The party of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is ahead of its opponents according to the first partial results of the legislative elections on Sunday June 7, which serve as a test for the reorientation of Yerevan’s policy towards the West.
According to the Central Electoral Commission, the results after counting 32% of polling stations show that Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party is leading the race ahead of the Strong Armenia alliance of Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, with 51.2% and 23% of the votes respectively. The participation rate was 59%, according to the Commission.
Nikol Pashinian claimed a “historic victory” and pledged to “pursue the path of rapprochement with the West” while developing relations with Russia. “I hope this will elicit a positive response from Turkey and Azerbaijan,” he said at a press conference, adding that he had to “institutionalize peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
Resentment towards Moscow
Armenia and Russia, linked by two centuries of history, are officially still allies. But Yerevan is increasing its reproaches towards Moscow, which did not prevent Azerbaijan’s recapture by force of the Karabakh enclave, and is turning to the European Union and the United States. American President Donald Trump gave his “total” support to Nikol Pashinian, while Russia warned Yerevan against a trajectory that it resembles that of Ukraine.
Sunday’s vote comes after years of profound upheaval in Armenia since Nikol Pashinian came to power following protests in 2018 on the promise of dismantling the post-Soviet oligarchic system.
This small predominantly Christian country in the Caucasus is still reeling from its defeat against Azerbaijan in 2020 and the loss of Karabakh in 2023, which caused the exodus of tens of thousands of Armenians from this territory disputed for decades. Nikol Pashinian, a 51-year-old former journalist, presented this election as a choice between a lasting, albeit controversial, peace with Baku, and a return to war.
The prosecution indicated that it had opened 165 investigations for “alleged cases of obstruction of the electoral process”, while the opposition Armenian Alliance party of former President Robert Kocharian accused the police of having arrested members of his campaign team.
Nikol Pashinian had criticized Moscow for not having provided assistance to Armenia during the 2020 war. Russia had deployed peacekeeping forces in Karabakh, but had not intervened directly, keen to preserve its relations with Azerbaijan, another former Soviet republic.
European support
Taking note, Nikol Pashinian froze Armenian participation in a regional alliance headed by Moscow and sought to strengthen ties with Brussels and Washington, even going so far as to mention potential accession of his country to the EU. The Russian president warned against the “Ukrainian scenario” at the end of May, believing that Ukraine’s intention to join the EU had ultimately led to the Russian invasion in 2022. kyiv, in 2014, was in reality preparing to sign a simple association agreement with the European Union.
Russia has banned the import of a range of Armenian agricultural products, and the Kremlin has been accused of seeking to influence the vote. There are numerous Armenians in Russia, Armenia’s main trading partner and key market for its exports, while Yerevan is dependent on Moscow for its arms and energy supplies.
Nikol Pashinian says he does not want to break with Moscow nor want to “harm Russia’s interests”. However, the electoral campaign took on the air of a fight for the geopolitical future of Armenia. Samvel Karapetyan warned against any “reckless rush” towards the West. “Russia is and will remain our strategic partner and our main economic partner,” he said.
The Europeans, for their part, hardly hide their wish to see Nikol Pashinian win, and came to support the EU-Armenia partnership during a summit in Yerevan at the beginning of May.
