Pashinyan Re-elected as Armenian Prime Minister but Falls Short of Constitutional Majority Amid Opposition Crackdown

Nikol Pashinyan secured re-election as prime minister of Armenia on Sunday. Armenia is a Caucasus nation of 3 million people. Pashinyan led the country through a devastating military defeat to Azerbaijan three years earlier.

Azerbaijan retook Nagorno-Karabakh by force in 2023. Armenian forces had controlled the territory for nearly three decades before the 2023 loss. The retaking triggered an exodus of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians.

Pashinyan’s victory came against a field dominated by pro-Russian opponents. Samvel Karapetyan, a billionaire businessman who made much of his fortune in Russia, emerged as the prime minister’s most prominent challenger. Central to Pashinyan’s election vision was a future peace deal with Azerbaijan and normalisation of ties with Turkey.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a series of bloody wars since the final years of the Soviet Union. The border between Armenia and Turkey has remained closed for more than three decades. Reopening those routes would create new trade opportunities and bring Armenia closer to Europe and the United States, Pashinyan argued.

Days before the election, he described his decision not to continue the struggle to reclaim Nagorno-Karabakh as one of his greatest achievements. “The most important thing that has happened is that the Republic of Armenia has been freed from the conflict trap,” Pashinyan told supporters.

Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Centre in Yerevan, said many Armenians had come to accept the loss.

“Armenia wants to cut its losses and move on,” Giragosian said. Not everyone agreed. On several occasions, Pashinyan was filmed in heated confrontations with refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh who scolded him for abandoning Armenia’s historic claims.