We talked to Vahe Hakobyan, a member of the Armenia Faction, the leader of the Armenian Renaissance Party, about the intensified border incidents, the processes in the region, the developments in the legal field and the economic situation in Armenia.

Mr. Hakobyan, the incidents on the borders have been intensified again. According to official data the Azerbaijani side has opened fire in the direction of Tonashen, Karmir Shuka and Taghavard communities in Artsakh, and according to media reports, towards the eastern positions on the border with Armenia. What could this escalation mean and is there a risk of full-scale hostilities resuming?

Unfortunately, there is always a risk of large-scale hostilities, and we have repeatedly spoken about this. Azerbaijan does not give up its aggressive rhetoric and coercive policy.

Aliyev's appetite grows day by day with the support of Ankara. The Turkish side is already openly stating that the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border depends on the Armenian-Azerbaijani dialogue. Isn't it true that Azerbaijan should toughen its stance in this case, especially since the Armenian government is in no way opposed to it.

It is possible that once again there are some oral or written secret agreements or promises that were made by the Armenian government, and now Azerbaijan is trying to force Pashinyan to fulfill these promises by force of arms, threats and intimidation.

The interview of the Secretary of the Security Council was after the Mirzoyan-Bayramov meeting, where he spoke about the withdrawal of troops from Artsakh and promised that there would be no more calls from Armenia to Artsakh? Does Armen Grigoryan realize what a delicate and sensitive topic he is talking about and what impact and consequences each word can have?

And these demands will not stop as long as there are people at the helm of Armenia who are ready to make any concessions to keep their own power at least a day longer. Among them, along with Azerbaijan, are ready to terrorize their own people with a possible war and push them to acquiesce to new concessions.

Despite the summer months, we are witnessing quite active political processes and contacts. What drives this activity and what can we expect in the near future?

Yes, indeed, the activity of political processes is not weakening, if not on the contrary, it is increasing. This is also explained by the interests and goals of external actors. In particular, it is obvious today that the West is trying to take advantage of Russia's distraction from the events in and around Ukraine and is increasing its activity in our region.

This is evidenced by active visits, including, to put it mildly, unusual ones, numerous phone calls, active mediation efforts, one result of which was the meeting of foreign ministers in Tiflis for the first time without a mediator.

The West is in a hurry to increase its influence and involvement in the processes that began immediately after the war with the mediation of Russia. Thus, the U.S. and the EU are trying to minimize Russian influence or even push Russia out of the region as much as possible. This is also the reason for the West's great interest in the Armenian-Turkish dialogue.

Naturally, all this does not escape the attention of the Russian Federation, and Moscow, in turn, takes steps as an intermediary to fix the results.

Therefore, the activity of the processes is natural and causes fears, because it is not excluded that the mediators are trying to achieve quick results, including intermediate ones. And the Armenian government has already realized that under this pressure it will not seek to protect the interests of the country and the people, but to expand its own power. This can lead to new undesirable events, of which we will learn after the fact.

I have said many times and I repeat: the continued tenure of this government increases the problems for our country and people and makes the losses irreversible.

Let's turn to another topic: developments in the legal sphere. How do you assess what is happening in this sphere, including the criminal cases brought against a number of opposition politicians and the invariability of the court injunction despite their health problems?

Criminal cases against the opposition are brought to silence, intimidate and terrorize them and the opposition in general. Today, the courts are doing an obvious political order. These people are political prisoners.

The death of producer Armen Grigoryan in the courtroom was a cold shower for some judges, but even after Armen Grigoryan's case today there are judges who continue to carry out political orders, including not changing preventive measures for people with health problems incompatible with detention.

This week the court, represented by Judge Farkhoyan, rejected Aram Gasparyan's petition to change the preventive measure.

The criminal case against Aram Gasparyan is completely fabricated, he is detained without any real grounds, based on political considerations. Even now they refuse to change the preventive measure, despite the fact that the man has very serious health problems, with which the detention is incompatible.

Everything that is happening today has nothing to do with justice. And the West, first of all, the head of the EU delegation to Armenia, who finds it difficult to say that there are political prisoners in Armenia, is obliged to respond to the scandal in the sphere of justice.

The European structures praising Armenia's democracy and supporting the Armenian government must realize that the violation of fundamental values in the name of European interests harms relations between Armenia and the EU in the long run. Damage that will not be easy to undo.

Let's talk about the economy. The authorities are claiming that all is well, economy is growing, people are living better, but in reality the picture is diametrically opposite. How is this possible? How do you assess the state of the economy?

The answer is simple. The government constantly manipulates the situation. For example, on the one hand there is a record growth of jobs, on the other hand there is an increase in hunger and poverty. Attention, I am talking about official statistics. One contradicts the other, but in parallel records the numbers. How is this possible?

The problem is that those positive record numbers that are recorded and constantly trumpeted by those in power are the result of processes occurring outside of us. In other words, they have nothing to do with this government. I mean, for example, the large flows of those same foreigners into Armenia, resulting in an increase in services. What does this have to do with government policy?

Instead, we have a continuous failure to solve people's social problems against the backdrop of inflation. We have an imitation of actions, which allegedly alleviate people's burdens.

The economy today, in my estimation, is under the influence of risk factors. Even these positive factors are very risky because they may not exist at any moment. Our Renaissance Armenia partners regularly address these issues in more detail and substance.