Research

The Regional Center for Democracy and Security (RCDS) has published its final report examining hate speech targeting Nagorno-Karabakh refugees during Armenia’s June 2026 parliamentary elections and the period immediately following them. Based on four months of monitoring, the report documents the main narratives used to stigmatize and marginalize refugees, the political figures and pro-government media […]

The image was created using AI tools. By Hayk Khanumyan The ongoing process of restructuring Armenia’s system of state strategies can formally be viewed as a change in the number and structure of strategic documents. However, the substance of these changes goes beyond mechanical consolidation. The initiative to develop six major strategies, if implemented according […]

By Eduard Arakelyan The Armed Forces Transformation Concept, designed for the 2024–2035 period, is an open professional document that coordinates the main directions of reform. The document is general in nature and does not contain detailed implementation mechanisms. In addition to the public component, there is a classified section covering governance, military science, troop training, […]

The Regional Center for Democracy and Security (RCDS) has published a new report by Louis-Mathieu Tartinville  and Eduard Arakelyan, Towards an Asymmetric Defense Model: Building a Layered Drone Capability in Armenia. The report examines Armenia’s military transformation and argues that, given the country’s structural disadvantage vis-à-vis Azerbaijan, conventional military parity is neither realistic nor sustainable. […]

By Hayk Khanumyan The campaign for Armenia’s 2026 National Assembly elections ended on June 5, with voting taking place on June 7. Compared to May—which was saturated with hate speech targeting forcibly displaced people from Nagorno-Karabakh and featured incidents involving senior public officials, community leaders, and other political actors—June saw fewer such incidents involving high-ranking […]

By Tigran Grigoryan and Hayk Khanumyan On May 8, 2026, the official campaign period for the elections to the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia commenced. The month of May was marked by unprecedented levels of hate speech, with the primary generators being representatives of the ruling Civil Contract Party and their supporters. Once […]

The Regional Center for Democracy and Security has published a new report titled “Comparing Russian Information Influence in Moldova and Armenia: Patterns, Challenges, and Specificities.” The report examines how Russian foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) campaigns are constructed, disseminated, and adapted across two distinct post-Soviet environments, with a particular focus on the narratives, actors, […]

By Hayk Khanumyan The campaign for Armenia’s 2026 National Assembly elections has officially begun, although participating political forces have already been actively campaigning for several months. The intensification of political competition in an increasingly polarized environment has led to a rise in hate speech, visible both among social media users and various political actors, particularly […]

In the new issue of the Caucasus Analytical Digest, Tigran Grigoryan and Eduard Arakelyan analyze the transformation of Armenia’s defense policy following the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The article, titled “From Dependence to Diversification: Armenia’s Defense Policy Reorientation After Russia’s War in Ukraine,” argues that the post-2022 period marked a turning point in […]