Photographers in Armenia

Gohar’s second goodbye: forced to leave Armenia after losing Nagorno-Karabakh

Reporting style, Interpretive: Primarily factual but with strong emotional and personal narrative elements.

A displaced Armenian singer from Nagorno-Karabakh, Gohar Aleksanyan struggles to rebuild her life in Yerevan while supporting four generations of her family. Unable to survive financially after government rent subsidies were cut, she prepares to leave for Russia to work and join her sister’s music studio. She reflects on her loss of homeland, the emotional burden of displacement, and her attempts to reconnect with her artistic identity by teaching children through a cultural centre preserving Nagorno-Karabakh heritage. Surrounded by loved ones, she bids farewell while holding onto a faint hope of returning to Stepanakert, even as her father passes away in exile.

Karabakh refugees protest in Yerevan as Armenia cuts back aid

Reporting style, Interpretive: The article contains subjective statements and personal stories, reflecting the struggles and opinions of the refugees.

Political context, Centre-left: The article discusses social welfare and government responsibility towards refugees.

Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are protesting in Yerevan against the Armenian government's decision to cut back a crucial aid program. The aid, initially provided after Azerbaijan's offensive in 2023, is being redirected from working-age individuals to a housing assistance program. Many refugees, like the Aharonyan family, find the new program insufficient due to high real estate prices and the requirement to obtain Armenian citizenship. The policy change has sparked protests, with refugees fearing further displacement and migration. The government aims to encourage self-sufficiency and participation in the housing program, but the decision has been met with widespread discontent and concerns over survival.

Armenia's crossroads: moving closer to the European Union under Russia's close watch

Reporting style, Informative: Predominantly factual reportage based on political developments, expert analysis and interviews, with some interpretive framing.

Political context, Centre: A broadly balanced international-affairs report presenting competing Armenian, Russian, European and regional perspectives without an overt ideological stance.

Armenia is pursuing closer ties with the European Union while trying not to alienate Russia, its historical ally. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's government has sought to ease tensions with Turkey and Azerbaijan, including through a 2025 peace preagreement with Baku, because reopened borders and regional transport links are central to its ambitions to become a corridor between Asia and Europe. The EU and United States have offered diplomatic and financial support, including proposed infrastructure investments and the TRIPP corridor. The strategy faces opposition from pro-Russian forces, Russian warnings, unresolved Azerbaijani conditions and public anger among displaced Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians. Ahead of the June 2026 elections, polls favor Pashinyan's pro-European Civil Contract party, although public opinion remains divided over the peace process and the country's geopolitical direction.

Nagorno-Karabakh tests the Biden administration

Reporting style, Balanced: Mix of factual reporting with quoted subjective viewpoints and criticism from activists and lawmakers.

Political context, Centre-left: Focuses on diplomatic considerations, humanitarian concerns, and criticism of insufficient U.S. action, typical of moderate foreign-policy commentary.

U.S. officials Yuri Kim and Samantha Power traveled to Armenia as Washington faces criticism for its response to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s blockade and recent military operation. Armenian diaspora groups and bipartisan lawmakers argue the administration acted too slowly and failed to deter what they warn could amount to ethnic cleansing. The State Department has ended a waiver enabling military aid to Azerbaijan, and U.S.-Armenian joint military exercises were conducted, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken engaged leaders in both Yerevan and Baku. Activists and legislators are pushing for sanctions on Azerbaijani officials and the cessation of U.S. military assistance. Thousands of ethnic Armenians have fled into Armenia as fears of further displacement grow, and proposed legislation seeks to label the crisis a campaign of ethnic cleansing and bolster aid to Armenia.

On Optimizing AWS Storage

Reporting style, Informative: Primarily factual and explanatory, with a brief personal account of a storage-performance workshop.

Karen Tovmasyan describes an AWS storage performance-tuning workshop, focusing on EFS and S3 after setting aside EBS, whose tuning largely involved adjusting IOPS. The post introduces S3, EBS, and EFS and says the workshop compares performance across different ways of writing data. Readers are encouraged to try the exercises, with a warning to watch the costs.

Armenia formalizes closer ties with the West

Reporting style, Balanced: Mostly factual reporting, with some interpretive framing about Armenia's geopolitical shift and its implications.

Political context, Centre: Geopolitical analysis describes competing positions and uncertainties without advocating a clear partisan or ideological stance.

Armenia has formalized closer relations with the United States through a strategic partnership agreement and passed a law authorizing efforts to pursue European Union membership. The moves reflect growing dissatisfaction with Russia, which many Armenians blame for failing to provide security support during the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia has suspended its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization but has not announced plans to leave the Eurasian Economic Union, despite Russian warnings that EU and EAEU membership are incompatible. EU accession would require extensive domestic reforms and a peace agreement with Azerbaijan, whose renewed demand for extraterritorial transit rights has hindered negotiations. The future of US-Armenian cooperation is also uncertain as Donald Trump prepares to return to office.

Azerbaijan Wants EU Monitoring Mission to Leave

Reporting style, Informative: Mostly factual reporting, with limited evaluative wording and attributed claims.

Political context, Centre: Reports the positions of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the state of negotiations without endorsing either side.

Azerbaijan says the EU monitoring mission must leave before it will sign a peace treaty with Armenia, while Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan argues that the mission remains important for security and suggests limiting its work to undemarcated border areas. Negotiators have reportedly agreed on 15 of 17 draft treaty articles, but constitutional language concerning Nagorno-Karabakh remains a major sticking point. Further criminal charges against detained former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan could also complicate negotiations.

Tagavard: A Village Divided by War

Due to the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the village of Tagavard has been split in two, with Armenians living in one part called Kaller Tagavard, while Azerbaijani forces occupied the other. About 400 Armenian residents, including Susanna Shahramanyan, were forced to flee their homes and become refugees. Life has drastically changed for those who remained, with Armenian and Azerbaijani checkpoints only tens of meters apart. Samvel Atayan returned to his native village with his family, feeling significantly less safe than before the war. A 30-meter boundary marked by a Russian flag now divides Tagavard, and the local cemetery has become inaccessible to the Armenian villagers.