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Groong: Week in Review

ANN/Groong

June 27, 2021

Guests

● Hrant Mikaelian

● Emil Sanamyan

Hosts

● Hovik Manucharyan

● Asbed Bedrossian

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the Armenian News Network, Groong, Week in Review. This Week we’re going to talk about the following major topics:

● Armenian Elections Recap

● Protests in Artsakh

To talk about these issues, we have with us:

Hrant Mikaelian, who is a political scientist and multidisciplinary researcher in social sciences at the Caucasus Institute, based in Yerevan.

And

Emil Sanamyan, a senior research fellow at USC’s Institute of Armenian Studies specializing in politics in the Caucasus.

This episode was recorded on June 27, 2021.

Topics This Week

Armenian Election Results, Recap

Today the Armenian CEC ruled that Civil Contract will receive 71 seats in the new parliament, Armenia Alliance 29, Pativ Unem 7.

https://www.24news.am/news/181167

● International observers clap. Opposition alleges irregularities. Who is right?

● Why such a huge discrepancy in between polls and results?

● Was this a complete disaster for Kocharyan?

● How about Pativ Unem?

○ They had a very lightweight team?

○ Serzh Sargsyan in an interview to BBC said: “Yes, I think Pashinyan won the elections”, while the Constitutional Challenge is still ongoing.

● Who were the willing and unwilling vote stealers?

○ How many votes were vaporized?

● Who are the losers?

○ Bright Armenia

○ Prosperous Armenia

○ Armenian National Congress

● The “Vardan Ghukasyan Factor”

● What will work in the new parliament look like?

Protests in Artsakh

Some apparently spontaneous protests have been going on in Artsakh against president Arayik Harutyunyan, demanding his resignation, as well as other officials in his government. What are the drivers behind these protests?

Wrap-up

That concludes our program for This Week in Review episode. We hope it has helped your understanding of some of the issues from the previous week. We look forward to your feedback, and your suggestions for issues to cover in greater depth. Contact us on our website, at groong.org, or on our Facebook Page “ANN - Groong”, or in our Facebook Group “Groong - Armenian News Network”.

Special thanks to Laura Osborn for providing the music for our podcast. On behalf of everyone in this episode, we wish you a good week. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channels, Like our pages and follow us on social media. Thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you next week.

Keywords

Hrant Mikaelian, Emil Sanamyan, Armenia, #ArmVote21, Armenia Elections, Parliamentary Elections, Nikol Pashinyan, Robert Kocharyan, Armenia Alliance, Civil Contract, Russia, Putin, Aliyev, Azerbaijan,