Analyst responds to Pashinyan's remarks about Vagharshapat election victory

Political analyst Suren Surenyants on Tuesday criticized Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s recent remarks about the ruling Civil Contract party’s victory in the Vagharshapat municipal elections, arguing that the authorities, not the opposition, have created the “apocalyptic” conditions the prime minister accuses his critics of promoting.

Pashinyan said on Tuesday the party’s win was due to its focus on “life”, while the opposition campaigned on “apocalypse”, adding that he expected a similar outcome in the 2026 parliamentary elections.

In a social media post, Surenyants called the accusation “strange”, saying it comes from a leader whose tenure has been marked by “a series of national disasters”.

He said the bleak political discourse stems from developments of the past six years, citing pointing to:

• territorial losses,
• heavy military casualties,
• the depopulation of Nagorno-Karabakh,
• new security threats along Armenia’s borders,
• the collapse of the national security system,
• a sharp deterioration in Armenia’s international standing.

Surenyants said Pashinyan continues to portray Civil Contract as the sole bearer of “life” and “peace” ahead of the 2026 elections despite his government’s track record of “unprecedented losses in Armenia’s modern history”.

He accused the prime minister of offering a “false dichotomy” – “life” with Civil Contract or “apocalypse” without it – while the Armenian people feel the real consequences of the government’s policies every day.

Surenyants added that the 2026 elections will not mirror the dynamics of the 2021 vote. “In those elections, it will not be the slogans that matter, but people’s lived experience and the consequences the state has endured,” he added.