Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party has won parliamentary elections, preliminary results showed on Monday, a victory seen as an endorsement of the nation’s pro-Western shift after threats from Moscow and claims of Russian interference.
Pashinyan’s push to forge closer ties with the West and move Armenia out of the orbit of its former imperial ruler has angered the Kremlin.
The election comes after years of turmoil since Pashinyan was swept to power in a 2018 street revolution.
The small Caucasus country is still haunted by Azerbaijan’s 2023 military takeover of Karabakh, which ended decades of territorial conflict and prompted the exodus of the enclave’s 100,000-strong ethnic Armenian population.
Pashinyan framed the vote as a choice between lasting peace with Azerbaijan and a return to war.
His ruling Civil Contract party got 49.8 percent of the vote, comfortably ahead of the 23.3 percent of Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia alliance, the Central Election Commission said.
On the streets of Yerevan, voters greeted Pashinyan’s victory with a mix of relief, hope and unease — some seeing it as a mandate for peace, others warning that Armenia’s future remained uncertain.
“I am very glad that our people trusted Pashinyan again. What did some people think, that the people would go and elect those corrupt Russian puppets?” 58-year-old welder Aram Mnatsakanyan told AFP.
Pensioner Sargis Harutyunyan, 81, said he feared post-election unrest, warning that opposition street protests “would not be the right thing in this geopolitical situation”.
Closer EU ties
Pashinyan had the backing of Europe and the United States ahead of the vote.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen congratulated him on his win, telling him: “Armenia can count on us.”
“The spirit of the Velvet Revolution you led in 2018 is alive and well. We deeply value our partnership with a democratic Armenia that is drawing ever closer to Europe,” she said on social media.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the result would boost “momentum toward closer ties with Europe”.
Ex-president Robert Kocharyan’s “Armenia” alliance also cleared the electoral threshold to get into parliament, winning 9.9 percent of the vote.
Turnout was 59 percent, the commission said.
Analyst Armen Badalyan said the result means Pashinyan’s party “won enough seats in the new parliament to form the country’s next cabinet”.
“But it fell short of the supermajority needed to pass constitutional amendments” demanded by Azerbaijan as a condition for
Pashinyan hailed a “historic victory” and pledged to follow a balanced foreign policy, saying Armenia would “continue the course of rapprochement with the West” while also deepening Russia ties.
“The Armenian people voted for regional prosperity and cooperation, and I hope this will draw a positive response from Turkey and Azerbaijan,” he told a news conference.
“We need to institutionalise peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
His opponent Karapetyan — under house arrest on charges he alleges are politically motivated — called the elections “shameful”, denouncing alleged violations and repression and saying dozens of his campaign staff had been arrested.
Critics accuse Pashinyan of using the courts, police and administrative resources to pressure opponents, saying his reformist government has drifted toward authoritarian methods.
After the result, Pashinyan vowed “the final eradication of the criminal-oligarchic system from Armenia”, saying: “The leaders of these forces must be held criminally liable.”
Armenia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened 59 criminal cases over alleged electoral violations — including people casting multiple ballots — and detained nine.
Russia watching
Pashinyan has frozen participation in a Russia-led security bloc, signed a strategic partnership agreement with Washington, and set Armenia on a path toward possible EU membership.
Moscow has reacted sharply to the prospect of losing another ally in what it sees as its sphere of influence.
In a pointed warning, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in May: “We all see what is happening with Ukraine now… How did it all begin? With Ukraine’s attempt to join the EU.”
The Kremlin was widely accused of seeking to sway the vote though online misinformation, hacking and pumping out Kremlin-friendly narratives portraying Western cooperation as dangerous.
In the weeks before the vote, Russia unleashed a trade war on Yerevan, banning the import of several products from Armenia.
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