YEREVAN — As Armenia approaches its pivotal June 7 parliamentary elections, the country’s political environment has grown increasingly volatile, marked by escalating rhetoric, institutional pressure against opposition figures and deepening societal polarization.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who rose to power in 2018 on promises of democratic reform, now faces mounting criticism over an increasingly authoritarian political style amid national polarization following the 2020 war and the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh.
One of the defining moments of the campaign unfolded during a tense confrontation in Yerevan’s Arabkir district between Nikol Pashinyan and Dr. Arpine Soghoyan, the sister of missing military doctor Lt. Col. Hrant Papikyan, who disappeared during the 2020 war.
Approaching the prime minister during a public appearance, Soghoyan accused him directly of destroying both the country and an entire generation of Armenians.
Rather than de-escalate the exchange, Pashinyan responded angrily, raising his voice and grabbing Soghoyan’s arm as security and supporters surrounded them. The prime minister then launched into an extraordinary tirade against Armenia’s opposition leadership, threatening to imprison, politically “destroy” and even kill them after the elections.
Across the country, Pashinyan has increasingly faced emotional confrontations from relatives of fallen soldiers, families of the missing and displaced Armenians from Artsakh, many of whom accuse the government of abandoning Nagorno-Karabakh and misleading the public about the consequences of the war.
At the same time, accusations of hostility toward Artsakh Armenians have become a central issue in the campaign. Critics say members of the ruling Civil Contract party have increasingly amplified divisive rhetoric portraying displaced Artsakh Armenians as a political burden or a source of instability.
Gegham Stepanyan, the former human rights ombudsman of Artsakh, recently warned that anti-Artsakh rhetoric had become increasingly explicit during the election campaign. He accused representatives of the ruling party of serving as the primary drivers of hate speech against Artsakh Armenians and cautioned that the spread of divisive narratives threatened both national unity and social cohesion in Armenia.
The controversy intensified after a video surfaced online showing masked individuals carrying an Artsakh flag and speaking in an Artsakh dialect while issuing threats against Pashinyan. Pro-government media outlets and affiliated online accounts rapidly circulated the footage as evidence of alleged radicalization within opposition circles.
Armenian media analyst Tigran Kocharyan dismissed the video as a staged political provocation originating from within pro-government circles, alleging that the footage from the so-called “mask show” had already aired two days earlier on an international channel affiliated with Armenia’s state broadcaster before being amplified through pro-government Telegram channels and later relaunched across ruling-party media networks.
Kocharyan argued that the footage appeared designed to inflame hostility toward Artsakh Armenians, discredit the opposition and create justification for future political crackdowns under the banner of national security. He described the operation as a manipulative information campaign aimed at manufacturing fear, deepening hostility toward displaced Artsakh Armenians and portraying the opposition as extremist or dangerous.
The controversy unfolded alongside growing accusations that Armenian authorities are relying on legal and institutional pressure against opposition figures during the campaign.
Opposition politician Narek Karapetyan recently became the target of claims circulated by National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan, who alleged that Karapetyan held Russian citizenship. Armenia’s Central Election Commission later confirmed that all candidates had passed official citizenship verification procedures, effectively undermining the allegations. Nevertheless, criminal proceedings were launched, fueling accusations of politically motivated prosecution.
Responding to the accusations and public statements by members of the ruling Civil Contract party, Marianna Ghahramanyan, spokesperson for the Strong Armenia Alliance, announced that the party would begin filing defamation lawsuits against government-affiliated figures accused of spreading false information about alliance leader Samvel Karapetyan and party council member Narek Karapetyan.
She said the alliance’s legal team had already begun preparing lawsuits against Civil Contract members and affiliated individuals.
Ghahramanyan added that any financial compensation awarded through the lawsuits would be donated to the Sevan Mental Health Center for renovation projects.
Similar concerns have emerged around renewed state pressure targeting Gagik Tsarukyan and his business interests. Shortly after Pashinyan publicly criticized the Ararat Cement factory during campaign remarks and suggested the enterprise could be nationalized, Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced the launch of criminal proceedings related to the company’s privatization process.
According to prosecutors, investigators identified alleged irregularities involving abuse of official authority and possible money laundering connected to the privatization deal, with the case subsequently referred to the Anti-Corruption Committee.
The timing of the investigation immediately fueled opposition accusations that law enforcement bodies were again being used as political instruments during a sensitive election period. Tsarukyan rejected the allegations and argued that authorities had suddenly “remembered” issues related to the factory only after more than two decades of legal operation, despite the company paying taxes and functioning openly throughout that time.
Criticism of the government’s conduct during the campaign has also intensified among former senior Armenian officials. Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian accused Pashinyan of fostering an atmosphere of intimidation and political pressure ahead of the June 7 elections, warning that Armenia is drifting away from the democratic standards promised after the 2018 revolution.
In a statement addressed to foreign diplomats and Western observers, Oskanian condemned the increasingly aggressive rhetoric toward opposition figures and government critics, arguing that such behavior reflects a broader pattern of political intimidation and concentration of power.
He also criticized European institutions for their reluctance to respond to developments in Armenia, warning that geopolitical considerations were beginning to outweigh democratic principles in Western engagement with the country. “Silence under such circumstances is not neutrality,” Oskanian wrote. “It is a political choice.”
Pashinyan is beneath contempt.
Has anybody else noticed hoq fond the carpet seller is of fighting with women?
Pashinyan’s shouting at and berating of Armenian citizens, amplifies what a despicable person he is. How much longer will the Armenian people tolerate this treacherous scoundrel? If this arrogant, self-righteous traitor remains in power after June 7th, a mass uprising to overthrow him will become necessary. It is long overdue.
Nikol Pashinyan is the greatest threat to the Armenian nation. He must stopped at ALL COSTS
Nicole is just another manufactured savior he’s a walking disaster leading Armenia down a disastrous path. I hope people come to understand the depth of what we are facing and reject it with vigor. Armenians should stop falling for this traitor.
Pashinyan is a traitor , he has been sold out by some government or other , could be the Europeans
trying to make him friends with the Turks by giving in to them while destroying Armenia. Europe and the
USA have now some interest for the passage of Syunik for their own businesses and Armenia will be paying the price.
Pashinyan beeing an idiot he fell for it,he is now beeing bribed.
Compare what Armenia looked like 8 years ago and now. The city of Echmiadzin was divided into two parts, one controlled by the mafia boss Don Pipo and the other by Manvel Grigoryan, the decorated “hero” of the 1st NK war, the thief who stole ammunition, numerous vehicles, tons of canned food for his private zoo animals from the army. People were not allowed to walk most of the streets of the city, and violent mini-wars between the two mobsters were common. In Yerevan, the offsprings of the high ranked officials were acting like the untouchables, committing crimes and going unpunished. The 2nd and 3rd presidents were using Armenia for the interests of their homeland Karabakh. Kocharian deployed troops from Karabakh against the people of Armenia on March 1 2008. In 2023, the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office demanded the confiscation of assets from Robert Kocharyan, Bella Kocharyan, and their children, citing 20+ real estate properties, shares in 18 companies, and large cash deposits. All major infrastructures of Armenia were sold to Russia, making the country a vassal state. Serj Sargsyan reversed Armenia’s path to Europe towards Russia, i.e. from democracy and progress to feudalism and dictatorship.
Pashinyan is being accused of instigating and then losing the war of 2020. The war would take place irrespective of Pashinyan’s behavior. Aliyev had attained the necessary momentum, including the alliance with Turkey, for the revenge. Lukashenko declared during his visit to Baku that they organized the war together. Belarus would never engage in such activities without Putin’s approval and participation. The defeat was largely due to the actions of anti-Pashinyan elements interested in overthrowing him from power based on the defeat. Pashinyan insisted that the NK people should stay in their homes, but the Russian “peacekeepers” persuaded them to flee threatening that otherwise the Azeris would kill them. The Azeri troops entered Armenia proper in Sep. 2022, ODKB refused to step in, which was a direct betrayal. Then Pashinyan had no choice but to recognize Az territorial integrity so Aliyev would do the same and stop further incursion as no one was going to stop them. Despite Aliyev’s numerous provocative claims that Zangezur, Sevan, Yerevan were Azerbaijan, Pashinyan demonstrated restraint and diplomatic wisdom not to react and eventually was able, with Macron’s help, to bring Aliyev to Washington and have him sign the peace document, a major breakthrough in the relationship between the two nations. Now Az is exporting fuel to Armenia and goods are being transported to Armenia via railways through Az. The peace is real. People breath without fear of tomorrow. A nation with closed borders in a potential war zone cannot flourish. The country has become attractive for foreign businesses. NVIDIA, Firebird, AI and semiconductor chip industries are investing in Armenia, modern arms are being acquired to replace the “Arms of 1980’s” cited by Serj Sargsian.
You people sitting in your houses in the US or Europe are asserting that Pashinyan is a traitor. What did you want him to do for Armenia that he is not doing? You are talking about Karabakh, exactly like Putin who tried to revive the issue during Pashinyan’s visit to Moscow in April 2026. Karabakh has been a source of trouble for Armenia for decades. Thousands of young people perished, is that not enough for you? Are you going to fight for Karabakh yourself? Or are you going to send another generation to the battlefield while watching the news in your cozy houses? Pashinyan has done everything possible for the refugees, they are still not satisfied, the want more, the apartments on the Northern Avenue etc. They blame Pashinyan for displacing them, forgetting what he was the one begging them not to flee. One of the Karabakh “heroes,” Samvel Shahramanyan, who signed the document of dissolution of NK Republic, who safely and miraculously arrived in Yerevan while all other former leaders got arrested, is now sitting in his office in Yerevan and criticizing Pashinyan for ceding Karabakh.
Pashinyan is far from perfect and can at times behave inadequately, but he brought Armenia out of the swamp where Russia was keeping it for decades using Karabakh as a leverage. Who are Robert Kocharyan, Samvel Karapetyan or Gagik Tsarukyan? They are the envoys of a foreign country that is trying to keep Armenia in its grip and use it for its own interests. You are citing Pashinyan threatening to kill them. He used the word “satkatsnel” in a rage that is inexcusable but clearly he did not mean to kill them physically as opposed to what Galstanyan was planning to do and what the Russia-backed “opposition” is planning to do right now. They are planning an armed revolt right after their defeat in the elections where they will literally gun down people to create panic and terror and thereby somehow grab the power. It’s for a reason Putin mentioned Ukraine recently saying “Let’s recall what happened in Ukraine. Everything started with Ukraine wanting to join the EU.” He thinks the empire can be saved from crumbling by threatening the people of the “satellite” nations. The people of Armenia has to show who they really are, a flock of cowards or a nation with dignity and determination to be free.
Progress – building roads and kindergartens – should not be confused with the democratic process. What goes on those roads and what is taught or not taught in those kindergartens should be more of a concern and of utmost importance for all!
Current socioeconomic and geopolitical realities need to be taken into consideration when weighing the sides (EU vs Russia). The threat of war can be a reality for ANY side!
Proper decorum, gender equality, and respect for citizens are among the missing elements in all of this! The flagrant violation of human rights, politically motivated arrests and imprisonments, divisions created in order to rule at any cost, anti-constitutional and non-democratic election campaign practices, misogynistic behaviors to name a few, are some of the INACCEPTABLE and INTOLERABLE practices of the current regime, regardless of all progress cited, which, in a normally developing country, would have happened anyway. Stripping Armenia and Armenians of almost all sacred symbols of identity, in the name of peace and so-called globalization, is another piece of evidence against a regime that does not have Armenia and Armenians at its heart, despite the daily posting of ‘I love you all and heart hand emoji’ videos.
No one is blowing the horn of Russia here, but peace at any cost, when not only Armenian identity, but territorial integrity and basic human rights are at stake, is far from the utopia that is being advocated by the ruling CC party.
And no, I am not sitting comfortably in my living room somewhere far away from Armenia, but I am expressing my concern here as a citizen of the RA, and a concerned individual for whom human and basic citizenship rights, gender equality, democracy, freedom of speech, the sacred memory of our Armenian martyrs, and our constitutional integrity are of utmost importance.
Well said! Thank you.
You are such a geographical illiterate.
The most important fact about Armenia is that for 800 yearz, from the 11th to the 19th centuries, there was no Armenia.
800 years of dhimmitude under the Turks and the Persians.
Pashinyan and his deluded band of acolytes want the Russian garrison in Gyumri, the only force keeping the Turks out, to leave.
The day the Russians march out is the day that the Turks march in.
All of Armenia’s economy is built around the supply of cheap Russian energy, which Armenia gets at a hugely subsidised price.
Armenia will simply collapse if it ever had to pay world market prices for its energy.
Spurn Russia if you want, just don’t complain about living as a dhimmi.
Whilst there has been an epiphany to some extent driven by the failure of the Russian peacekeeping force to safeguard what remained of Arktash and also it’s own failure in it’s own war um special military operation in Ukraine to subdue that country. There’s clearly a faction stuck in basking in reflected glory from the 1994 favourable ceasefire, preferring to imagine that the Azeri military was the same force from its rout in 1994. These delusional people nicknamed the tea in Baku brigade, many but not all pro Russian like to imagine that Pashinyan threw the fight as part of some stitch up with Turkey and Azerbaijan. There’s also those who would prefer not to acknowledge that Russia went into cahoots with Azerbaijan despite the fact that Armenia was Russia’s ally and Azerbaijan wasn’t as part of a deeply treacherous and most cynical action by Russia taking advantage of Armenia isolation and predicament to screw Armenia and build stronger relationships with Azerbaijan, which was also to try and encourage it to distance from Turkey by being the country which helped them regain authority over parts of its country under Armenian control thus Armenia was used as collateral in it’s machinations echoing the actions of the nacesnt Soviet Union 100 years ago with Turkey who after having gotten what it wanted distanced from the USSR. Azerbaijan has done similar, whilst this is a case of the Kremlin getting it’s wages of sin in ingratiations with Turkic peoples. The fact that Azerbaijan is no longer so close to Russia is no reason to forgive and forget that Russia had been conceited and cynical in it’s actions. After all the common sentiment from the Kremlin is that Armenia is “surrounded by enemies so has to make do with us”
Indeed it’s worth noting that now Armenia has officially recognised its Soviet era boundaries this has led to Azerbaijan coming under pressure from the USA to do the same, the ambiguity favoured by Russia had meant Azerbaijan now the hegemon was encroaching into Armenia and the peace document in Washington now makes it much more difficult for Azerbaijan to justify further encroachment.
My dear Armenians,
Make this a cultural habit. Before discussing any national issues, always first emphasize the need for total unity of purpose: the long-term best interests of Armenia. Always emphasizing unity of purpose before debating X and Y will empower you exponentially. Pour the emotion into unity of purpose first, then pour calm strategic thinking into issue X and Y second.
Cultivating a communication style of unity and solidarity is the key upstream leverage and matters more than the issue of the day.