Nikol Pashinyan

In this episode of Conversations on Groong, we speak with Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA, about the 2026 US midterm elections and Armenian-American advocacy on Capitol Hill. We discuss the Armenian National Committee’s congressional report cards, the twelve lawmakers receiving F grades for their positions on Armenian interests, and how Azerbaijani influence shapes votes in Congress. Hamparian breaks down key races and the stakes for Armenian diaspora engagement in American politics.

In this Groong Week in Review episode, Hovik and Asbed break down Armenia’s October 25, 2026 municipal elections and the stark reality of one-party rule under Pashinyan. We discuss administrative pressure, opposition arrests in Stepanavan, jailed candidates, and coerced party defections—exposing how Civil Contract dominates through control of police and judiciary rather than genuine democratic competition. We also examine Pashinyan’s threats of snap elections, constitutional changes responsive to Azerbaijani demands, and whether electoral politics can still deliver political change in Armenia.

A government housing program offers Artsakh refugees $5,000 to $14,000, far short of real housing costs, and ties aid to giving up old passports.

COP17 in Yerevan champions indigenous people and biodiversity, but bars talk of displaced Artsakh Armenians and burned forests in Syunik.

The hosts explain why Tigranashen, Armenia’s road artery to Iran, is not an equal trade for the Artsvashen enclave.

The hosts react to UN Secretary-General Guterres dodging questions about Armenian prisoners held in Baku during COP17 in Yerevan.

Gyumri’s long neglect since the 1988 earthquake forged a defiant identity that now resists Civil Contract and anchors opposition investment.

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 argues active memory keeps Armenians Armenian, and that erasing it serves Turkish and Azerbaijani demands.

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

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.

An armed Azerbaijani soldier traveled 20 km into Armenia and shot a mother in her own home as she tried to defend her children in Shaki.

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.

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.

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?

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.