Armenian Parliament elects new speaker as Catholicos skips session for first t

The first session of parliament was held amidst political reshuffles inside the ruling Civil Contract party, opposition leaders facing criminal charges or placed under investigation, and the conflict between the church and government deepening further.

Civil Contract holds 64 seats in parliament, followed by the Strong Armenia Alliance, which holds 29, and Armenia Alliance with 12.

The largest opposition party, the Strong Armenia Alliance, had earlier named Narek Karapetyan as the leader of its parliamentary faction. Narek Karapetyan led most campaigning efforts for the Alliance during the elections on behalf of his uncle, Samvel Karapetyan, the formal leader of the group, who was barred from running for parliament on account of his dual citizenship. He is currently under house arrest and is facing criminal charges of calling for the usurpation of power and money-laundering.

The other opposition force, Armenia Alliance, went to parliament without its leader, former President Robert Kocharyan, who once again left his seat unclaimed.

After the elections in June both Narek Karapetyan and Kocharyan were stripped of their parliamentary immunity by the Central Election Commission (CEC), allowing prosecutors to place them under investigation.

Catholicos Karekin II was also absent from the session, a break from his tradition of attending inaugural parliamentary sessions.

Civil Contract’s new speaker

Civil Contract and Pashinyan made several changes to the cabinet and party’s compositions since the June elections.

In early July, Parliamentary Speaker Alen Simonyan left office after unexpectedly losing Civil Contract’s backing to remain on as speaker.

The party nominated Ruben Rubinyan as his replacement on Sunday. Rubinyan, 36, served simultaneously as Armenia’s official envoy in the Armenia–Turkey normalisation process and as Simonyan’s deputy since 2021.

He was elected as speaker on Monday, with Civil Contract voting unanimously in favour, Strong Armenia voting against, and Armenia Alliance abstaining. Rubinyan promised ‘to be the speaker of the entire [parliament]’.

In a short exchange with journalists after the first session on Sunday, Rubinyan was asked if the Catholicos was invited.

‘I do not know any Catholicos now’, Rubinyan said in response.

Tensions between Pashinyan’s government and the Church have continued to simmer since Civil Contract’s reelection. It was triggered after Pashinyan  criticised the Church’s leadership for failing to properly maintain churches across the country. As accusations against the Church, and specifically against Karekin II, continued to grow, Pashinyan gradually made clear that he was seeking to oust the Catholicos.

Also on Sunday, Rubinyan stood for a traditional questioning by MPs. Opposition MPs appeared to have focused on Rubinyan’s family’s finances, his connections with Turkish nationals he had met while conducting research in Istanbul from 2017–2018 under the Hrant Dink Foundation’s fellowship programme, and whether he was particularly close to any Turkish people or had ties to the Turkish state.

Monday’s session primarily focused on Civil Contract’s candidate for deputy speaker, Hayk Konjoryan, and two controversies in which he was embroiled.

The first concerned his brother, who was beaten on the night of 23 July in an incident the Investigative Committee says led to a criminal case for ‘physical abuse and hooliganism by a group of individuals’. A relative of one of those accused of attacking Konjoryan’s brother alleged that he had repeatedly harassed their household with sexual insults beforehand.

In the second case, RFE/RL’s reported that Konjoryan’s wife, Haypost CEO Shushan Aleksanyan, received a $10,000 salary despite Haypost’s deteriorating finances in 2025. In response, Konjoryan claimed in parliament on Monday that his wife is the lowest-paid CEO in Haypost’s history.

On Monday, Pashinyan also formed his new government, mostly retaining its existing structure, but replacing the Minister of High-Tech Industry and his Chief of Staff.

He appointed Davit Tadevosyan as High-Tech Minister, replacing Mkhitar Hayrapetyan. Tadevosyan has a background in mining, metallurgy, and large industrial project management. Pashinyan appointed Armenia’s former Ambassador to the US, Lilith Makunts, as his Chief of Staff, replacing  Arayik Harutyunyan.

In the current composition of parliament, Pashinyan is six votes short of the two-thirds needed to amend the constitution as precondition for finalising the peace agreement with Azerbaijan.

Although he insists that the change of constitution is not based on Azerbaijan’s demands, Azerbaijani officials have repeatedly stated that Armenia’s constitution contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan and demanded that it be changed, making it one of the biggest roadblocks to the signing of the peace treaty initialled in Washington in August 2025.

Armenia’s constitution references the Declaration of Independence, which in turn says the declaration was ‘based’ on a joint decision made by Soviet Armenia’s Supreme Council and the Nagorno-Karabakh National Council on the ‘reunification’ of the two territories.