- Armenia’s largest mine said it cut ties with Russian oligarch Roman Trotsenko just days before the United States imposed sanctions on his holding company. However, the Zangezur Combine’s biggest shareholder is now listed as a Russian citizen with known business links to Trotsenko.
- Armenia’s gross domestic product grew by 9.2% in the first three quarters of the year, well above the government’s 7% economic growth target.
- The Armenian government ordered Gagik Tsarukyan, one of the country’s richest oligarchs, to explain how he acquired hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of assets as part of an ongoing corruption probe.
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From 1915 to Gaza: The Shape of Denial
Dr. Taner Akçam, a renowned Turkish historian and the inaugural director of the Armenian Genocide Research Program of the Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA, joins CivilNet to discuss the state of genocide studies. He asserts that the truth of the Armenian Genocide has become so widely accepted in recent years, that even official Turkish policy has softened its denialism. Akçam is one of the founders of the Genocide and Holocaust Studies Crisis Network, formed this month to address what he says is a deep crisis in the field, as freedom of speech has been severely limited and professors and students […]
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Support or Control? Controversy Grows Over New Armenian Media Foundation
By Lia Avagyan The Armenian government has approved the creation of a new foundation called the “Public Interest Media Environment”, sparking debate over whether the move is aimed at strengthening public media or tightening political control ahead of national elections. The decision was formally announced on April 17. The foundation will distribute grants to broadcasters operating on Armenia’s public multiplex for the production of content considered to be in the public interest, including programming that is cultural, educational, scientific, children’s or sports-focused. The public multiplex refers to a government-regulated digital broadcasting platform that hosts multiple free-to-air TV channels on a […]
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Trump avoids ‘Genocide’ in April 24 statement
By Paul Vartan Sookiasian In his April 24th statement, U.S. President Donald Trump once again declined to use the term “genocide” to describe the 1915 killing of more than one million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. This language mirrors his statements during his first term, but marks a departure from his successor Joe Biden, who consistently used the term “genocide” starting with his first statement in 2021. Biden’s choice of language aligned with bipartisan resolutions passed by the U.S. House in 2019 and the Senate in 2020. Instead, Trump referred to the events as the “Meds Yeghern,” an Armenian phrase […]
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Rethinking Armenia and the diaspora
This week marks the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In this week’s episode of Insights, host Eric Hacopian looks at the legacy of 1915: a powerful yet divided diaspora and a struggling nation-state locked in a dysfunctional relationship. In his discussion of Armenia-Diaspora relations, he explores how ties became so broken, why they matter now more than ever, and what it will take to repair them.
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Erdoğan’s power grab and the myth of Turkish democracy
In this interview, political scientist Cengiz Aktar unpacks how Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s arrest of Istanbul’s mayor as part of a long-term strategy to retain power challenges the myth of Turkish democracy. In his discussion of Turkey’s shifting role in the region, Aktar argues that Ankara is increasingly reliant on Azerbaijan due to economic necessity. In addition, he expresses skepticism about the durability of an Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization deal given Baku’s maximalist demands and authoritarian governance.
