Tavush

Last updated: May 29, 2026

Tavush is Armenia’s northeastern province, bordering Georgia and Azerbaijan. In early 2024 it became the center of a major political crisis when the Pashinyan government announced a border delimitation agreement transferring several villages in the Tavush region to Azerbaijan. The government argued the transfers were necessary for progress toward a peace agreement; critics argued they were unilateral concessions with no reciprocal benefit to Armenia.

The Tavush delimitation sparked the Srbazan Movement, a protest campaign led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which drew tens of thousands of demonstrators to Yerevan and provincial cities in the spring and summer of 2024. The movement was the largest sustained opposition mobilization since Pashinyan came to power in 2018, and it ended when the Archbishop stood down amid what supporters characterized as a crackdown. Several movement leaders, including Galstanyan himself, were subsequently arrested.

Groong covered the Tavush delimitation and the Srbazan Movement extensively, tracking the protest escalation, the government’s response, the legal challenges to the border transfers, and the arrests of movement figures. Episodes in this category address the territorial implications, the political dynamics, and what the crisis revealed about the state of Armenian democratic institutions.

Guest(s):

Topics:

  • Selective law enforcement before elections
  • Wiretaps, leaks, and campaign pressure
  • Hate speech laws against critics
  • Official threats without consequences
  • Military summons as political coercion

Episode 556 | Recorded: June 4, 2026

#Armenia #ArmenianElections #HumanRights #PoliticalPersecution #Artsakh #RafaelIshkhanyan #Groong

Guest(s):

Topics:

  • Selective law enforcement before elections
  • Wiretaps, leaks, and campaign pressure
  • Hate speech laws against critics
  • Official threats without consequences
  • Military summons as political coercion

Episode 555 | Recorded: June 4, 2026

#Armenia #ArmenianElections #HumanRights #PoliticalPersecution #Artsakh #RafaelIshkhanyan #Groong

Topics:

  • May 28 and Statehood
  • Parade as Campaign Theater
  • Rubio’s Armenia Agreements
  • Minerals Without Guarantees
  • TRIPP Risks in Syunik
  • Russia and Iran Pushback
  • Election Climate and Repression

Episode 553 | Recorded: June 1, 2026

#Armenia #May28 #MarcoRubio #TRIPP #Syunik #CriticalMinerals #ElectionFraud #RussiaArmenia

Topics:

  • Armenia’s election rules
  • Parties and alliances competing
  • MPG polling and thresholds
  • Opposition challenges and turnout
  • Geopolitical positions heatmap

Episode 548 | Recorded: May 22, 2026

#Armenia #ArmenianElections #ArmenianPolitics #Artsakh #SouthCaucasus #CivilContract #StrongArmenia #HayastanDashinq

Guest(s):

Topics:

  • EU role in Armenia’s elections
  • Fact-checkers and political bias
  • Dissent labeled as disinformation
  • Lawsuits, pressure, and intimidation
  • Censorship and social media control

Episode 543 | Recorded: May 7, 2026

#Armenia #ArmenianElections #EU #Disinformation #FactChecking #Censorship #CivilSociety #FreeSpeech

Guest:

Topics:

  • Iran at War
  • The Northern Front: Turkey & Azerbaijan
  • Changing Nakhichevan’s Constitution

Episode 524 | Recorded: March 19, 2026

#IranWar #VaruzhanGeghamyan #ZangezurCorridor #Syunik #ArmeniaGeopolitics

Guest:

Topics:

  • OSCE MG Dissolved
  • Libaridian on Submitting to Turkey and Azerbaijan
  • News Constitution to be Drafted by March 2026
  • Archbishops, Letters, Attacks on the Church
  • Border Commissions Meet in Baku
  • Comments from Jacob Pursley

Episode 493 | Recorded: December 2, 2025

Guest:

Topics:

  • Euronest session takeaways
  • Aliyev’s transit move and TRIPP
  • Gyumri mayor arrest fallout
  • Pashinyan’s push to control the Church

Episode 481 | Recorded: October 29, 2025

Topics:

  • Pashinyan’s rise and Western backing
  • Breakdown of talks and secret meetings
  • Failures and propaganda during the war
  • Aftermath, revisionism, and political responsibility

Episode 476 | Recorded: September 28, 2025