In this episode of Insights, host Eric Hacopian delves into Armenia’s recent acquisition of advanced self-propelled Caesar 155mm howitzers from France. He explains why obtaining these elite artillery systems, renowned as some of the best in the world, significantly strengthens Armenia’s defense capabilities. Eric also analyzes the geopolitical implications of this milestone deal and what it means for regional military balances going forward.
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Armenia’s Amulsar gold mine may begin operations next year
By Mark Dovich Operations at Amulsar, Armenia’s long-stalled gold mining project, can begin as soon as next spring, a senior Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) official suggested Thursday, in a rare public indication of a timeline for a project embroiled for years in environmental and political controversy. A number of outstanding issues must still be resolved before production can begin, Senior Managing Director Denis Ilin told the ArmInfo news site, most importantly an EDB-led environmental impact assessment. Ilin told ArmInfo last May that the EDB’s decision to extend a multimillion loan to allow the Amulsar project to go ahead will hinge […]
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Armenian government stares down historic $1.2B lawsuit over Zangezur mine
By Mark Dovich Walnort Finance, a Cyprus-registered shell company that owns a 12.5% stake in the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, Armenia’s biggest mine, filed a $1.2 billion arbitration claim against the Armenian government last Friday — the biggest lawsuit the government has ever faced. In a filing with the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, D.C., Walnort alleges that the Armenian government undertook a “politically motivated campaign” to deprive it of its “legitimate shareholder rights” and claims that it only brought the issue to arbitration after the government rebuffed repeated attempts to negotiate. The compensatory damages […]
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Baku’s targeting of cultural heritage in Karabakh hinders peace prospects
By Sonya Dymova In a report released this week, Caucasus Heritage Watch said the number of Armenian heritage sites destroyed in Nagorno-Karabakh skyrocketed since October 2023, a month after the forcible displacement of nearly all of the region’s Armenians. “We are deeply concerned that the total number of destroyed heritage sites rose by 75% between our Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 missions, along with a 29% increase in sites classified as threatened,” the report stated. Caucasus Heritage Watch, a project headed by scholars at Purdue and Cornell Universities, uses satellite imagery to monitor the area, as Azerbaijan forbids access to […]
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Energy-efficient stoves
Sponsored Content: This video is an advertisement. The Small-Scale Energy-Efficiency Solutions for Rural People in the Republic of Armenia initiative is implemented by the Armenian representative office of the German Sparkassenstiftung for International Cooperation (DSIK). The initiative is implemented within the framework of the EU4Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in Armenian Communities Project, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH as a part of the ECOserve program. The target of the initiative is the rural population of Armenia’s Tavush, Lori, […]
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Iran’s Election Could Bring Lasting Middle-East Peace
By Bruce Ackerman This article is republished by CivilNet in collaboration with Project Syndicate. French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to dissolve parliament and call a snap election this Sunday will divert the world’s attention from another possible political earthquake. On Friday, Iranian voters will fill the vacancy left by President Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash last month. Even without the French vote, it would be tempting to trivialize the Iranian election’s significance. After all, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is a bitter opponent of the West, and Raisi, his loyal follower, won decisively in 2021. So, […]
