Samvel’s Campaign Cash, Robert’s Map, Nikol’s Sorrow, and Gagik’s Christ

Against a backdrop of clerics being arrested and priests competing in liturgies, local self-government elections will be held on November 16 in Vagharshapat (“Holy Etchmiadzin”). The main theme is the confrontation between the political authorities and the church elite – a conflict playing out ahead of the 2026 parliamentary elections. For most political forces, municipal elections are a secondary event; many are already looking toward June next year.

The most popular topic is peace. In the ruling party’s imagination, it has already been achieved. Every opposition force has its own “but.” Some demand peace – “but with dignity,” others peace – “but with Russia,” or peace – “but with Western mediation,” peace – “but with the return of the captives,” “but with Karabakh on the agenda, with the right of Artsakh Armenians to reclaim their homes.” Recently, this last demand has grown noticeably weaker, even in the rhetoric of the loudest patriots.

There’s also the social track: promises of jobs, high pensions, low taxes, targeted benefits. Parties that previously focused exclusively on foreign policy have recently discovered that a significant portion of the population, in addition to spiritual and patriotic sentiments, also has social problems.

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In early October, Robert Kocharyan, a former president of both Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, held a press conference. He showed up to meet journalists with an electronic map depicting Karabakh as part of Armenia. A few days later, his ally Garnik Danielyan was already speaking not about returning Karabakh, but about returning to Karabakh.

Kocharyan’s remarks covered everything, but especially the TRIPP project – a corridor-road through Meghri that would connect Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan. After a recent rebranding, it was renamed in honor of U.S. President Donald Trump. Kocharyan hinted that if elected, he would hand the road over to the Americans on more favorable terms.

Robert Kocharyan at a press conference / October 7, 2025

The ex-president spoke about Pashinyan’s “defeatism” (“Nikol gives everything away”); about corruption, with which he himself is often associated  (“there has never been corruption like this before”); and even about Poghos Poghosyan, whom his bodyguard beat to death for a too-familiar “hi, Rob” (“by that time I was already gone, even my mother called me Rob”).

The former president spoke about Pashinyan’s “defeatism” (“Nikol gives everything away”), about corruption — with which he is often associated himself (“there has never been corruption like this before”) — and even about Poghos Poghosyan, who was beaten to death by his bodyguard for an overly familiar “Hi, Rob” (“by that time I had already left; even my mother called me Rob”).

Kocharyan has no plans to wage war; there will be no revanche. According to “sociological estimates,” he said, Pashinyan will step down after the elections, and his own bloc, along with the team of arrested Russian billionaire and owner of Tashir Group Samvel Karapetyan – with whom Kocharyan is ready to cooperate – will enter Parliament. Later, Karapetyan’s nephew stated that they are not planning to cooperate either with Kocharyan or with the third president, Serzh Sargsyan.

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Samvel Karapetyan’s “In Our Way” movement already has pre-election offices in several regions. They have received the church’s blessing, but the party itself has not yet been registered. First, their leader is in prison. Second, he is a Russian citizen and cannot become Armenia’s prime minister. The movement is now busy looking for a formal leader and a legally eligible candidate.

A banner on the façade of the Tashir department store in Yerevan calling for the release of Karapetyan, known by the nicknames Tashir-Samo and Samo Kaluzhsky

The elder Karapetyan is represented by his nephew Narek, who promises re-industrialization and an economic miracle: dozens of new factories, jobs — to the unemployed, guaranteed markets — to the farmers, circuses — to circus lovers, and Soviet-style prosperity for Armenia’s regions.

Recently, Narek Karapetyan visited the United States to give a pre-election interview to Tucker Carlson

On social media, Karapetyan’s supporters have a recognizable style: uniform profiles generate enthusiastic comments in Armenian – clearly machine-translated. Offline, the “In Our Way” movement has mostly attracted those who split off from other opposition initiatives. For example, former Kocharyan lawyer Aram Vardevanyan, who was a deputy from the Armenia faction and an active participant in the Resistance Movement. Or lawyers Roman Yeritsyan and Arega Hovsepyan, who usually speak on behalf of Karabakh refugees. Recently, they targeted Karabakh civic activist Lianna Petrosyan, who had dared to discuss the social problems of displaced people with the new Minister of Social Affairs. “In Our Way” focuses on domestic politics. Even Arega Hovsepyan’s statements have become noticeably more restrained: at the movement’s congress, she made just one statement on behalf of the Artsakh Armenians – “the issue of return is not closed.”

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Robert Kocharyan’s votes are also expected to be siphoned off by former team member Andranik Tevanyan. At one point, he was part of the Armenia faction, but he entered Yerevan’s City Council as the leader of the new Mother Armenia bloc – with the support of the Dashnaktsutyun party and Kocharyan personally. Mother Armenia has decided to run independently in the 2026 elections. The party’s new abbreviation, MaHaK, translates as “club” or “baton.” According to Tevanyan, it refers to the saying: “befriend the dog, but don’t let go of the stick.” Tevanyan promises that if he wins, he will deliver “national, democratic changes of a peaceful nature,” replace “oligarchic capitalism with people’s capitalism with a human face,” and “create a system of global Armenianhood.”

Andranik Tevanian and his baton

And although Kocharyan’s party backbone is the Dashnaktsutyun, the party has already suggested it could run in the elections without him. The Dashnaks will not join In Our Way either, as Karapetyan’s team does not want them to. Dashnak Ishkhan Saghatelyan has been asserting for six years that “Nikol Pashinyan will not be able to achieve peace,” while they can, because if elected, they will negotiate better. He called the Armenian-Azerbaijani declaration renouncing military confrontation, signed on August 8 in Washington, unacceptable. On other issues, there is no clarity.

ARF Dashnaktsutyun symbols (“Death or Freedom,” “Vengeance, Vengeance”)

In early October, former commander of the Artsakh Defense Army and leader of the Liberal Party, Samvel Babayan, was considering forming a coalition with former head of Armenia’s National Security Service, Artur Vanetsyan. Babayan described Vanetsyan as a “young figure,” promising to help him establish himself. Vanetsyan’s party responded that their leader had no problem with that. Whether the collaboration actually took place remains unknown.

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Disagreements are apparent among the pro-European parties. Aram Sargsyan’s Republic, Arman Babajanyan’s For the Republic, and Tigran Khzmalyan’s European Party of Armenia no longer agree on everything. Unlike Sargsyan and Babajanyan, Khzmalyan is not enthusiastic about Trump’s road. In his view, it undermines the sovereignty of the Armenian state. He wants American mediation replaced purely with European mediation. In any case, their parties are ready to form a coalition with Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract.

Euro-renovation (Euroremont)

The national civic association Hayakve, which previously acted as an “independent monitoring organization,” is also preparing for the 2026 elections. The frontman of the association is Avetik Chalabyan, a civilization researcher and mining industry expert.

Even former ombudsman Arman Tatoyan has decided to run. To avoid associations with ex-presidents, his allies have been encouraging him since 2022 to run as a separate, undiscredited candidate. Now, many of them are disappointed by the ex-ombudsman’s slowness — and especially by his latest interview.

The symbol of his movement Wings of Unity is a winged bull — “strong and nonjudgmental.” In a CivilNet interview, Tatoyan indeed did not judge. He spoke of his intelligence, his studies in the U.S., Europe, and Russia, and promised that, if he came to power, he would lower taxes, grant benefits to investors from the Diaspora, avoid increasing the national debt, make healthcare free, and so on. Lately, his favorite topic has been “Western Azerbaijan.” This propagandistic thesis of Ilham Aliyev seems to frighten Tatoyan more than anything else.

The block of Shant Harutyunyan — a political prisoner from Tatoyan’s ombudsman days — is ready to cooperate with him.

To the left of Arman Tatoyan is Shahen Arutyunyan, the son of Shant Arutyunyan

The new constitutional movement Njar (“The Scales”) is not registered as a party. It was founded by former human rights advocate Nina Karapetyants, former member of the Citizen’s Decision party Garegin Miskaryan, and co-owner of the Mediamax news agency, entrepreneur and inventor Artashes Ikonomov.Two months after its founding, Miskaryan left Njar.Now Karapetyants and Ikonomov promise a female prime minister, a new Constitution, and declare their intention to radically change the system of government.

Ikonomov, Karapetyants, Miskaryan

Soon, the Brotherhood in Arms order of former Armenian National Congress member Grant Ter-Abramyan will become the National Revolution party. Whether they are preparing to participate in the elections is unknown. Brotherhood in Arms promises to take radical measures if Pashinyan dares to amend Armenia’s Constitution to accommodate Aliyev’s demands.

«Brotherhood in Arms»; second from the right is Grant Ter-Abramyan

Oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan is returning to politics. In recent years, he has been preoccupied with a monument to Jesus Christ.

His Prosperous Armenia party will run in the elections with the Proposalto Armenia platform, seeking to unite everyone who wants “the country to prosper, to be strong, independent, and powerful, and the people — wealthy.” Tsarukyan will join forces with the Democratic Alternative party, whose leader Suren Surenyants occasionally appears on Public TV under the opposition quota.

Gagik Tsarukyan and the monument to Jesus Christ (unfinished)

In 1991, the Mexican TV series “The Rich Also Cry” premiered on Soviet central television

A Tale of One Impeachment

The Republican Party of Serzh Sargsyan exudes passivity and apathy. Sargsyan believes it is too early to talk about elections. For the most part, the Republicans have been occupied with remote arguments with Kocharyan’s supporters. The teams of former presidents spent several months trying to figure out who actually brought Pashinyan to power.

Then the Republican faction “I Have the Honor” announced it would try to remove the prime minister before the elections through impeachment. This strange process has been dragging on for seven months.

The opposition had been talking about impeachment since the period of the “Sacred Struggle” of the arrested Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan. Everyone understood that the initiative would lead nowhere: there were not even enough votes to bring it onto Parliament’s agenda. Later, the topic of impeachment was taken up by former Armenian ambassador to Poland, blogger Edgar Gazaryan, and former adviser to ex-police chief Vova Gasparyan, Narek Malyan. They called on the parliamentary opposition to start the impeachment process, and the Republican faction got to work. It soon became clear that none of them had a candidate for the post of prime minister.

Narek Malyan and Edgar Gazaryan called for impeachment

The opposition parliamentary forces — the I Have the Honor and Armenia blocs — declared that they were ready to vote for each other’s candidates but would not put forward their own. In other words, the Republicans wanted Kocharyan to run, while Kocharyan’s team wanted the Republicans, who had initiated this saga, to find someone from among themselves. No solution was found, and expelled members of the parliamentary majority — Hovik Aghazaryan and Hakoբ Aslanyan — stepped in. They proposed Edmond Marukyan as a candidate. Kocharyan’s and Sargsyan’s blocs rejected the proposal. Marukyan, in turn, suggested the arrested Archbishop Mikayel Adjapayan, who declined.

I Have the Honor then proposed David Hambartsumyan — mayor of Masis, recently sentenced to six years and three months in prison for beating protesters in 2018. Ambartsumyan is now behind bars; at the time, he was free. The opposition needed four months to navigate the technical procedures required to submit the candidate’s nomination documents.

For the impeachment to proceed, at least 18 deputies had to support the opposition initiative. I Have the Honor claimed it had found these deputies. But when the impeachment project reached Parliament, not even the opposition voted for it: 10 of the 34 opposition deputies did not attend the session at all.

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In the center is Garegin II, to the right — Mikael Adjapayan

Last year, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan’s Sacred Movement failed to bring about a change of power through street protests and announced its participation in the 2026 elections. But Galstanyan and his associates have been arrested on charges of attempting a coup.

Previously, the Armenian Apostolic Church supported Kocharyan; now it has a new favorite. The Catholicos has already blessed the movement of Russian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, and clergymen take part in their rallies, pray, and speak from the podiums.

The prime minister on public transport

Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract is particularly energized after the “preliminary peace signing” in Washington, presented as a kind of rehabilitation following defeat in the Karabakh war, clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, thousands of casualties, and the expulsion of Armenians from Karabakh. The propaganda remains the same: if we are gone, tthere will be war. But the reasons for scandals keep changing: conflict with the church, “the government is me,” “the taste of the state will remain in your mouth,” and so on.

At the same time:

— The prime minister publishes short daily videos: enjoying music by Zemfira, Vysotsky, and Armenian and English-language hits; looking pensive, smiling kindly, making heart gestures with his fingers.
— Continues riding his bicycle.
— Reads fables.
— Grills shashlik on camera.
— Shows off new hats.
— His deputies mock opposition colleagues.
— His wife tirelessly photographs herself reading books.
— Deputies work as hosts on a news site serving Civil Contract.
— They talk about the emergence of the Fourth Republic, apparently replacing the Real Armenia, which itself replaced previous declarative concepts (“state-hearth,” “endless referendum,” “New Armenia,” “Agora,” etc.).
— Opposition members in Armenia are illegally wiretapped, with occasional leaks.
— Arrests of opponents of the government continue.
— Pashinyan is obsessed with a war against the Catholicos, participates in performances of the defrocked priest, and continues reading psalms.
— The government sometimes initiates reforms (often half-measures): a new medical insurance project, promises to raise civil servants’ salaries,amnesty for taxi drivers’ accumulated fines, and a shorter military service.