Armenian News Network - Groong

Is every square inch of Armenia equal? The hosts say no: Tigranashen is the artery to Iran, the enclaves guard the road to Georgia. A swap can preserve total area and still gut Armenia's strategy. #Armenia #Syunik #Geopolitics 🎦…

Administrative pressure. Opposition arrests in Stepanavan. Coerced defections. Pashinyan's Civil Contract dominates through control of police and courts, not genuine competition. Can elections still deliver change in Armenia? #ArmenianElections https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY6-7sHrj1M

COP17 in Yerevan celebrates indigenous people and their lands, yet bars displaced Artsakh Armenians from a pavilion and won't discuss the burned forests of Syunik. The hypocrisy is the story. #Artsakh #Syunik #COP17 🎦…

Vache Gabrielyan analyzes Armenia's economic crossroads: construction boom masking weak productivity, consumer credit expansion, and mounting fiscal risks heading into 2027. The hosts dig into budget execution failures and competing defense priorities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4BY-Iqun6A

Asked about Armenian prisoners in Baku, the UN chief offered peace and prayers. The hosts call it patronizing and empty, proof of how little the international order delivers. #PrisonersOfWar #Artsakh #HumanRights 🎦…

Armenia offers Artsakh refugees $5,000 to $14,000 for housing. The hosts say it won't buy a bathroom in Syunik, and taking it can mean surrendering the passport and the right of return. #Artsakh #RightOfReturn #HumanRights ▶️…

"It's PR. 15 to 20 thousand bureaucrats wining and dining for two weeks." Martirosyan on what COP17 in Yerevan really delivers for Armenia's national interest. #Armenia #COP17 #UnitedNations 🎦 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/594-5-cop17-pr-national-interest/ https://youtu.be/ZGlD66i12o4

What's the cost of Pashinyan's territorial swap proposal? This week, Hovik and Asbed analyze the peace process contradictions, COP17 double standards, inadequate refugee aid, and Gyumri's emergence as an opposition stronghold. #Armenia #Pashinyan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r012fgDgfUU

"The US doesn't have a single operational SMR." Martirosyan on why Armenia can't bluff a Western reactor it doesn't have while negotiating with Russia. #Armenia #Russia #NuclearPower 🎥 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/594-3-us-no-operational-smr-armenia/ https://youtu.be/ZGlD66i12o4

Armenia hosts a biodiversity summit but won't raise Azerbaijani forest destruction near the Shikahogh reserve, saying it would violate the COP17 presidency. "Concessions without peace." #ArmenianNews #Azerbaijan #COP17 ▶️…

A Save Amulsar graffiti still sits on a Yerevan wall, a relic of an environmental cause used to help change the government, then quietly dropped once the mine started paying out. #ArmenianNews #Corruption #Amulsar 🔗…

"You can push the other side into concessions just by threatening war." Martirosyan on how Aliyev wins without firing a shot, and why Armenia's messaging makes it easy. #Azerbaijan #Armenia #PeaceProcess 🎥…

Armenia banned physical gambling but kept the online loophole, and the leading online operator is a close benefactor of the official behind the law. The hosts put the industry near $15 billion. #ArmenianNews #Corruption #Economy 🎥…

"Armenia is nothing to the United States. In Russia, Armenia is a bigger fish." The case for why nuclear dependency on Moscow may give Yerevan more leverage than the West. #ArmenianNews #Russia #Geopolitics 🔗…

An armed Azerbaijani soldier traveled 20 km into Armenia, entered a home in Shaki, and shot a mother defending her children. Officials called it an ordinary crime. #ArmenianNews #Azerbaijan #Shaki ▶️…

Arthur G. Martirosyan joins Hovik and Asbed to examine Armenia at a crossroads: government accountability after Shaki, the Russian Railways standoff, Western SMRs vs Russian reactors, and TRIPP's implications for Armenian security. #Armenia #Geopolitics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGlD66i12o4

Why did Pashinyan flip on nuclear energy policy, ditching US small modular reactors for Russian gigawatt plants? The hosts examine the security costs of energy dependency, Azerbaijani infiltration into Shaki, and more... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=https://youtu.be/DmLxjOJSg_E

Harut Sassounian: Pashinyan posted a toothbrush from the airline gift bag, then wrote his UN General Assembly speech mid-flight. "It really concerned me a lot." #Armenia #Pashinyan #UN ▶️ https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/592-3-pashinyan-un-speech-on-plane/ https://youtu.be/YwihfxE01fE

Sassounian on mending a bitter feud with a former president: "I'll say only two words about the past, then we talk about helping Armenia." His model for rebuilding Armenia-Diaspora trust. #ArmenianDiaspora #Armenia 🎥…

Pashinyan got 49.81% of the vote. Then three polling stations were annulled, Prosperous Armenia lost five mandates, and Civil Contract ended up with a three-fifths majority. The hosts explain. #Armenia #ArmenianElections #Politics ▶️…

France helped lift EU sanctions on a Russian billionaire. The same day, Azerbaijan freed a French prisoner. So why can't Macron get Armenian hostages like Ruben Vardanyan out of Baku? #Armenia #Azerbaijan #HumanRights 🎦…

Harut Sassounian: asked in parliament who he consulted, Pashinyan said nobody, I made my own decision. "It's a one-man show." #Armenia #Pashinyan #Politics 🔗 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/592-4-pashinyan-consulted-nobody-one-man-rule/ https://youtu.be/YwihfxE01fE

Harut Sassounian on the church-state crisis: the first Christian nation is now putting its Catholicos on trial, with prison possible. "Very shameful." #ArmenianChurch #Catholicos #Armenia 🎥 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/592-2-first-christian-nation-suing-catholicos/ https://youtu.be/YwihfxE01fE

The Prime Minister's office funded a 70-plus page report on the Armenian Church, opening with claims about the Catholicos's celibacy vow and a roadmap to remove him. The hosts walk through it. #ArmenianChurch #Armenia #Catholicos 🔗…

Six years since the 44-Day War. Thousands mourned at Yerablur, state TV aired a pop concert, and no Civil Contract official appeared. The hosts react with disgust. #Armenia #Artsakh #44DayWar 🎥…

What happens when a government attacks the church? Harut Sassounian breaks down the escalating conflict between Pashinyan and Garegin II, the Bern conference, and Armenia's identity crisis post-Artsakh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwihfxE01fE #ArmenianChurch #GareginII #ArmenianIdentity

Steve Witkoff's go-to advisors on Armenia and Azerbaijan? Turkey's foreign minister Hakan Fidan and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, both spymasters. The hosts react. #Armenia #Turkey #TRIPP 🎦…

Becoming an Armenian citizen is now about five times more expensive, and renouncing costs ten times more. Hovik calls it deliberate diaspora policy, not a budget measure. #ArmenianDiaspora #Armenia #Diaspora ▶️…

Goris mayor Arushanyan was jailed for protesting Pashinyan. A week after allying with Civil Contract, his case was dropped. The hosts trace a striking timeline. #Armenia #CivilContract #Syunik 🔗…

On the sixth anniversary of the 44-Day War, Hovik and Asbed examine Armenia's battle over historical memory. Pashinyan's campaign against the Church intensifies as Turkey advances regional integration and Azerbaijan erases Artsakh's Armenian cultural https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7xIgSTsdLo

Artsakh followed every Soviet and international legal procedure to become a republic before Azerbaijan completed its own independence. A concise history lesson from the hosts. #Artsakh #Azerbaijan #History 🎥…

"Russians have an alternative. We don't." Khachatryan flips the Gyumri base question on the West: if it leaves and Armenia is attacked, will NATO react? #Armenia #Russia #Geopolitics 🎦 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/589-4-who-needs-russian-base-gyumri/ https://youtu.be/pp9bcKTcbPI

"I'm an Armenian. I want to go to Iran. How do I do that?" A simple question about TRIPP no one will answer, while Azerbaijan is promised unimpeded access through Syunik. #Armenia #TRIPP #Syunik 🔗 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/589-5-can-armenians-use-tripp-corridor/ https://youtu.be/pp9bcKTcbPI

Pashinyan promised $2B in "stolen" wealth back to the people. Khachatryan names the hotels and villas quietly resold at deep discounts to insiders. Families got nothing. #Armenia #Corruption #Pashinyan 🔗…

🔗 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/590-1-jermuk-second-front-russia-plan/ https://youtu.be/H0_GV8ZQ7Jg

A number is emerging for the 2020 war dead, but the names stay secret, through 2023. Hovik asks what the silence hides and frames it as a matter of dignity and memory. #Armenia #44DayWar #HumanRights 🎦…

🎥 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/590-2-russian-base-gyumri-keeps-turkey-at-bay/ https://youtu.be/H0_GV8ZQ7Jg

Civil Contract said the last ARF MP should be the last one ever in parliament. Khachatryan hears an echo of 1915: "only one Armenian shall be kept in the museum." He says the intent is real. #Armenia #ARF #Pashinyan 🔗…

🎥 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/590-3-azerbaijan-stopped-jermuk-army-fought-back/ https://youtu.be/H0_GV8ZQ7Jg

🎥 https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/590-4-no-judicial-system-armenia-judges-appointed/ https://youtu.be/H0_GV8ZQ7Jg

"Armenia is racing towards dictatorship." Arthur Khachatryan reads back Pashinyan's parliament threats and warns of one-man rule concentrating power over courts, church and parties. #Armenia #Pashinyan #ArmenianNews 🎥…

Putin's parliamentary supermajority, Middle East war, and Armenia-Russia tensions collide. Dziunik Aghajanian breaks down the 102nd base confrontation, asset confiscation, and why the peace process faces new pressures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0_GV8ZQ7Jg #Armenia #SouthCaucasus #Geopolitics

Hovik on the Turkey-Azerbaijan alliance: uniquely strong, and something Armenia held off for 26 years until Pashinyan, in his telling. A confident strategic read. #Turkey #Azerbaijan #SouthCaucasus 🎥…

Warwick Powell reframes China's role: not an extractive hegemon but an enabling power running an open source development model, infrastructure to open source AI, with few strings attached. #China #Geopolitics #BRICS ▶️…

Warwick Powell on TRIPP and the Middle Corridor: the same route can be complementary or a chokepoint. The safeguard is keeping alternatives. That's why Beijing stays relaxed about Western-built infrastructure. #SouthCaucasus #TRIPP #China 🎥…

What's the opposition's next move after June 2026? MP Arthur Khachatryan breaks down territorial concessions, Azerbaijani threats to Armenian heritage, and the future of Russia's 102nd base. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp9bcKTcbPI #Armenia #ArmenianPolitics #TRIPP

The EU envoy framed whether Gandzasar is Armenian as "deeply diverging views and narratives." The hosts call it false equivalence between history and revisionism. #Artsakh #EU #Gandzasar ▶️ https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/585-3-eu-diverging-narratives-both-sides/ https://youtu.be/cVhiM9I1pLQ

Armenia marks 35 years independent as Turkish-Azerbaijani coordination deepens and Armenian prisoners remain in Baku. The hosts examine statehood, war casualties, and what independence means today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpoM-a445yg #Armenia #SouthCaucasus

Warwick Powell: the real bottleneck for AI isn't chips, it's energy. Information is an energetic artifact, measurable in energy per token. And data center growth is creating electricity haves and have-nots. #AI #Energy #Technology 🎥…

Pashinyan's reported explanation for rising army deaths: with no enemy shooting, soldiers get lax and fight over who sleeps on watch. The hosts are stunned. #Armenia #Pashinyan #HumanRights ▶️ https://podcasts.groong.org/clip/584-4-pashinyan-blames-peace-army-deaths/ https://youtu.be/2mSjTCZ2s6c