Latest news in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, summary. Live

● “For the first time we have peace,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a live broadcast. “2025 is the first calendar year since independence in which, as a result of shootings with Azerbaijan, we have had no dead or wounded,” Pashinyan said.

● For the first time in the history of Armenia’s banking system, a syndicated loan agreement has been signed between six financial institutions to finance a major technological megaproject. Under the deal, leading banks and investment institutions have joined forces to provide Firebird AI with $300 million to finance the construction of an artificial intelligence plant in the city of Hrazdan. The project aims to create a modern AI data processing center in Armenia based on advanced technological solutions from the American company NVIDIA. This was announced by Minister of High-Tech Industry Mkhitar Hayrapetyan. He noted that this is not only a direct investment in the company, but also in the development of the country’s technology sector, innovation, science, and economy.

● The ruling “Civil Contract” party has published preliminary results of vote counting for candidate elections. Nikol Pashinyan received the highest number of votes. If these results are confirmed at the party conference, Pashinyan will lead the electoral list.

● An incident occurred during Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to a liturgy at the Church of Saint Anna in Yerevan. According to video footage circulated on social media, when the prime minister’s security team cleared a corridor for him as he was leaving the church, one of the parishioners expressed discontent, saying he would stand in the center of the church and adding, “Don’t you dare look at me like that!” Afterwards, someone attempted to reach out and touch Pashinyan’s shoulder, but his hand was stopped by bodyguards. A commotion followed inside the church. Security ensured Pashinyan’s exit, and the situation calmed down. “The police do not need additional instructions to perform their duties,” Pashinyan told journalists.

A criminal case has been opened on charges of “hooliganism” and “interference in the lawful official or political activities of an official.” Three people have been detained, two of them are twin brothers and school students.

● “Discussions around TRIPP have not slowed down. We are at the stage of finalizing documents,” said Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in comments to journalists. TRIPP, or the “Trump Route,” is a transit corridor project that would run from Azerbaijan through Armenia to the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan. “I assume that the next stage should be the signing of an intergovernmental agreement, after which an organization will be created. We said we would like to start construction by the end or middle of the year, but I don’t know how realistic that is; in any case, it was only an aspiration,” Mirzoyan said.

● Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted in Armenian on X, thanking the government and people of Armenia for providing humanitarian assistance. Araghchi noted that “the centuries-old friendship between Armenia and Iran has proven its strength in a difficult moment, and the Iranian people will remember this brotherly gesture.”

● On March 29, the Armenian Apostolic Church marked Tsaghkazard (Palm Sunday). With the blessing of Catholicos Garegin II, it was declared a day of blessing for children. On this day, children are given crosses, and worshippers receive willow branches blessed during the ceremony.

●  In Georgia, discussions continue over who will succeed the late Patriarch Ilia II. Metropolitan Isaiah of Nikosi and Tskhinvali said the future patriarch’s election “depends on the will of God” and described the role as a “cross” that the chosen one must not refuse. Analysis follows on what is known about the candidates.

● Metropolitan Dimitri Shiolashvili of Batumi and Lazeti said the election of a new patriarch is expected within no more than two months.

● Archbishop Iakob of Bodbe said he will not allow external interference in church affairs and expressed support for the clergy.

● Metropolitan Saba Gigiberia of Samtredia and Khoni stressed that the Patriarch is not an administrative post but a “burden and a cross,” and that the next patriarch should not be judged through political or geopolitical considerations.

● Metropolitan Shio (Mujiri), who conducted the enthronement of Ilia II, said the late Catholicos’ merits have “apostolic significance,” and that his role became especially evident during the public mourning and funeral, attended by an unprecedented hundreds of thousands of people.

● Representative of the ruling party Georgian Dream Levan Machavariani said that party founder and honorary chairman, oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, has “great merits in saving Georgia.” Most independent observers in Georgia and abroad, however, view Ivanishvili as the country’s “shadow ruler.”

● The opposition TV channel TV Pirveli published an investigation claiming that Ivanishvili, during the lifetime of Patriarch Ilia II, demanded his resignation. According to the report, leaked State Security Service materials suggest Ivanishvili sought to weaken the influence of the Patriarchate’s secretary Shorena Tetruashvili, whom he allegedly saw as trying to gain full control over the Church.

● In Tbilisi, thousands of people who disagree with the government’s policies hold protest marches every Saturday, demanding that the country return to the path of European integration and the release of arrested and convicted protest participants. Photo: JAMnews

Top stories in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia from 23-27 March, 2026