Armenia: PM Pashinyan resorts to desperate means to cling to power

CAUCASUS / CENTRAL ASIA - In Brief 26 Jun 2025 by Ivan Tchakarov

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Pashinyan is getting rid of the opposition. I have spent a lot of time in the last month or so writing about Armenia, and it seems like with a good reason. The loss in the municipal elections in Gyumri, the rising momentum to impeach Pashinyan, and the PM's ill-fated attack on the Church are a few examples of the contentious internal dynamics in the country. My conjecture that "As the 2026 elections approach, I think that this conflict could lead to large-scale spectacles or more brutal forms of internal political conflict than Armenia has previously witnessed" has all but come to fruition with massive persecution of the opposition taking place in Armenia. The latest salvo was yesterday when the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan claimed that the security forces have prevented a “large-scale criminal-oligarchic-clerical” plan to seize power. The accusations are based on a document published in the media, which allegedly describes a “coup plan.” The opposition called the questionable pages of the text a fake. In the event, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the leader of the Holy Struggle movement, was detained. The Investigative Committee accused Galstanyan and his associates of preparing terrorist acts and seizing power. Searches were also conducted at the headquarters of the Dashnaktsutyun party. Pashinyan has taken a serious stance against the opposition and representatives of the Armenian Church, whom he perceives as a threat to his power. The conflict has been ongoing since 2020, when the general public, supported by the church, rejected the loss of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh and the concessions to Azerbaijan. Pashinyan is clearly aware that his party will not survive the si...