Testing Democracy: Armenia’s Human Rights Path Toward the 2026 Elections

Testing Democracy: Armenia’s Human Rights Path Toward the 2026 Elections

At around 7 a.m. on 13 November 2025, masked officers from Armenia’s National Security Service raided the homes of opposition bloggers and activists Narek Samsonyan and Vazgen Saghatelyan in Yerevan, detaining both men. By the end of the day, they were charged with hooliganism, placed in two months of pre-trial detention, and their “Imnemnimi” podcast equipment was confiscated. The arrests came a day after a widely viewed episode of their show o…