including recent developments with Israeli recognition efforts.

After 344 days in pretrial detention on terrorism charges for leading a peaceful protest walk in 2024, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan was released to house arrest. The release came weeks after UN criticism of Armenia’s human rights violations.

Hovik and Asbed debate the Armenian opposition’s summer inaction strategy, asking whether waiting for a political trigger is wise or whether missed labor protest momentum squanders real opportunities.

Asbed argues Pashinyan has no interest in securing the release of Armenian POWs and political prisoners from Baku because these leaders are too popular domestically and pose a threat to Civil Contract’s political dominance.

In this week’s Groong Week in Review, Hovik and Asbed break down escalating tensions across the Middle East as the US-Iran war intensifies following the collapse of the June ceasefire. We examine the strategic implications for Armenia and the South Caucasus, the role of TRIPP advocates like Konstantin Sokolov, and how regional instability intersects with Pashinyan’s political vulnerabilities at home, including charges against Archbishop Galstanyan and ongoing Armenian POW cases.

Hovik details Iran’s formal request for TRIPP safeguards and Pashinyan’s dismissal, illustrating Armenia’s strategic pivot away from its longtime partner toward NATO.

Asbed and Hovik expose the absence of transparent maps in Armenia’s border delimitation process, questioning what territorial figure the government is actually negotiating.

Hovik recounts a prank call where OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioğlu promised to help Pashinyan remove Catholicos Garegin II and agreed that OSCE’s election monitoring was unfair to Armenia.

Asbed breaks down Pashinyan’s dangerous ‘scissors’ metaphor on border delimitation, which treats Azerbaijani military occupation as a negotiating position rather than an illegal invasion.