June: 4, 2026
About a week ago, US President Trump expressed his support for Nikol Pashinyan in a note, considering him a leader who “brings peace to Armenia”.
In February, when US Vice President Vance visited Armenia, he also openly expressed his support for Nikol Pashinyan, taking into account the upcoming parliamentary elections on June 7.
Political scientist Vazgen Hovhannisyan In short, it is difficult to say whether such encouraging words can secure votes for Nikol Pashinyan in the elections or not, because there is no indicator.
“Trump’s and Macron’s open support for Pashinyan, as well as the US Secretary of State’s visit to Armenia, if we analyze it politely, then all this is called a veil of external legitimacy. This is an accepted formula, especially in countries where there is a decline in internal legitimacy.
I think that after the elections, even if Nikol Pashinyan is re-elected, his internal legitimacy will fall, at the expense of which he is now trying to provide a veil of external legitimacy.” of 168.am said Vazgen Hovhannisyan in a conversation with
According to him, at the moment, for Nikol Pashinyan, it is not Armenian-American or Armenian-Russian relations that are important, but which external actors support him more to ensure the external component of legitimacy.
“I don’t think that Marco Rubio, who visited Armenia on May 26 and spoke at the US Congress, did not even say Nikol Pashinyan’s position correctly, he considered him the president of Armenia. In other words, the US Secretary of State does not even know that Armenia is a parliamentary government country. The high-ranking US official came to Armenia for 40 minutes on May 26, he did not even leave the airport, he came only to sign 3 memorandums,” the political scientist added.
According to him, these signed memoranda cannot be of strategic importance, they do not provide a certain legal basis for the cooperation of the states. A certain legal contract base is provided by clear contracts obtained as a result of long negotiations, which provide a chain of actions point by point.
“Furthermore, the addressee of all this was not Armenia, but Russia, we clearly see that the United States and Western countries support Nikol Pashinyan. This is logical, this is the formula for the struggle of various external power centers,” said Vazgen Hovhannisyan.
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