Brazen daytime attack on blogger raises concerns about safety in Yerevan

By Ani Ghulinyan

OC Media

Armenian police have launched a criminal case against a 39-year-old man for attacking a blogger in broad daylight in a crowded area near Yerevan’s Sasuntsi Davit train station. The incident raised concerns among the public that crime rates were on the rise in Armenia, despite official statistics and international ratings indicating Yerevan remains one of the safest capitals in the world.

On 3 August, blogger Nare Hovsepyan posted a video showing her injuries shortly after the attack. While her video had around half a million views on Instagram and raised concerns about safety in Yerevan, Armenia’s official statistics do not show an increase in crime rates. Instead, police statistics show a rise in detentions for crimes such as drug and weapons offences. However, the Interior Ministry claims that overall crime fell in 2025, and international rankings rate Yerevan among the safest capitals in the world in 2024.

The attack on Hovsepyan is not the only high-profile case over the summer. In August, a 30-year-old man was stabbed downtown Yerevan and taken to hospital in critical condition. In June, a 27-year-old victim died after being stabbed in Yerevan’s Shengavit district. In July, again in Yerevan, three people were hospitalised with cuts and puncture wounds to the chest after a stabbing. Earlier, in February 2026, one was killed, and six were injured in a killing in a residential area in Yerevan’s Ajapnyak district, which attracted the most attention. Taken together, these incidents have led to an increase in public concern about street-level crime among individuals in Yerevan.

In July, the Patrol Service released a statement showing that during the first half of 2026, they uncovered 2,288 crimes. Detections of drug trafficking rose by 80 cases compared to last year, reaching 1,300. The detection of illegal firearms and ammunition increased by 35 cases, reaching 132, while the detection of bladed and blunt weapons increased by 19.9%. The statement also broke down police efforts that uncovered cases of physical assault, hooliganism, theft, bodily harm and vehicle theft.

Although the Interior Ministry did not comment on the recent incidents, the rising crime figures are not new, and officials have offered explanations for it before.

In 2024, then-Interior Minister Vahe Ghazaryan told parliament that the police had stopped concealing crimes, which he said was one reason why crime rates appeared to be on the rise. He also pointed to court practices, such as detained suspects not being formally charged and recidivism from criminals who had been released, as well as amnesties. Ghazaryan noted that data showed criminals who received amnesties often committed new crimes.

Despite these figures, Armenia ranked as the seventh safest country in the world out of 146 countries by NUMBEO, according to the analytics platform’s Crime Rate and Safety Index by Country report. Yerevan was ranked the fifteenth safest city out of 329 globally. Armenia and Yerevan were also rated the safest country and city, respectively, among all Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)  states. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan referenced these rankings in a January 2024 meeting with police officials.

Around a week before that, Armenia’s Interior Ministry reported that crime declined in 2025, with the total number of recorded crimes falling by about 3.2% compared to 2024. Crimes against people dropped by roughly 23%, while property crimes fell by close to 14%. Both of these drops were said to be the result of sustained law enforcement work. Alongside this drop in overall crime, the detection and clearance rate increased by almost 7%, indicating that the police were not only dealing with fewer crimes, but also solving a greater proportion of those that occurred.

Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan pointed to the drop in crimes against people as an especially encouraging sign, while also stressing that illegal weapons possession should remain a priority for the police. She has also noted that the ministry updated its methodology for counting crimes, shifting from counting by the date the crime was registered to the date they occurred instead. This technical change affects how raw year-on-year figures are compared, though officials say it does not change the overall trend of decline.