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Opinion: Armenia Close To The Brink
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Opinion: Armenia Close To The Brink

27 June 2025
Bagrat Galstanyan, the hardline cleric who led street protests against the start of border demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan and called for the resignation or impeachment of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, has been placed in pre-trial detention for two months. More than a dozen others have also been detained, with that number expected to rise. They are accused of plotting a coup ahead of next year's parliamentary elections, following the publication by pro-Pashinyan media of an alleged seven-page document detailing the plan.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Armenia’s Rift Between Church and State Deepens
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Armenia’s Rift Between Church and State Deepens

24 June 2025
Armenia finds itself in deepening discord between its political and religious elites. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s unprecedented public attacks on Catholicos Karekin II, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, mark further escalation in a personal feud waged since the 2018 Velvet Revolution. It has worsened each year since and not least since Karekin II approved the participation of his own clergy to join protests against Pashinyan in 2022 and for one to lead them in 2024.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Pashinyan Targets Remnants of Old Regime as Election Showdown Looms
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Pashinyan Targets Remnants of Old Regime as Election Showdown Looms

10 June 2025
For over a week now, the Armenian public has been subjected to another unedifying spectacle between the country’s political and spiritual leadership. Tirades posted on social media by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan targeting Armenian Catholicos Karekin II, who he accuses of fathering at least one child despite an oath of celibacy, have been incendiary. The allegation is not new. Armenian media even named an alleged daughter back in 2013. However, Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobyan, further ratcheted up tensions by referring to some members of the clergy as paedophiles while not presenting any evidence.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: Armenia Braces for a Turbulent Pre-Election Period
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Opinion: Armenia Braces for a Turbulent Pre-Election Period

6 May 2025
With parliamentary elections in Armenia just over a year away, opposition figures and some analysts are increasingly questioning Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s prospects for re-election. Critics argue that he has failed to fulfil his widely promoted peace agenda and hold him accountable for the exodus of approximately 100,000 ethnic Armenians from the former Soviet-era Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) in late September 2023. They also point to unrealistic campaign promises made during the last parliamentary elections held in 2021, including the pledge to reclaim the strategic hilltop citadel of Shusha and pursue remedial secession for the separatist but now dissolved Karabakh — goals widely seen as unattainable from the outset.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: Genocide Law or Political Weapon? Armenia History Debate Again Turns Toxic
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Opinion: Genocide Law or Political Weapon? Armenia History Debate Again Turns Toxic

2 May 2025
A brawl broke out in Armenia’s National Assembly on 22 April after opposition lawmakers proposed new legislation to impose harsher penalties on those who deny or question the 1915 mass killing and deportation of up to 1.5 million Armenians by the then Ottoman Empire — and whether it should be recognised as genocide. The term, coined in the 1940s by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, was partly inspired by the Armenian experience. Armenia already has laws addressing genocide denial, but this new initiative specifically targets anyone and not just those seeking to incite “hatred, discrimination, or violence.” Punishment of up to five years imprisonment would also be increased though the proposed changes are unlikely to pass a parliamentary vote.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: Compromise necessary to overcome Armenia-Azerbaijan Constitutional Impasse?
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Opinion: Compromise necessary to overcome Armenia-Azerbaijan Constitutional Impasse?

22 April 2025
Since February 2020, it is not uncommon for the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to appear on the same stage at international events – or at least at the Munich Security Conference. The same has not been true for their foreign ministers. That changed on April 12 at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, a notable moment just weeks after the finalisation of a long-overdue treaty aimed at normalising relations between the two countries. While the road ahead remains uncertain, the meeting carried clear symbolic significance.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Gyumri Election Highlights Growing Challenge to Pashinyan’s Rule
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Gyumri Election Highlights Growing Challenge to Pashinyan’s Rule

8 April 2025
With just over a year left before parliamentary elections in Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan finds himself grappling with a rapidly changing political landscape. At the end of last month, voters in the country’s second largest city of Gyumri went to the polls to elect a new municipal council that would then select a mayor. While local elections might not seem as important as national votes, the results were anything but insignificant. With Pashinyan’s approval ratings around 11 percent according to a survey conducted in January, the results and how the vote was conducted could prove a useful barometer to assess his political future.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
How Music Can Create Unexpected Bridges Between Armenia and Azerbaijan
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How Music Can Create Unexpected Bridges Between Armenia and Azerbaijan

19 March 2025
In less than two months the Eurovision Song Contest will be held once more, this time in Switzerland. The competition, established by the European Broadcast Union in 1956, has many detractors but also many loyal fans. Intended to bring the countries of the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) together, the event is meant to be a celebration of cultural diversity and creativity. That hasn’t always been the case, however, especially when the acts are from the South Caucasus.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: Armenia and Azerbaijan Finalise Peace Treaty Though Challenges Remain
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Opinion: Armenia and Azerbaijan Finalise Peace Treaty Though Challenges Remain

14 March 2025
Speaking to media on the sidelines of the Global Baku Forum, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov unexpectedly announced that the text of the Agreement on Peace and Establishment of Interstate Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan had been finalised. Made up of 17 points, two of which had not until now been agreed, the news came like a bolt out of the blue. As was already known, those last points concerned withdrawing international court cases against each other and not deploying third country forces on their common border.
Onnik James Krikorian