The Dark Side of the “Velvet” First Lady The Tribunal Accuses Anna Hakobyan of Complicity in Crimes Against the State and the People of Armenia
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, nearly all post-Soviet countries saw the emergence of a “fifth column” - networks of NGOs, media outlets, and political parties operating under the guise of promoting diplomatic values, human rights, and civil liberties. In reality, many of these actors, heavily financed by various Western foundations, engaged in subversive activity, exploiting the socio-economic hardships of the so-called “transition period” as a fertile ground for anti-state operations.
Armenia was no exception. Since Serzh Sargsyan came to power in 2008, the country has seen a surge of public organizations, so-called human rights groups, media outlets, and journalists funded by the West - popping up like mushrooms after the rain. Greed and personal ambition became the driving forces behind the rise of corrupt “rights defenders,” reporters, and political actors who readily sacrificed Armenia’s national interests. One of the most prominent - and at the same time, enigmatic - figures of this “fifth column” is Anna Hakobyan, the spouse of the prime minister.
She is considered enigmatic largely because there is remarkably little public information available about her biography, even though she is the wife of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Details about her early life, including her parents, remain absent from open sources. Since Pashinyan’s rise to power, both the public and political circles in Armenia have repeatedly claimed that Anna Hakobyan acts as a “shadow” prime minister, frequently interfering in key state-level decision-making processes.
The Tribunal Project presents a compilation of materials from various sources detailing Anna Hakobyan’s anti-state activities.
Анна Акопян во время «бархатной революции»
According to her brief biography on Wikipedia, Anna Hakobyan graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Yerevan State University in 2000. It was during her student years that she met her future husband, Nikol Pashinyan, who began his career as a journalist before moving into opposition politics and eventually becoming prime minister following the Velvet Revolution. Between the events of March 1, 2008, and 2011, Hakobyan served as editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak.
It is known that following the events of March 1, 2008, Nikol Pashinyan went into hiding. In 2009, he turned himself in to the authorities and, in January 2010, was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of organizing mass unrest. However, in May 2011, he was granted amnesty by then-President Serzh Sargsyan.
What was Anna Hakobyan doing to support the family while her husband was in prison? The New Insider internet portal writes the following:
“When Pashinyan went on the run and then was in prison, Hakobyan headed the publication, receiving Western funding from the American National Endowment for Democracy (NED, banned in Russia) and the Soros Foundation (banned in Russia). In 2019, when examining the list of foundation grants, it turned out that on July 18, 2000 A&M Publishing house, of which Hakobyan is considered to be the contact person, was allocated $3,086 to translate one of Michel Foucault's books. But this is just one of the many other receipts, and it became known only because the head of Soros's office in Armenia, Larisa Minasyan, did not have time to completely delete the details of the grant given on her website, although she tried.”
The Tribunal recently published an article raising this very question. According to the publication, in 2009–2010, during Nikol Pashinyan’s imprisonment, Anna Hakobyan unexpectedly acquired three vehicles, including a brand new Nissan Qashqai. Then, shortly after his release in 2012, Pashinyan himself purchased a new HYUNDAI SONATA (2011 model), reportedly worth 13.6 million drams.
The former ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican Mikael Minasyan admitted in one of his video addresses that he used to buy the unsold published newspapers of Nikol Pashinyan’s “Haykakan Zhamanak” Daily for many years:
Former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikael Minasyan admitted in one of his video addresses that he had been purchasing the unsold copies of Nikol Pashinyan’s Haykakan Zhamanak daily for years. “I must admit, with a sense of embarrassment, that in order to make these blasphemers leave my family alone, I had to make a deal - agreeing to finance their unsold newspapers each month so they wouldn’t have returns. Haykakan Zhamanak was never in demand,” Minasyan said, as quoted by news.am. ։
Микаэл Минасян
Серж Саргсян награждает Микаэла Минасяна
It’s hard to believe that Nikol Pashinyan’s “blackmail” was the real reason Mikael Minasyan funded the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, especially considering that, as the son-in-law of Armenia’s third president Serzh Sargsyan, Minasyan had far more effective means to neutralize such pressure without paying a price. The fact that Pashinyan’s “Yelq” bloc was “elected” as a so-called opposition under the control of the third president serves as strong evidence that there were other motives behind the financing of Haykakan Zhamanak.
Anna Hakobyan: “Artsakh is like a suitcase without a handle, and only Russia needs it.”
Let’s return to Anna Hakobyan, who has consistently shared her husband’s view that Artsakh was the main obstacle to normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations. The surrender of Artsakh seems to have been the underlying theme of the Pashinyan family’s political vision. There’s ample evidence to support this claim. For example, journalist Levon Ghazaryan cites an article from Haykakan Zhamanak dated March 15, 2007:
“Who said that someone who prefers peace over war isn’t a patriot, or that a supporter of good-neighborly relations with bordering states is a traitor? Who decided that we must leave behind a ticking time bomb for future generations, and that only those who do so are true sons of the homeland? What a political misconception, what an ethnopsychological anomaly! We must overcome these harmful psychological stereotypes and spare future generations from their burden.”
In another article dated November 27, 2008, Ghazaryan writes:
“On November 4, Haykakan Zhamanak ran a headline claiming that, according to a reliable source, one of the leaders of the Austrian Green Party, Maria Vassilakou, had told Armenian students during a meeting that she had learned from Armenia’s Ambassador to Austria, Ashot Hovakimyan, that Armenia was attempting to normalize its relations with Turkey. Therefore, any renewed discussion of the Armenian Genocide could harm the normalization process. Reportedly, Hovakimyan had conveyed the same message to other party leaders in Austria as well.”
Journalist Daria Aslamova believes that the Pashinyan family had been planning the surrender of Artsakh long before coming to power in 2018.
“I met Anna Hakobyan in 2013,” Aslamova recalls. “She told me: ‘Why do we need Karabakh? It should be turned into an autonomy. It’s like a suitcase without a handle - only Russia needs it. Because of Karabakh, we’re in an economic blockade, and all our borders are closed. Let’s make Karabakh into something like the Åland Islands.’” Aslamova continues, “The Åland Islands are officially part of Finland but function as an autonomous region under Swedish influence,” Novoye Vremya quotes her as saying.
Anna Hakobyan’s Golden Hour Came During the “Velvet Revolution”
Many politicians and public figures were aware of the subversive activities of Nikol Pashinyan’s family in Armenia. However, during the euphoric days of the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” and the wave of nationwide support for Pashinyan, few dared to speak out publicly. On April 22, 2018, during a rally, politician Zaruhi Postanjyan took to the stage and interrupted actor Hovhannes Azoyan’s speech in an attempt to warn the public about Nikol Pashinyan’s corruption. But Anna Hakobyan physically seized the microphone from Postanjyan and addressed the crowd herself:
“I wouldn’t have come on stage if Zaruhi Postanjyan hadn’t tried so insistently to get the microphone and speak. The only reason her speech is being met with some skepticism is because from the very beginning of this movement, she claimed that Nikol Pashinyan is corrupt. That’s the only reason for this reaction. I apologize for the incident. We love Zaruhi Postanjyan, we love everyone. There are no corrupt people here. What comes from this crowd is love, but there is also a group trying to destroy that love,” said Anna Hakobyan.
The moment Nikol Pashinyan became Prime Minister, the life of his partner Anna Hakobyan changed dramatically. She underwent a noticeable transformation - her hairstyle and makeup changed, and she began appearing in public wearing luxury dresses and jewelry. It was clear that serious money was being spent on her image.
But how was Armenia’s “First Lady” earning a living? According to her official website:
“Following the Velvet Revolution in Armenia on May 8, 2018, when Nikol Pashinyan was elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Anna Hakobyan expanded her activity as the country’s First Lady.”
From 2018 to 2020, she served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the City of Smile Charitable Foundation.
Since 2018, she has also chaired the Board of Trustees of the My Step Foundation.
Анна Акопян до и после революции
Numerous press reports have highlighted that Anna Hakobyan’s My Step Foundation receives billions of drams from both well-known and largely anonymous donors, yet fails to issue annual reports properly or on time.
Former Armenian Ambassador to Poland, Edgar Ghazaryan, points to several facts that, in his view, expose the corrupt nature of the foundation:
The My Step Foundation’s Board of Trustees is chaired by the Prime Minister’s wife.
The foundation is registered at Government Building No. 1—something that, under no circumstances, should be allowed for a non-governmental organization operating within a government facility.
The foundation shares its name with the political movement led by the Prime Minister himself.
The Foundation raised millions of dollars in a short span of time, yet there is no record of those funds being transferred or redirected to any third party.
Neither Anna Hakobyan nor Nikol Pashinyan had any involvement in charitable work prior to coming to power.
This raises a clear conclusion: the Foundation was created as a tool for state-sponsored racketeering and fundraising under the guise of charity.
Edgar Ghazaryan’s claims about the extortion of large sums from businessmen were confirmed by a scandal that erupted in June 2024. At the center of it was Anna Hakobyan, who demanded that major business owners each transfer 10 million drams to the My Step Foundation account. The prime minister’s wife personally released a video confirming that she had indeed asked prominent businessmen for 10 million drams (approximately $25,000) each.
Since 2018, Anna Hakobyan has enjoyed all the privileges of being Armenia’s “first lady”: she moved from her apartment into the official government residence, accompanies the prime minister on foreign trips, employs personal staff funded by the state budget, and is provided with full security by state guards. Yet, Anna Hakobyan receives all these benefits despite not being officially married to the prime minister. This was openly admitted by both Nikol Pashinyan and Anna Hakobyan in a video address:
“We are not married. We have neither a civil marriage registration nor a church wedding. Our relationship is formalized by our children.”
During the 44-day war, Armenia’s so-called “first lady” assumed an unauthorized role. Despite having no official status or mandate, Anna Hakobyan gained access to classified military information and interfered in the country’s wartime information policy.
Earlier, The Tribunal’s article “An Allegory of Truth and Deception” presented a situation when Artsrun Hovhannisyan and Anna Hakobyan, were seen discussing the strategy for state wartime propaganda on the balcony of the US Department of State-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Azatutyun) office instead of the General Staff or Armenia’s Security Council.
In his scandalous interview, the former Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Movses Hakobyan, revealed that Prime Minister Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobyan, who was not authorized to access state and military secrets, was present in the same bunker as the Defense Army’s Command Point during military operations.
“Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobyan, was in the bunker together with Samvel Babayan, where the Command Point of the Defense Army was located,” Hakobyan said. “She was watching video footage from the battlefield, and I asked her to leave, since in such a tense situation, the military personnel might use strong language. She said ‘okay,’ waited for about 20 minutes, and then left. Afterwards, I was summoned to Yerevan, where the Minister of Defense, acting on behalf of Pashinyan, barred me from returning to the Command Point in Artsakh.”
It should be recalled that Anna Hakobyan holds no official government position and has no legal right to access classified state or military information.
Nonetheless, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed that Anna Hakobyan was present at the Defense Army’s command post during active military operations in Artsakh.
Responding to public outrage over social media videos talking about the presence of unauthorized individuals, including Hakobyan, in the bunker, Pashinyan made the following statement during a hearing of the National Assembly’s Inquiry Committee: “When the war began, my wife told me she couldn’t just sit idle in Yerevan,” he said, claiming that she went to Artsakh to “help people where possible.” According to Pashinyan, many civilians — especially women, were leaving Stepanakert at the time, and his wife’s presence there was meant to symbolize the prime minister’s commitment and presence. He added that Hakobyan also held meetings with Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership during her stay. Pashinyan then admitted that the idea of taking her to the military command post was raised to show the command staff that the Prime Minister’s wife was physically present in Stepanakert. “Some people believed it would boost morale, so it was decided she would pay a ‘courtesy visit’ to the command post. She went in, greeted and encouraged the staff, stayed for 10–15 minutes, and then left,” he said.
After the 44-day war, Nikol Pashinyan and Anna Hakobyan set out to identify scapegoats for the country’s defeat in the war. Pashinyan pointed to a so-called “fifth column” within the Armenian army. However, after fruitless efforts to identify this supposed group, Anna Hakobyan came up with a new way to shift the blame. On April 1, 2023, during an event marking the 23rd birthday of David Shahnazaryan — a soldier who fought and was killed in the war — Hakobyan made a false and inflammatory claim, stating that there had been over 11,000 deserters in the Armenian army during the conflict. Yet, Armenian law enforcement has never initiated criminal proceedings on such a scale for desertion, and to this day, the source of Hakobyan’s figure remains unknown.
Instead, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the Azerbaijani press quickly seized on the words of Nikol Pashinyan’s wife, using them in a propaganda campaign to glorify their victory and publicly humiliate the Armenian Army.
On July 15, 2023, Anna Hakobyan posted a video on social media, wearing a T-shirt with Albert Einstein’s image and the quote: “A bundle of belongings isn’t the only thing a refugee brings to his new country.” Just two months later, in September 2023, the tragic events unfolded, culminating in the final seizure of Artsakh and the mass displacement of the Armenian population.
On July 15, 2023, Anna Hakobyan posted a video on social media, wearing a T-shirt with Albert Einstein’s image and the quote: “A bundle of belongings isn’t the only thing a refugee brings to his new country.” Just two months later, in September 2023, the tragic events unfolded, culminating in the final seizure of Artsakh and the mass displacement of the Armenian population. What message was Anna Hakobyan trying to convey in that video? Did she already know about the impending displacement of Armenians from Artsakh? And most disturbingly, did her chilling smile reflect satisfaction that the long-cherished dream of the Pashinyan family had finally come true?
Answers to these questions were provided by Vardan Ghukasyan, who revealed that Anna Hakobyan met with Mehriban Aliyeva, the wife of the Azerbaijani president, in Dagestan on September 17, 2023 - just two days before Azerbaijan launched its attack on Artsakh.
These revelations give grounds to believe that Armenia’s Prime Minister’s spouse, Anna Hakobyan, has committed numerous offenses against the statehood and national interests of the Republic of Armenia. Her actions were carried out publicly and with striking cynicism. In this context, the continued inaction of Armenia’s law enforcement agencies, including the National Security Service and the Prosecutor General’s Office, raises serious concerns and unanswered questions.
