CIVILNET

📍 Ruling Civil Contract party candidate wins Vagharshapat municipal election. 📍 A U.S. State Department official is in Yerevan to discuss Armenia-US mutual interests including the “Trump Road.” 📍 Armenia’s Regulatory Commission revoked the operating license for Electric Networks of Armenia, owned by billionaire Samvel Karapetyan. #CivilNet #ՍիվիլՆեթ #dailyarmenia

📍 Construction of a major new transit route across southern Armenia is set to begin in the second half of next year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced.📍 Armenia could revoke the operating license of the country’s main power company, marking the latest escalation in the government’s efforts to seize the utility.#CivilNet #ՍիվիլՆեթ #civilnetbusiness

In recent months, developments in Armenia’s domestic political life have increasingly reflected a serious democratic backslide. The country’s law enforcement and judicial systems have been instrumentalized to serve the ruling party’s internal political interests. Selective justice, the use of disproportionate legal measures, and illegal wiretapping to persecute political opponents have become comm...

📍 Death cases in Armenian penitentiaries have sharply risen this year, reaching 20 so far, including eight suicides, compared to just 12 cases in 2024.📍 Armenia should impose a permanent ban on the export of used catalytic converters and tighten vehicle emissions standards to combat growing air pollution, according to a report by the International Energy Agency and the European Union.📍 Saudi Ar...

📍 In a rare comment regarding Armenia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Ankara is proceeding with the normalization of relations with Yerevan.📍 Armenia is going to terminate the electricity distribution license of the Electric Networks of Armenia, a company owned by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan. This is the latest development in the saga over the power grid seiz...

In this week’s Insights, Eric Hacopian analyses Prime Minister Pashinyan’s remarks at the Paris Peace Forum on Armenia–Turkey relations and possible EU membership. He also discusses the arrest and release of prominent defense attorney Aleksandr Kochubayev, and reflects on the sainthood of Archbishop Maloyan at the Vatican — questioning what these events reveal about Armenia’s politics.#CivilNet #Ս...

📍 For the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union, a freight train from Russia has arrived in Armenia, traveling through Azerbaijani and Georgian territory. 📍 Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s recent revisionist statement about the naming of Lake Sevan.#CivilNet #ՍիվիլՆեթ #dailyarmenia

📍 Ruben Vardanyan, a jailed Armenian billionaire and former head of the Nagorno-Karabakh cabinet, has refused the services of a lawyer appointed by Azerbaijani authorities during his trial in Baku.📍 The European Union has presented Armenia with a visa liberalization action plan, a roadmap of reforms the country must implement to secure visa-free travel for its citizens to EU member states.📍 A s...

📍 Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan has dismissed media speculations that the country had agreed to buy a dozen Russian-made fighter jets from India.📍 An Armenian villager was arrested and charged with the murder of his three-year-old son who was reported missing more than a week ago. Hundreds of volunteers and police officers were involved in the search for the lost child.📍 Azerbaijani...

📍 Armenia has officially launched the Police Guard, a new division within the national police declared to be aimed at strengthening domestic security and improving the country’s law enforcement system.📍 Armenian law enforcement yesterday arrested the brother and nephew of Catholicos Karekin II on suspicion of obstructing election campaign activities.📍 U.S. diplomats plan to set up working group...

📍 About $6.5 million is unaccounted for at Armenia’s state-run power distribution company, according to a new CivilNet investigation into the finances at High-Voltage Electric Networks (HVEN). Read more: https://www.civilnet.am/en/news/982722/millions-missing-from-armenias-state-power-grid-company-no-one-charged/#CivilNet #ՍիվիլՆեթ #civilnetbusiness

This week on #InsightswithEricHacopian, Baku’s regime-linked “civil society” figures arrive in Yerevan, the Nubarashen landfill fire exposes deep governance gaps, and the PM’s visit to Hovanavank raises new questions about priorities and distractions in Armenian politics.#CivilNet #ՍիվիլՆեթ

📍 The opening of Armenia’s border with Turkey is only a matter of time, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.📍 Torgom Asatryan, an Armenian mixed martial arts fighter, was sentenced by a Yerevan court to five years and six months in prison over his role in the mob beating of Ararat Mirzoyan, who was parliamentary speaker at the time and now serves as Armenia’s foreign minister.📍 OPINION: Armenia...

CivilNet joins a group of students taking part in the Trees Under the Microscope project in Jrvezh Forest Park, where founder of EcoSchool, Nelli Yeghoyan, is leading a different environmental education initiative. We speak with her and the participating students and teachers from the Abovyan N. Vanyan Primary School No. 5 to see how this program combines hiking and hands-on laboratory work. The p...

📍 Armenia will step up its efforts toward membership in the European Union in 2026, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said.📍 Armenia is preparing to launch a reverse mortgage system to boost economic activity among seniors.📍 A CivilNet investigation has revealed potential embezzlement and mismanagement at Armenia’s state-owned High-Voltage Electric Networks, a company responsible for transportin...

📍 Transport links passing through Armenian and Azerbaijani territory must open simultaneously for regional connectivity plans to function, Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan said.📍 Neither Azerbaijani nor Georgian lawmakers are attending the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly forum in Yerevan. Both countries said the venue is not the problem.📍 Armenia plans to encourage wider use of no...

On May 30, at the very beginning of the current phase of confrontation between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the country’s ruling party, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made his infamous Facebook post : “Reverend, go on and keep banging your uncle’s wife – what do you want from me?” What initially seemed like a worrying verbal attack by the prime minister – marked by elements of sexism and viol...

📍 The Hovhannavank monastery in Armenia’s Aragatsotn region served a liturgy, attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The Armenian Apostolic Church declared the service illegitimate because it was led by a priest the Church recently deposed for siding with the government in its conflict against the ecclesiastical leadership.📍 Azerbaijan will allow the transit of goods between Russia and Arme...

📍 GTB Holdings, an Armenian construction and metal company, pledged to invest nearly $52 million after winning a bid to complete the unfinished Cascade complex in Yerevan.📍 Senior Armenian and Russian officials signaled progress in potentially loosening the requirements that Armenian citizens face when entering Russia, as Armenian truck drivers say the current setup is threatening their liveliho...

📍 Georgia has begun cracking down on a key passenger link with Armenia, small private vans that transport groups of travelers between Yerevan and Tbilisi. 📍 Parliament approved in the first reading a bill that would end public funding for Shoghakat, the Armenian Apostolic Church’s television channel.#CivilNet #ՍիվիլՆեթ #dailyarmenia

Partner contentCivilNet deep dives into the From Data to Change project, led by Hyphen4 and in partnership with AGBU Armenia, TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, the National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia, and GEOVIBES. The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation through the Embassy of Switzerland in Armenia. We speak with Hyphen 4 founder...

📍 Armenia will shorten mandatory military service from 24 to 18 months starting January 2026.📍 Azerbaijan has lifted the ban on transit of goods from third countries to Armenia through its territory.📍 Armenian truck drivers blocked three of four checkpoints on the country’s border with Georgia, protesting Russia’s deportations and calling on Armenian authorities to address the issue.#CivilNet #...

# DemocracyWatch   – On October 15, the Investigative Committee of Armenia detained ten clergymen from the Aragatsotn Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and conducted a search at the diocesan headquarters. The following day, authorities revealed that three individuals had been formally  arrested , including the head of the diocese, Bishop Mkrtych Proshyan. The charges against the clergy invo...

CivilNet spoke with longtime friend Timothy Straight, the Honorary Consul of Norway and Finland and a knighted figure who has called Armenia home for 25 years. Tim shares stories from Shamshadin, drawn from his time hosting CivilNet’s beloved series Straight to the Village, where each episode took him on a journey to discover the lesser-known reaches of Armenia, uncovering the socioeconomic situat...

📍 Vardan Ghukasyan, the mayor of Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city, was arrested on bribery charges alongside seven other individuals. A pro-Russian politician, he served as mayor between 1999 and 2012 and was re-elected in April.📍 Armenia might achieve visa-free travel to the European Union within two years, the country’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan announced.📍 A young woman from Chec...