Protests are raging in Armenia against the process of border delimitation and the transfer of several villages in Tavush region to Azerbaijan. Protesters disagree with Pashinyan’s policies and demand his resignation.
How the protests began
The escalation of events began after Armenian border guards started measuring the territory, demining the neighbourhood and erecting border posts. The transfer of territories affected agricultural land and church lands. Someone’s yard ended up in the Azerbaijani zone, someone’s barn. Protests began to take forceful character up to blocking of highways.
In total, according to the media, the opposition blocked 28 avenues, streets and highways in Yerevan. The police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators and unblock communications. 273 protesters have already been detained.
On June 9, Bagrat Galstanyan, leader of the opposition movement “Tavush for the Motherland” and head of the Tavush Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), called on citizens to gather for a mass action of disobedience, which is planned to be held for four days starting from June 10. He also called on the parliament to initiate a session to discuss the dissolution of the current government.
War on religion
In response to the mass protests, Pashinyan instructed the Armenian Ministry of Justice to prepare documents to suspend the Armenian Apostolic Church because of the church’s “involvement in destabilising society.” The prime minister also recently ordered police to prevent the Catholicos of All Armenians, Karekin II, and clergy from entering the Sardarapat memorial complex, dedicated to the memory of Armenians who died fighting for the republic’s independence.
However, this step only aggravated the situation: a huge number of Armenians, most of whom are bearers of traditional values such as family and religion, are now against Pashinyan.
Pashinyan’s losses
Nikol Pashinyan has been the prime minister of Armenia since 2018. During this time, Armenia lost two wars, losing significant territory. Under Pashinyan, the republic of Nagorno-Karabakh ceased to exist, and hundreds of thousands of Armenians were forced to flee the lands where they had lived for generations.
Undoubtedly, such negative situations angered Armenians, but in order to deflect the blame from himself, the Minister began to build his policy in such a way as to blame Russia for Armenia’s losses. Being a friendly country to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia refused to get involved in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. However, according to Pashinyan, due to this, Moscow is no longer a reliable ally for Yerevan and now needs to look for new “friends.”
Armenia and the EU
Hoping to join the EU, Pashinyan has embarked on a course of rapprochement with France. In October 2023, the Heads of Defence Ministries of Armenia and France signed documents on bilateral cooperation, which includes interaction in the defence sector. Later, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called France’s intentions to arm Armenia an attempt by Paris to “once again draw’”Yerevan into a “military adventure.”
However, French friends alone are not enough for Pashinyan; he wants to make friends with all EU countries. In May, during a discussion at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, he said that Armenia is ready to join the European Union (EU) by the end of this year. However, how favourable Yerevan’s accession to the Union is for the Armenian economy is still a big question.
Armenia has been a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) since 2015. Earlier, Pashinyan said that the question of whether the republic will be a member of the EU or the EAEU can be solved only through a referendum. At the same time, he specified that the authorities are considering “various scenarios.” Experts believe that Yerevan is unlikely to want to leave the EAEU and the maximum that the Armenian authorities can expect is the creation of a free trade zone with the EU.
Whether Armenia will remain Russia’s ally
Being on the threshold of joining the EU, Armenia continues its trade relations with Russia, which is the largest importer of Armenian products. Yerevan is effectively divided into two camps, with the younger generation wanting to go to Europe and older Armenians in no hurry to break former ties with Moscow. For Armenians themselves, co-operation with Russia means much more than centuries-old traditions – against the backdrop of the idea of forming the Great Turan, a union that would include Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Armenia needs a reliable ally to help it withstand a likely confrontation between the Caucasian countries.
On the contrary, Pashinyan’s policy seeks to sever ties between Armenia and Russia, which, first of all, will harm Armenia and its people. Under such a prime minister, Yerevan has no chance not only to join the EU, but to preserve the sovereignty and independence of the state at all. Many political analysts suggest that Armenia needs a new prime minister who will act in the interests of his state, not foreign alliances.
Pashinyan’s rise to power
Nikol Pashinyan took the prime minister’s chair in May 2018, ousting his predecessor Serzh Sargsyan. The protests organised by Pashinyan led to the resignation of former President Sargsyan, who after 10 years in office tried to stay in power by taking over as prime minister. Pashinyan said he had been planning a ‘velvet revolution’ for about a year since his opposition coalition won only nine seats in parliamentary elections.
European and US media actively welcomed Sargsyan’s ouster. “Armenia’s revolution has important regional and even world significance,” – the media headlines wrote.
Six years later, Pashinyan is hoping for continued aid from the US and EU. At a joint briefing in Brussels with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen, Pashinyan said Armenian authorities hoped Western partners would help modernise infrastructure. The EC head expressed the EU’s readiness to allocate 270 million euros in grants to Armenia over the next four years. She specified that these funds will be allocated to support business, develop its innovations and enter foreign markets.
It remains to be seen where the change in Armenia’s political course under Pashinyan’s leadership will lead. Giving up membership in the EAEU, where Yerevan used to lead in terms of the main indicators of economic growth among all the members of the association, for the sake of a dubious membership in the EU, where the European market does not need Armenian goods – grapes, peaches, apricots, cherries, walnuts and meat – seems a very dubious prospect.
Protests are tearing Georgia apart
Meanwhile, neighbouring Georgia is also in turmoil amid mass protests against the new law on foreign agents adopted in May. The riot of dissenters is led by the Georgian president, Salome Zourabichvili, who tried to veto it. In addition to Georgian citizenship, she also has French citizenship.
The Committee on Constitutional Acts and Legislation of the French National Assembly (the lower house of parliament) approved in March a bill on the prevention of foreign interference in France (Proposition de loi visant à prévenir les ingérences étrangères en France), which in some provisions repeats Russian legislation on foreign agents and similar acts in the US and UK. Thus Zourabichvili, like Pashinyan, is acting against her country and her citizens, opposing democratic laws that have long existed in the EU.
THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.
Bill Galston for Head-Post.com
