YEREVAN — On Dec. 31, 2025, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a member of parliament from the “Hayastan” parliamentary faction and a representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Supreme Body in Armenia, published a public statement in response to notifications issued by the Prosecutor General’s Office concerning an inquiry into the possible illegal origin of property linked to him and several family members.
The notifications, issued by the Department for Confiscation of Illegally Originated Property and published on the Azdarar public notices website on Dec. 30, were sent to Saghatelyan’s wife, father and several other relatives. The notices cite Articles 16 and 17 of the RA Law on the Confiscation of Illegally Originated Property and state that a review is underway, with recipients granted one month to review the materials and submit their position.
The following is a translation of a statement by Ishkhan Saghatelyan, originally published in Armenian on ARFD.am and on his official Facebook page.
I have received a notice from the Prosecutor General’s Office regarding the initiation of proceedings to confiscate — effectively, to expropriate — a number of properties belonging to me, my family members and relatives.
After reviewing the notice, one can only laugh at those who issued the order and feel pity for those carrying it out.
For now, I will only note that the Prosecutor General’s Office, on illogical and unlawful grounds, has classified as “illicit property” assets that are in fact the lawful property of me and my family members — property created through their years of work — solely for the purpose of presenting the public with a list and staging yet another show.
This is simply another manifestation of Pashinyan’s vindictiveness and small-mindedness.
I have no reason for concern. Check and investigate as much as you wish: behind everything I own are the years of hard, honest labor of me and my family members. You and your circle, however, have much to think about and much to explain.
Finally, unlike you, I have not extorted people through blackmail, I have not written commissioned articles, I have not won state tenders, nor have I held high office (only four months — from June to October 2018 — as governor of Gegharkunik Province) through which I could have enriched myself unlawfully.
P.S. For years, I have not spoken publicly about my family’s work, the jobs we have created or the taxes we have paid to the state.
However, the current situation is likely the best opportunity to address all of this and to present the public with detailed, documented facts — which I will certainly do in the near future.
I simply will not allow my family’s years of labor and achievements, or our name, to be tarnished or stigmatized.
Ishkhan Saghatelyan
Representative of the ARF Supreme Body of Armenia
Member of Parliament, “Armenia” faction of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
Under the autocratic Pashinyan, dissent and democratic opposition to his despotic rule are considered “criminal offenses”, so he resorts to the playbook of every dictator and emerging dictator like himself, of bringing bogus charges of “corruption” to opposion politicians and any other Armenian citizen, who oppose his authoritarian misrule and whom he sees as threats, and therefore silences them. The scenario for what will happen to Saghatelyan is already prepared. He is already “accused” of “corruption”, an “inquiry” is already “prepared”, not by prosecutors or other jurists – but by Pashinyan – with prosecutors and jurists acting like his puppets, and the appointed puppet judge will “declare” Saghatelyan “guilty” and “announce” the already predetermined unjust and lengthy prison sentence.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Pashinyan goes further and bans the ARF, and even declares it a terrorist organization, along with other Armenian opposition parties and political organizations he sees as a threat to his rule. Since he is already persecuting and jailing Armenian patriots who oppose his autocracy, his treachery and his neverending appeasements of Azerbaijan and Turkey, banning opposition parties is generally the next step of an emerging dictator. The ARF and all other opposition parties, groups and individuals, need to make preparations for that possibility and make contingency plans. At least the ARF has branches outside Armenia, thus has a safety net, can regroup and rally support. The other opposition parties in Armenia, don’t have branches abroad and that safety net. Everyone who opposes Pashinyan, need to prepare for the possibility of being proscribed and forced underground, especially if he rigs the June 2026 elections, declares “victory” and clamps down on the opposition. Anything is possible under the traitor regime of Pashinyan.
Some time ago, I, along with @Steve M, predicted that Pashinyan and his thugs would move to ban the ARF.
This could well be the start.
We can only hope that the ARF has already made all its plans to go underground.
The struggle against Pashinyan will start.
America’s attack on Venezuela today shows how hypocritical Western claims about “international law” or the “rule based order” are.
The West has shown that it cannot be trusted.
Exactly! The West’s hypocrisy in preaching and lecturing about “international law”, “rule of law”, “human rights”, “democracy”, etc., is very offensive.
And when it comes to hypocrisy, the USA takes the first place. No country has been more aggressive in preaching and lecturing other countries about these things like the USA, which makes it doubly offensive. It has deposed, covertly and overtly, so many leaders and governments around the world, both democratic and authoritarian, simply because they were not accomodating US interests and for refusing to submit to US neocolonial exploitation. That the US pretends to uphold “international law”, claims to bring “freedom” and “democracy”, while invading countries and deposing leaders they don’t like, is adding insult to injury, because it also has a history of deposing genuine democratic leaders, and replacing them with military or civilian dictators.
If Venezuela (just like Iraq or Libya), wasn’t very rich in oil (by far the biggest in the world), natural gas, and minerals, I bet the USA wouldn’t have turned its sights on this country, bombed it and kidnapped Maduro. If Cuba or Nicaragua had huge oil reserves, I bet the USA would have invaded them and deposed their socialist governments long ago, to grab their oil.
And there is no other country in the world, as unreliable, disloyal, and in the habit of backstabbing and throwing its allies under the bus, like the USA. That’s a historical and never changing fact.
Wake up! Armenians!
Especially you craven pro-Western Armenians!
This World only respects Power!
America, by its actions in Venezuela, has shown that it will ruthlessly pursue its own interests.
The next targets are Greenland, Panama and Canada.
Why does American thuggery matter?
Because they will dismember Armenia and hand Syunik over to the Turks.
The West wants a continuous connection extending all the way through to Kazakhstan so that it can threaten both Russia and China.
Syunik is the link that makes all that possible.
The West will butcher Armenia to make it happen.
The West is not and never will be Armenia’s friend.
What can Armenia do?
Cling closer than ever to Russia and Orthodoxy.
I hope the events of today, 3 January 2026, will wake up every Armenian to the realities of World Power.
Pan orthodoxy ☦️ is another one of those absurd conflations just like any other pan cause..
USA acts for its own interests, this shouldn’t surprise anyone this what countries do although sometimes disguise it as altruism.
Trump is just a rather candid blatant leader who isn’t coy in that regard.
Russia wanted Armenia to withdraw from parts of Azerbaijan in order to curry favour with it although Azerbaijan has been ” thanks but no thanks ” and like Turkey a century ago has pulled a fast one on the Kremlin.
Russia was expected to control the azeri passage through Armenia from it’s brokered ceasefire with NO peace agreement but was ousted by the USA due to its discredited position with Armenia for its leaving Armenia to decline over recent decades. It’s failure to protect the rump of Artaskh left from 2020 (no Berlin airlift nor Sarajevo siege relief from mother Russia for the gullible Armenians ) further discredited it and Azerbaijan having ousted them had less respect for them too even before the plane shootdown caused relationships to collapse from the 2020 honeymoon. Indeed only with a formal peace agreement and exchange of ambassadors with opening of embassies should any passage be allowed, otherwise it’s an outage of sovereign norms. Although Russia was quite happy for Armenia to be put in such a position..
Turkey wants a connection across to bolster links with its Turkic kin
China wants an overland link and one not dependent on Russia
Russia wants to maintain influence such as it’s link to Iran via Azerbaijan and nuclear power station in Turkey and keep trade links focused on itself rather than skirting it .
The West has some interest in an overland route and hasn’t assigned Armenian lands to Turkic peoples that being Russian tendancy actually, France and Greece are western and favourable to Armenia but this doesn’t fit the narrative of the pro Russian Armenians.
The extent of American perdidy can be gauged from their rigging of the trial of Maduro.
The judge chosen to preside over Maduro’s trial, Alvin Hallerstein, is 92 years old!
He is a regime pliant 92 year old dodderer who can be relied upon to deliver the judgment that the Americans want.
The whole process is a farce.
A scam.
What this means for Armenia is that the Americans can never, ever be trusted.
The “rule of law” and “justice” means nothing to them.
💯
America’s seizure of oil tankers, in full violation of international law, means that it must now be classified as a rogue state.
Absolutely. The United States is undeniably a rogue state now. It has reverted to the overt imperialism of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Its imperialism never went away, it just disguised itself under the ruse of “protecting” and “promoting” “democracy” and “freedom” (in US doublespeak meaning regime change either through a coup d’état or downright invasion, often bringing subservient right-wing dictatorships to power) during the Cold War and the first quarter of the 21st century. The pretense of bringing “democracy” and “freedom”, was finally dropped during the second presidency of Trump, who is going even further than the imperialist presidents Monroe, Polk, McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Wilson, with his undisguised imperialism and corporate greed. With international law being trampled on and replaced by the law of the jungle, the world is heading for a rough ride and disaster.
The USA is simply doing as much because it can. It also shows that the Russian flag of convenience was no deterrent so much for the claims of Trump being Russia man in the White House. More interesting is the talk of seeking to assert control of Greenland on claims of national defence and most contentious due to it being fellow NATO alliance member and founding partner Denmark protectorate. For Armenia if the world is to descend into openly Hobbesian ways , Azerbaijan will be more likely to persue claims on Armenia on the basis it was once part of the same khanate as itself.