News and Publications
On October 9, Mikael Minasyan, Armenia’s former ambassador to the Vatican, who has not been in Armenia for nearly six years and is wanted, was summoned to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia. The Prosecutor’s Office intends to recover from him and persons associated with him property of alleged unlawful origin.
Read moreThe Prosecutor’s Office of Tavush Province has applied to the Anti-Corruption Court, demanding that the auction of the building of former Kindergarten No. 9 in Dilijan be declared invalid and that the property be returned to the community. This is reported by “Hetq.”
Read moreThe Prosecutor General’s Office has filed a lawsuit demanding the confiscation of the “Ayrarat” (“Rossiya”) cinema building located at 16 Tigran Mets Avenue, Yerevan. The real estate belongs to the family of businessman and former Member of Parliament Khachatur Sukiasyan.
Read moreArtur Hambardzumyan addressed the relationship between the salaries of Armenia’s high-ranking officials, their declared income, and the capital they have accumulated in his video blog. Referring to the book Capital in the Twenty-First Century by French economist Thomas Piketty, he noted that in European countries, a person’s income is formed through wages and income from capital. According to Hambardzumyan, in Armenia, officials’ official salaries often do not reflect their real financial capabilities.
Read moreSuren Papikyan’s 2025 declaration, as Minister of Defense, has come under the scrutiny of the Zhoghovurd daily newspaper. As the newspaper writes, over the past year the minister acquired two new real estate properties in Yerevan’s Kentron administrative district. According to the declaration, on August 25, Papikyan acquired an apartment for 69 million 408 thousand 979 drams, and on November 27, a parking space for 11 million 881 thousand 200 drams. The declared value of the two properties together amounts to 81 million 290 thousand 179 drams.
Read moreDanish company Carlsberg is preparing to acquire PepsiCo’s production business in Armenia and Georgia. Radio Liberty reports this, citing a statement by Carlsberg.
Read moreResidents of forest-adjacent villages in the Tavush region told “Hraparak” that illegal logging is being carried out in the forests under the guise of legal logging sites. In order to clarify the issue, the newspaper sent an inquiry to Artyom Hayrapetyan, director of “Hayantar” SNCO, to find out how many logging sites are planned in Tavush in 2026 and what volume of timber harvesting is permitted.
Read moreHetq’s investigation reconstructs the path by which Tsaghkadzor’s main sports complex passed from the state into the hands of Ishkhan Zakaryan’s family.
Read moreIn the picture on the left is Karen Hambardzumyan, a former Prosperous Armenia Party member, now a Civil Contract member, formerly Governor of Syunik Province and currently a Civil Contract MP. In the picture on the right is his brother, Tigran Hambardzumyan. In 2025, the latter purchased a 1998 Opel vehicle for 300,000 drams and leased it to the “Sisian Territorial Pedagogical-Psychological Support Center” SNCO for 1,990,000 drams per year.
Read moreWhile ordinary citizens are under a heavy tax burden, and many businesses struggle to survive under conditions of market competition, the government has opened the “doors” of the state budget for the “chosen.” An investigation by Infocom.am reveals one of the darkest corners of Armenia’s political-business system: businesses exempted from customs duties express their “gratitude” to the ruling “Civil Contract” (CP) party and the “My Step” Foundation headed by the Prime Minister’s wife, Anna Hakobyan, in the form of multi-million-dram donations.
Read moreThe Constitution of the Republic of Armenia places the principle of separation and balancing of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches at the foundation of the exercise of state power. Article 5 of the Constitution formulates the structure of government in precisely these terms, while Article 162 establishes that justice is administered only by courts, and any interference in the administration of justice is prohibited.
Read moreNalbandyan has tried to present the expansion of his business as the result exclusively of economic calculations—bank financing, investments, acquisition of troubled assets, auctions, and market risk. He has denied the existence of any personal, family, or business ties with Nikol Pashinyan and his family. However, when the conversation reaches the most sensitive questions—the purchase price of HrazdanCement, the course of the auctions, former employees’ unpaid wages, and possible ties with the authorities—the same pattern can be observed in the answers: a specific question is followed by a general formulation, while the essence of the issue is shifted into the realm of documents, procedures, or general economic logic.
Read moreAt first, we were told that the United States was going to invest $4 billion in the ‘AI factory.’ Then it became clear that it wasn’t $4 billion, but $300 million, and that it is not the United States that is going to invest in Armenia, but Armenia that is going to buy the necessary chips from the United States. Then it became known that Armenia was going to do this not only with money from local banks, but also with money from our pension fund. Moreover, since the pension fund is prohibited by law from throwing people’s pension money to the wind in such adventures, our legitimates changed that law. Although, of course, it’s not as if the banks invested the bankers’ money either. No, it is the money of the banks’ depositors.
Read more"Pastinfo" studied the declaration of assets, income, expenses, and interests submitted to the Corruption Prevention Commission, reflecting the assets, income, expenses, and interests of Arsen Torosyan as of the day he terminated his official duties in 2021, and compared it with his 2025 declaration.
Read moreAccording to "Hetq's" publication, the municipality headed by Vedi Mayor Garik Sargsyan signed contracts worth a total of AMD 389 million with "Noyavan" LLC in 2022 and 2023. The company's 100 percent shareholder is Garik Sargsyan's uncle, Grigor Manukyan.
Read moreA significant portion of the market is concentrated in the hands of a limited number of major importers. Antitrust proceedings concerning the activities of major players have been recorded for years. In certain cases, professional and family connections have emerged between pharmaceutical businesses and the state system, requiring strict oversight of conflicts of interest.
Read moreIn August 2022, Hetq published an investigative article detailing the personal and family connections of David Danielyan, a deputy from the Civil Contract faction, within the Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations, a state non-commercial organization operating under the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports.
Read moreThe Government of Armenia has approved a draft law under which the prime minister’s salary will increase by nearly 80%
Read moreOne of the notable parts of Edgar Ghazaryan’s speech in the National Assembly on September 16 concerned the system of local self-government and territorial administration formed under the Civil Contract government. In his description, the standards operating within this system are increasingly moving away from the logic of modern public administration and instead resemble medieval feudal relations.
Read moreThe Artashat Municipality has signed a contract worth AMD 218,236,614 with “Garant Capital Stroy” LLC, whose director is Narek Baghdasaryan, a member of the “Civil Contract” faction of the Artashat Municipal Council. “Pastinfo” learned about this from documents published in official open sources. The mentioned amount is equivalent to USD 604,359.
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