Armenians vote with peace efforts and Russia in focus

YEREVAN – Armenians head to the polls on Sunday in a parliamentary election seen as a test of the government’s efforts to forge a peace deal after a crushing military defeat by Azerbaijan three years ago.

Polls show Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party leading, backed by up to 32% of voters, with the pro-Russian Strong Armenia party trailing in second place with up to 11%.

Since coming to power in 2018 Pashinyan has moved Armenia closer to the West and away from traditional patron Russia, which has provoked Moscow’s ire in the lead-up to the vote.

GDP per capita has doubled under Pashinyan, a journalist and opposition activist turned politician. “I really like how Armenia has been growing right before my eyes,” 39-year-old voter Karine Darbinyan said at a rally for Pashinyan in Yerevan’s central square on Friday.

‘BALANCED FOREIGN POLICY’

Pashinyan has faced a wave of criticism from the opposition and some sections of the public, who have accused him of capitulating to Azerbaijan, particularly since the 2023 war.

He has countered by placing his peace effort centre stage in his campaign, above all the agreement he signed at the White House last August with Azerbaijan after fighting between the two had raged on and off since the late 1980s.

Pashinyan, asked by reporters outside a polling station in Yerevan after he voted on Sunday how he would manage relations with both Russia and the EU, said his government would provide a “balanced foreign policy” if re-elected.

Armenia’s opposition is dominated by pro-Russian groups including Strong Armenia, formed last year by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who wants to keep Armenia close to Russia, a key supplier of energy and buyer of exports.

UNDER HOUSE ARREST

Karapetyan, who was able to vote in person in Yerevan on Sunday despite being under house arrest for allegedly calling for the government to be overthrown – accusations he rejects as politically motivated – said he would also have Armenia strike a balanced foreign policy.

“We cannot say that we will have only good relations with Russia or only good relations with the United States,” he told reporters in comments broadcast by Armenian media.

At a Strong Armenia rally in Yerevan last week, a woman who gave her name only as Gayane said she supported Karapetyan because he would ensure “that our Armenia remains Armenian”.

She said her roots were in Nagorno-Karabakh, the breakaway territory inhabited by ethnic Armenians that was retaken by Azerbaijan in the 2023 war. The region’s entire Armenian population fled after the chaotic one-day lightning offensive.

“We lost Artsakh, hoping it would remain with us,” Gayane said, using a historic Armenian name for the territory.

“The current authorities have taken away that hope from us. And Samvel Karapetyan has now given us new hope that we can at least preserve our Armenia and our traditions.”

Critics and rights groups have accused Pashinyan of authoritarianism after many of his opponents have been jailed in recent years.

The government has broadly defended the actions of law enforcement agencies against individuals who it says are trying to foment coups.

A spate of arrests in the lead-up to the vote has targeted the opposition, including parliamentary candidates for the Strong Armenia party.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0400 GMT) and will close at 8 p.m. Some 2.48 million people are registered to vote in the landlocked country of 3 million. Turnout stood at roughly 14% as of 11 a.m.

The Health Ministry urged voters to ignore messages it said were coming in from foreign telephone numbers and email addresses spreading false information that bombs had been placed at some polling stations. It said police checks had revealed the warnings “do not correspond to reality”.

(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Andrew Heavens and David Holmes)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

Armenians vote with peace efforts and Russia in focus

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