Phone-Tapping Requests Rise Sharply in Armenia, Fueling Fears of Expanded State Surveillance

Armenia is seeing a fast and steady rise in the number of court-approved phone-tapping and surveillance requests, creating new concerns among lawyers, civil society groups, and opposition figures about how state monitoring tools are being used and controlled.

Official court data shows a clear and sharp escalation. Requests for operational-intelligence measures, which are mostly phone interceptions, have increased every year since 2018. The trend has grown even more quickly during the past three years. In the first six months of 2025, courts approved more than 600 surveillance requests. That number already comes close to the annual totals recorded in 2023 and 2024, which were between 600 and 750. More than 60% of the requests were related to phone tapping, and courts approved the majority of them.

However, lawyers say the official numbers do not reflect the full reality. They argue that many interceptions take place without the required court decisions attorney Raffi Aslanyan told Civilnet, “Interceptions are becoming widespread—not only based on court decisions,” and he believes these tools are now being used more often in political situations.

Opposition representatives share similar concerns. They say leaked phone recordings regularly appear in pro-government media outlets and later become part of criminal cases. MP Gegham Manukyan has argued that such leaks are used for public pressure and to damage political opponents before any official investigation is completed.

Legal experts also point to difficulties in how wiretapping requests are evaluated and approved. Attorney Liparit Simonyan says there are cases where law-enforcement bodies change the description of an alleged crime to make it qualify for surveillance. He says some judges add new wording to cases, such as increasing the value of a bribery allegation, to justify the use of interceptions. Many decisions, he says, look “copy-pasted,” with only the names and dates changed.

Concerns extend beyond how surveillance is approved. Lawyers report frequent violations of confidentiality rules. Even though the law bans the release of such materials, sensitive audio recordings from major investigations often leak online. Some of these recordings later turn out to be edited or presented selectively, shaping public opinion before the people accused have full access to the material or a chance to respond.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the issue in October during an anti-corruption event. He rejected claims that the state is engaged in widespread unlawful surveillance. Pashinyan said the law clearly defines when operational-intelligence tools may be used and insisted that similar systems exist “in all democratic countries.” He also noted that the government is investing in more advanced surveillance technology, explaining that this is needed to keep up with organized crime as it adopts “new technological approaches.”

While the government says all actions follow legal procedures, many legal professionals and rights defenders believe the situation is becoming more troubling. They warn that the quick expansion of surveillance capabilities, combined with frequent leaks, limited judicial control, and weak accountability, is putting Armenians’ right to privacy at growing risk.

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