June 7th is Armenia’s parliamentary election. This episode is a temperature check – a snapshot of the mood in 2026. You’ll hear a mosaic of voices from inside Armenia – people sharing their anxieties and hopes for the country as they prepare to head to the polls.

After losing Artsakh, are Armenians ready to normalize relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey? Can we maintain ties with Russia while also aligning ourselves with the EU? Are security and democracy mutually exclusive for Armenia?

Elections are about deciding which politicians should be in power. But they’re also an occasion to think about what is important and what could change. How do Armenians want to shape our future?

This episode made with support from One World Media.

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For our last episode of this season, we visit Vahandukht Melkonyan, the last resident of Kharkov – a village in the buffer zone between Armenia and Turkey. At 88, she lives alone here and spends her days tending to her animals. This border carries the weight of millennia of history – empires have come crashing against it. But in Vahandukht’s yard, that all feels like scratches on ancient stones.

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Walk into the right basement on a Friday night, and you’ll see something that doesn’t happen anywhere else in Armenia - a drag show. Gigi Aries is a drag queen, and she and her friends have been busy. A few years ago, you couldn’t see drag anywhere, but now there are monthly shows with lines around the block. There’s still a huge divide between what you can do at these underground events, and what is acceptable on the streets of Yerevan. But Gigi believes that drag can change Armenia.

Click here to see Gigi Aries online.

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We first did an episode with Gayane Milonyan in 2023 - the day after she and her family were forced to flee Artsakh. But we wanted to talk with her again, to better understand her life in Artsakh and what she’s lived through since. Gayane sees a connection between struggles in her personal life, and those faced by her homeland: “Sometimes we think we love something, but it brings us only pain.”

If you haven’t listened to the first episode we did with Gayane, it’s called “Special Episode: My Land Feels so Sweet, but it’s Thirsty for Blood.” You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on our website.

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Growing up, Nane Harutyunyan would never have touched a rifle. But after Armenia was defeated in the 2020 war, she felt like she had to be prepared to defend her country.

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Hasmik Varderesyan was born in Armenia, but moved to Turkey when she was two years old. Now she’s a teenager, she's moving back, and she's on TikTok. But is Armenia ready to welcome her home?

Click here to check out Hasmik's Instagram.

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Underneath an Armenian church in Istanbul, there’s a school that isn’t like any other. It’s a little slice of home for a group of migrant families from Armenia – a minority within a minority.

Click here for more information about Hrant Dink School

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This episode has a special companion video.

An unexpected VHS in a Toronto basement leads to finding a branch of the family that has been lost for 60 years, and uncovering the last Armenian village still surviving in Turkey. A multi-generational story told by producer Nyree Abrahamian.

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