Zaruhi Batoyan, a member of parliament from the ruling Civil Contract party, has drafted a bill proposing stricter penalties for domestic and family violence, the abolition of warnings as a protective measure, and expanded safeguards for victims.
Batoyan presented the package of legislative amendments in the National Assembly.
“The purpose of adopting the package of bills is to improve the effectiveness of protection for victims of domestic and family violence and ensure a more victim-centered investigation of cases,” she said.
Batoyan said the warning should be abolished because it does not provide effective protection or impose restrictions, but merely involves a police officer warning the perpetrator.
The package also proposes expanding the scope of cases in which participation in rehabilitation programs is mandatory.
“We are making it mandatory for perpetrators to undergo rehabilitation programs not only when a court issues a protective order, but also when a police officer issues an emergency intervention order,” Batoyan said.
An emergency intervention order would also be issued if a person had been subjected to violence more than once in the preceding year. Police officers responding to reports of violence would be required to use portable audio-video recording or photographic equipment while exercising their powers.
The proposed amendments would also expand the definition of physical violence to include depriving a person of assistive devices or aids.
Amendments to the Criminal Code would introduce harsher penalties for crimes against persons committed within family and domestic relationships. The definitions of physical and psychological abuse committed by a family member would also be expanded.
“We propose ruling out exemption from criminal liability on the grounds of genuine remorse in cases of domestic and family violence. We also propose stipulating in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia that criminal prosecution for offenses involving domestic and family violence be conducted through public prosecution, regardless of whether the prosecutor initiates it,” Batoyan said.
According to Batoyan, electronic means could be used to monitor compliance with restrictions on approaching or contacting a protected person.
The package also proposes prohibiting house arrest for an accused person who lives with the victim if it is impossible to ensure that either of them resides elsewhere during the proceedings.
A separate amendment concerns the procedure for questioning victims.
“We stipulate that, as a rule, a victim in proceedings concerning an offense involving domestic and family violence is questioned only once. The victim may refuse additional questioning, except where it is necessary to clarify circumstances that became known to the body conducting the proceedings after the initial questioning,” Batoyan said.
During a working visit to the United States, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Armenia Arthur Poghosyan met at the White House with Victor Avila, Assistant Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and U.S. Interdiction Coordinator.
Armenia’s Ambassador to the United States, Narek Mkrtchyan, also attended the meeting.
According to Armenia’s Investigative Committee, the parties discussed issues related to joint efforts to combat transnational crime, particularly the illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
They also addressed current methods for combating the spread of synthetic drugs, improving mechanisms for the prompt exchange of information, and ongoing reforms in the law enforcement system.
Poghosyan praised the effective cooperation established with U.S. partners, emphasizing the importance of applying the latest technological solutions and advanced methodologies in combating crime.
Victor Avila, in turn, welcomed the Armenian side’s readiness to cooperate and the progress of the ongoing reforms, reaffirming U.S. support for developing the capacities of Armenia’s law enforcement agencies and expanding joint programs.
Armenian Parliament Speaker Ruben Rubinyan has cautioned the public about a fake social media account impersonating him.
“Dear citizens, a fake social media account has been created using my name and photo, and fake messages are being sent to people from that account,” Rubinyan said on Facebook.
“Please be vigilant and do not respond to such messages,” Rubinyan added, urging the public to remain alert and ignore messages sent from the fake account.
Statement ahead of the 3rd South Caucasus Regional Dialogue Forum
“Ways for future action”
The Armenia-Azerbaijan Strategic Expert Platform was set up in 2024, with the help of LINKS Europe, to provide a continuous space where Armenian and Azerbaijani experts can hold direct discussions and analysis, in compliment with wider processes involving governments and other initiatives, including those involving civil society and academia.
The current members of the platform, all of who serve in a personal capacity, are: from Armenia, Dr Stepan Grigorian, Dr Benyamin Poghosyan and Mr Johnny Melikyan; and from Azerbaijan, Dr Anar Valiyev, Mr Mehman Aliyev and Mr Ramazan Samadov. Mr Murad Muradov is a guest-member and attends meetings. Dr Dennis Sammut represents LINKS Europe on the Platform.
South Caucasus Regional Dialogue Forum
The members of the platform welcome the holding of the 3rd South Caucasus Regional Dialogue Forum. Regional dialogue must form the basis on which future relations between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia can and should be built.
The members of the platform recall the first South Caucasus Regional Dialogue Forum held in Kachreti in August 2023, and the second forum held in Tbilisi in October 2025, and they recognise the importance of the discussions held at both events which were attended by many participants from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as leading members of the international community.
We need more open dialogue, we need to involve more stakeholders, and we need to expand the themes under discussion.
It is now time for region co-operation to become tangible, and for the three countries to work together on matters of strategic importance.
The quest for peace in the South Caucasus
The signing of the Washington declaration, and the initialling of the Armenia – Azerbaijan peace agreement, at the White House on 8th August 2025, was truly historic event and a potential game changer for the whole region. Yet this process is incomplete – the peace agreement has not yet been signed. And as Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev emphasized several times, “peace is still fragile, and it needs to be protected and needs to be consolidated”.
Armenian and Azerbaijani members of the platform warn against complacency in supporting peace efforts. The task is not yet finished, and efforts must be exerted to ensure lasting peace, stability and prosperity in South Caucasus. Work for peace must be sustained.
The members of the platform welcome the four reports of the Thematic Groups that brought together 42 Armenian and Azerbaijani experts. The four reports agreed in November 2025, contain many important and useful ideas many of which are essential if Armenia-Azerbaijan peace is going to be build on solid and sustainable grounds. This work must be sustained.
Lasting and sustainable peace is only possible if there is a betterunderstanding between two societies.
The South Caucasus is a key – not just a transit corridor: a region connecting regions
We, Armenian and Azerbaijani members of the Strategic Expert Platform strongly believe in the importance of the South Caucasus, as a region connecting regions, of its huge potential, and its resourcefulness. It is however important to underline that the region is a key, not a transit corridor. Those who think of it simply as a transit point are mistaken. The countries of the South Caucasus have hundreds of years of experience of engaging, to the north, to the south, the East and the west. They are the key that opens and connects. Russia, Turkey, Iran, the European Union, Central Asia, Ukraine, the Arab Gulf countries, and others, are the potential partners of the South Caucasus, and the future must be built together, based on mutual respect.
Iran is a neighbour; the South Caucasus should provide a space for a new Euro-Iranian Dialogue
Iran is our neighbour and has historically played a significant role in the lives of the peoples of the South Caucasus.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani members of the Strategic Platform appreciate the nuanced and sophisticated way that Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have dealt with Iran, and Iranian issues, since June 2025
We believe that Armenia and Azerbaijan can and should actively help reduce tensions surrounding Iran.
Within its capabilities, our expert platform is ready to support contacts between experts and civil society representatives, put forward proposals to build trust, and facilitate dialogue between Iran and Europe.
Such a contribution to peacebuilding efforts is needed now since the future of our neighbouring country, and the well-being of its population, are directly linked to the security and sustainable development of our region.
The South Caucasus and Central Asia
The countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia share a common recent history. Economic, social and human ties developed over decades, and this included the common experience of building independent statehood following the dissolution of the USSR. Despite differences in their development paths, the South Caucasus and Central Asia face common tasks: strengthening sovereignty, developing state institutions, modernising economies and improving the well-being of citizens. This shared experience and these common goals provide a basis for cooperation on an equal footing.
Combining the efforts of the countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia can foster regional integration based on respect for sovereignty and mutual benefit. The members of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Strategic Expert Platform advocate developing links between the two regions in production, transport, energy, education and humanitarian cooperation. The expansion of the Middle Corridor connecting Central Asia, the Caucasus and Europe should also serve the development of local economies and strengthen direct ties between societies.
The European Union is an important partner for the South Caucasus; its engagement must be more strategic and focused.
The members of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Strategic Expert Platform positively assess the role of the European Union in the South Caucasus over the last three decades. They appreciate the contribution and consistency of the European Union and its member states, as well as other countries members of the European Political Community, in supporting the independence and statehood of the South Caucasus countries over the years.
The region has in front of it new opportunities, and new challenges. This requires a more focused and strategic approach on the part of the European Union towards the region. It also requires the countries of the region to be more active in engaging with European initiatives. An assessment of future relations is now necessary, and the members of the platform declare their readiness to contribute to this essential dialogue.
The members of the Platform call on the EU to use its political, moral and knowledge capital to contribute to the progress on humanitarian issues that are of concern for Armenia and Azerbaijan.
There are some problems that simply are too big for any one country to deal with, or the solution lays in a wider context. Humanitarian issues, Water, environment and landmines are such topics, where urgent, common action is needed.
Landmines, and remaining humanitarian issues constitute one of the biggest and most serious problems facing the region. The countries of the region must work together on these issues, and we support a regional approach. The members of the platform welcome the efforts of the regional campaign Landmine Free South Caucasus and commend its objectives.
Investing in people
The Armenian and Azerbaijani members of the Strategic Platform strongly believe in the importance of investing in people and developing human capital if the future of the region is to be secured. This requires as a priority investment in young people and education. The members of the platform wish to propose that a South Caucasus Youth Centre be established in the region, initially in Georgia, modelled on the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg, with the participation of the regional countries and the international community, and that this could be a living example of the new South Caucasus build on the basis of friendship, mutual respect and solidarity.
Working in partnership
Peace, prosperity, regional-co-operation and solidarity can be achieved by the people of the South Caucasus, working in partnership together and with the people of neighbouring regions. We, the Armenian and Azerbaijani members of the Strategic Expert Platform, commit ourselves to this objective .
From a hillside above Armenia’s Shikahogh nature reserve, local official Marat Harutyunyan pointed to forests cleared for Azerbaijan’s military, construction Yerevan says threatens rare wildlife and the livelihoods of local villagers.
The battle over the fate of the forest exposes the deep, lingering tensions between the two countries as they seek to broker a lasting peace after three decades of hostility and multiple wars.
In advances in 2021-2022, Azerbaijan captured parts of the reserve that lies along the countries’ shared border.
The conflict culminated in 2023 when it retook Karabakh from Armenian separatists, prompting the entire Armenian population — some 100,000 people — to flee.
The two countries have since tried to broker a permanent peace deal and last year initialled an agreement in Washington, seen as a major step towards ratification.
But while the capitals talk of detente, in the rural southern Armenian region of Syunik, residents are still on edge.
Nearby Azerbaijani military positions and landmines cause them to fear for their safety.
“All the land is directly in the enemy’s sights,” said Harut Aghatelyan, a 35-year-old biologist who has worked at the reserve for the past 15 years.
He has repeatedly found dead animals with missing legs — blown up in landmine blasts that echo through the woods.
– ‘Cut down everything’ –
After seizing part of the area, Azerbaijan’s military is now building wide forest paths to improve access and supply lines.
Above Srashen village, pale roads snake through the autumn woodland, and a police checkpoint blocks the old route towards the reserve.
Hilltop Armenian and Azerbaijani flags mark competing positions, sometimes only a few hundred metres apart.
Azerbaijan’s advances have left a nearby village, Nerkin-Hand, surrounded on three sides, as its troops “occupy more than 2,700 hectares of the reserve and several hundred hectares of agricultural land”, Harutyunyan, the Armenia official, said.
“They cut down everything, without checking whether a species is in the Red Book or not,” he added, referring to Armenia’s register of endangered species.
Armenia has highlighted the issue as it hosts the UN’s COP17 biodiversity summit in Yerevan, where states gather to review global efforts to protect species and their habitats.
– ‘Large-scale ecocide’ –
Azerbaijan has rejected accusations of occupying Armenian territory, saying that the border in the area has not been formally demarcated.
Established in 1958, Shikahogh covers roughly 12,400 hectares of oak and beech forests, plane tree groves and yew — an endangered species.
It also shelters Caucasian leopards, brown bears and bezoar goats.
Harutyunyan fears tree felling and engineering work could trigger landslides, mudflows and rockfalls.
But the military presence and landmines have made assessing the consequences on the ground impossible, residents and specialists say.
“Nobody knows the true extent of the damage,” said forest expert Ayser Ghazaryan.
His analysis of satellite images indicates earthworks across about 90 hectares, including some 60 hectares of forest, and the felling of an estimated 14,000 to 16,000 cubic metres of timber.
It is not clear whether a full recovery from what he called “large-scale ecocide” is even possible.
– ‘No security’ –
The loss of farmland and grazing is also threatening locals’ livelihoods.
Muraz Arzumanyan, 26, is unemployed and lives with his parents. Trained as a metallurgist, he previously served as a soldier with the Armenian army.
“How can I start a family and have children when there is no security?” he said.
“I cannot imagine my child growing up here, going into the yard to play and run around, constantly in someone’s sights.”
The school in Shikahogh has just one pupil.
Elderly residents say they can no longer visit relatives’ graves.
The municipality runs free buses and hopes those who left will one day return.
Aghatelyan, the biologist, meanwhile is determined to stay.
He raises rabbits and refuses to leave the village where his family has lived for generations.
“I was born and grew up surrounded by forests. I love these forests,” he said.
“My child is 18 months old, and I want him to grow up here.”
Gevorg Grigoryan, a 23-year-old who holds both Armenian and Russian citizenship, has been sentenced to 9.5 years in prison by a court in the Siberian city of Chita over comments he had made on social media years before. Sources told the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona that Grigoryan had been angered by Russian inaction during Azerbaijan’s 2023 offensive into Nagorno-Karabakh, and wrote ‘Hitler should have destroyed them all’, referring to Russians, and that ‘after Ukraine, [Russian troops] will enter Armenia’.
Grigoryan was charged with spreading ‘fake’ information about the military, disseminating military ‘fakes’, ‘rehabilitating Nazism’, and calling for ‘terrorism’ and ‘extremism’. In a statement following his arrest in 2025, Russia’s Investigative Committee said he wrote ‘comments containing offensive language’ and also ‘openly supported the ideology of Nazism’.
The charges have become increasingly commonplace since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and accompanying crackdown on freedom of _expression_ in Russia. There have been hundreds of documented cases over the following years of prison sentences being handed down for similar charges pertaining to social media comments or other statements criticising Russia or its military aggression against Ukraine.
While Russia was not treaty-bound to support Nagorno-Karabakh during the final offensive in 2023, it did have peacekeeping operations on the ground, which did not act to prevent the outbreak of violence. Under obligations of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), which both Russia and Armenia are members of, Russia was required to come to Armenia’s aid during Azerbaijani incursions into its internationally recognised territory in 2021 and 2022, but did not.
The failure of either Russia or the CSTO to act at that time has been a key factor in the turning of Armenian public opinion away from Russia, and has also led to Armenia freezing its participation in the CSTO.
Armenia plans to auction off its first new biometric passport, numbered 0000001, with the redesigned passports set to be issued from November. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the decision during Thursday’s government session, as his cabinet discussed approving the new procedure for obtaining the passports.
The design of the new passports was unveiled in late April. Their introduction has prompted controversy — mainly over what critics claim is a deliberate choice to exclude Mount Aratat from one image and that those born in Nagorno-Karabakh will all have Azerbaijan listed as their place of birth. In the old passports, there was an inconsistent style, with people born in the same settlement receiving different birthplace designations — including Azerbaijan, Armenia or simply the name of their town or village.
Ahead of issuing new passports, the authorities appear to launch an offline campaign, with statues of the new passport being installed in Yerevan’s Republic Square, along with similar posters displayed in the city.
Armenia begins printing new biometric passports amid design and birthplace controversy
On Thursday, Pashinyan himself raised the question of who should receive the passport bearing the number 0000001.
‘You know that in our society, there is a particular fascination with numbers. For example, there is a passport with the number 0000001. So the question is: who will get that passport?’, Pashinyan said, adding that the government had decided it would be issued for an additional fee.
However, the government appeared undecided about whether to offer the passport at a fixed price or through an auction.
‘I don’t know whether it will be through an auction or […] no, at a fixed price’, Pashinyan said after Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan suggested there will be a fixed price. He stressed that the price should be very high.
After other government members pointed out what would happen if several people might be willing to pay the asking price, Pashinyan suggested that the government could adjust its approach to meet demand.
‘If there will be a long queue, why not take advantage of the opportunity’, Pashinyan said, implying that they could hold an auction.
The proceeds would be reinvested in the passport system, Pashinyan said, adding that the government should adopt this approach more broadly.
‘Generally, we should apply this approach wherever possible, because it is ultimately a source of revenue. Anything that attracts interest has value, and anything that has value represents a source of revenue. Therefore, we should generate that revenue for the Republic of Armenia or its infrastructure’, Pashinyan concluded.
Pashinyan has not ruled out the possibility as Azerbaijan puts pressure on Armenia to change its constitution before signing a peace treaty.
by Ani Ghulinyan
30 October 2026
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has refused to rule out calling snap elections, just five months after winning the June parliamentary elections.
Despite their win, the ruling Civil Contract party lacks the two-thirds majority required to call a referendum to amend the constitution, something Azerbaijan has declared a precondition for the signing of a peace deal.
Armenian government faces uphill battle over new constitution following election results
As a result, during a press briefing on 22 October, Pashinyan said if the government failed to convince the opposition to support holding a referendum on a new constitution, he might have to return to the voters in the hope of achieving the majority.
What is wrong with the current constitution?
Part of Armenia’s current constitution — adopted in 1995 through a referendum and amended in 2005 and 2015 — references the Declaration of Independence, which in turn was ‘based’ on a joint decision made by Soviet Armenia’s Supreme Council and the Nagorno-Karabakh National Council on the ‘reunification’ of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has repeatedly demanded that the constitution be changed to remove that clause, and has said no peace treaty can be signed until then.
Explainer | The Washington summit one year on — Armenia and Azerbaijan’s progress towards real peace
Pashinyan first linked the need for a new constitution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process in 2024, comparing it to red clothing that triggers a bull.
‘In other words, we need to solve the issue of that red cloth, but by changing the red cloth with a cloth of another colour, we do not get a guarantee, while with a red cloth we get a negative guarantee; with the other cloth we get a chance, but no guarantee. And if we act competently, we will turn that chance into a guarantee’, Pashinyan said in January 2024.
At the time, Pashinyan denied that there was any external pressure on the process of amending the constitution, a claim he has continued to express:
‘First, I must state that the agenda for a new constitution is purely an Armenian domestic agenda, not only because we adopted this agenda back in February 2020 and announced it, but also because now the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, by voting in favour of the Civil Contract party, also voted in favour of this agenda’, Pashinyan said in August 2026.
Two months later, Pashinyan announced that the peace agreement with Azerbaijan could be signed as early as 2027 or 2028. The statement came the day after Azerbaijani MP Gaya Mammadov shared Azerbaijan’s concerns over ‘Armenia’s apparent attempts to delay creating the conditions necessary for signing the peace agreement and fulfilling its other obligations’.
Political scientist Narek Sukiasyan argues that Azerbaijan’s demand for constitutional change in Armenia is a completely formal issue that does not make practical sense, nor would it have practical implications for the actual peace process.
‘The dilemma was imposed by Azerbaijan, and in a way it has cornered itself, as well as Armenia, in an impasse that will be difficult to overcome. This is not only because changing a constitution is typically a difficult undertaking, but also because the chances of the referendum passing are not particularly high’, Sukiasyan tells OC Media, adding that ‘Aliyev’s statements do not help public perception in Armenia; they reinforce the belief that this is another step towards further humiliating the population’.
At the same time, he argues that the recent waves of statements from Armenia about constitutional changes are largely motivated by the need to reassure Azerbaijan of Armenia’s commitment to the peace process.
‘That commitment experienced a cold shower after the diplomatic tour organised by Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration for Armenian cultural heritage sites in Karabakh, which was followed by a corresponding response from Yerevan’, he adds.
Foreign diplomats visit the Gandzasar monastery in Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2026. Photo via Azertac.
In any case, while the Armenian government has set multiple deadlines for publishing the new constitution text, no progress has been apparent. The most recent promised deadline is ‘by the end of the year’.
Sukiasyan believes one of the reasons the text was not published before the June parliamentary elections were due to fears it could have backfired, with the omission of the Declaration of Independence potentially playing into the hands of the opposition. However, if that were the only reason, Sukiasyan argues that the safer move would have been to publish the draft immediately after the elections, which did not happen. Therefore, he says, beyond any political reasoning, it is possible that the text is simply not ready.
Why is Pashinyan seeking a constitutional majority?
While the pressure from the Azerbaijani side continues, Pashinyan has found himself with limited options to move forward. Armenian legislation requires a referendum to amend or adopt a new constitution, yet holding such a referendum would require a two-thirds majority in the parliament, which Civil Contract does not possess. And even after that, Pashinyan would need a ‘yes’ vote from at least 25% of registered voters.
Currently, as a result of the June parliamentary elections, Civil Contract holds 64 seats in parliament, followed by the Strong Armenia Alliance, which holds 29, and the Armenia Alliance with 12. This means it is short of six mandates to provide the 70 seats necessary to set a referendum.
The opposition has repeatedly ruled out any possibility that any of them would side with Civil Contract. Armenia faction MP Anna Grigoryan told parliament in August that they are willing to discuss and negotiate on other issues, but not this one, calling the concept ‘Aliyev’s Constitution’.
Despite the backlash, Sukiasyan does not rule out the possibility that Pashinyan will be able to acquire the necessary 70 votes in the current parliament.
‘First, the vote triggering the referendum is a secret ballot, so working behind the scenes with individual members of the opposition may prove to be a possible option. Second, it is worth asking how likely the opposition is, beyond its public statements, to actually go into another round of national elections, considering the resources required and perhaps also the timing․ Though the Armenian opposition does not lack financial resources, its readiness to engage in an intense long-term confrontation is yet to be tested’, Sukiasyan says.
Indeed, it seems apparent that Pashinyan’s government does not want to hold snap elections without first trying to negotiate with the opposition.
In response, the opposition has raised concerns that even if they agree to support the referendum, it may not be Azerbaijan’s only precondition for signing the peace agreement.
Armenian opposition accuses government of adjusting new constitution to Azerbaijan’s demands
‘If we have approval that this is the final move before the peace agreement, will you come with us to carry it out? Think about it and let us know’, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said in parliament on 29 October.
He also urged the opposition to vote in favour of the referendum, adding that if Civil Contract does not secure the necessary votes to change the constitution, they would resign.
In turn, Pashinyan added that they would find other ways to pressure the opposition.
‘There is a very high probability that this will not lead to early elections. On the contrary, we will make an offer that the opposition cannot refuse. Yesterday, they allowed us to conduct the process in such a way that public pressure would be generated on the opposition, enabling them to make a referendum on a new constitution possible through their vote’, Pashinyan said.
Sukiasyan believes that regardless of the ruling party’s tactics, the opposition will definitely interpret constitutional change as a national issue. Therefore, in order to succeed, the ruling party will need to implement a massive rebranding campaign and get rid of the image of it being ‘Aliyev’s project’.
‘The technique we can already see in that campaign is the concept of “Real Armenia”. The new constitution is supposed to establish the strategic code that the ruling party adopted at one of its recent party conventions’, Sukiasyan says.
Pashinyan’s ‘Real Armenia’ ideology redefines Armenian identity and statecraft around the internationally recognised sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia (29,743 square kilometres), rather than historical and territorial claims..
Can Pashinyan win a snap election?
If the ruling party opts for snap elections, a favourable outcome is far from guaranteed.
As Sukiasyan notes, snap elections more often than not favour the incumbent, who controls the timing, can start preparations earlier, and can set the agenda.
Yet, Civil Contract has won a constitutional majority only once, in 2018, when they took 70% of the vote at the peak of their popularity, just months after the Velvet Revolution. At that time, they used the opportunity to schedule a constitutional referendum, which was cancelled shortly thereafter due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The party’s support has fallen at every election since: 54% in the 2021 snap elections and 50% in 2026.
Armenia’s election code ensures that no matter what the electoral calculus in allocating seats, no party can receive a constitutional majority unless they receive over two-thirds of votes.
A second obstacle is that, if the party does secure a constitutional majority and schedules a referendum, they would need ‘yes’ votes from at least 25% of all registered voters. Average turnout in the last three parliamentary elections was only 52%.
However, several developments could work in Civil Contract’s favour. New legislation restricts voting rights for citizens who have not lived in Armenia during the past year, and as a result, around 70,000 people have been struck off the voter registry since the June elections. Because the pool of registered voters has decreased, the party could potentially win a larger share of the vote, and therefore more parliamentary seats.
The opposition’s weakness is another factor. The leaders of all three main opposition parties are facing criminal proceedings. The founder of the Strong Armenia party Samvel Karapetyan is under house arrest, Prosperous Armenia leader Gagik Tsarukyan is in detention, and Armenia Alliance leader, former president Robert Kocharyan’s pre-trial detention has just been extended by another two months.
While it seems clear Pashinyan is willing to take Armenia to another snap election, there are no clear timelines on when such a vote could take place, if it comes to that. However, Pashinyan’s commitment to signing the peace agreement in either 2027 or 2028 suggests that the elections and the following referendum (if the necessary votes are obtained), must happen before then.
The confrontation has renewed debate over parliamentary discipline and new rules to curb disruptive behaviour
ByMa. Kyla Morco
Armenia’s parliament descended into a mass brawl on 29 October after ruling-party MP Taron Chakhoyan revived a controversial remark about creating a ‘ministry to satisfy women,’ prompting a confrontation with opposition leader Narek Karapetyan.
The clash erupted during a debate over the election of a member of the Audit Chamber, with lawmakers from the ruling Civil Contract party and opposition Strong Armenia faction exchanging blows. The violence reportedly spread beyond the chamber into a parliamentary corridor, where security personnel and other MPs tried to separate those involved.
The confrontation has put the Assembly’s disciplinary procedures under renewed scrutiny, coming just weeks after a parliamentary committee presented eight principles intended to improve lawmakers’ conduct.
The Remark That Triggered the Confrontation
Chakhoyan referred to an earlier statement by Sargis Karapetyan, Narek Karapetyan’s cousin and the son of businessman Samvel Karapetyan. The controversial remark concerned a proposed ‘ministry to satisfy women’ if the opposition movement came to power.
According to Speaker Ruben Rubinyan, Chakhoyan reminded the opposition leader that his cousin had not apologised for the statement. Karapetyan initially responded from his seat before approaching the podium. The exchange escalated into a physical confrontation involving members of both political camps.
The original comment had attracted controversy months earlier, after Sargis Karapetyan made remarks about women’s satisfaction in a discussion about the opposition movement’s vision for Armenia. Chakhoyan’s decision to bring it up during a parliamentary debate turned the earlier controversy into a fresh confrontation between rival factions.
Speaker Blames Opposition Leader as MPs Report Injuries
Rubinyan placed primary responsibility for the incident on Karapetyan, saying he had reviewed footage of the exchange during a break in proceedings. ‘Mr. Karapetyan, you failed to control your emotions, made offensive remarks from your seat, and then stood up and attempted to hit Taron Chakhoyan,’ Rubinyan said.
The Speaker also alleged that opposition MP Garnik Davtyan struck Chakhoyan during the fight. These claims reflect Rubinyan’s account and should not be treated as an independent finding about who initiated the violence.
Footage and subsequent reports indicated that the confrontation continued outside the chamber. Opposition MP Andranik Gevorgyan was reported to have a bleeding nose, while fellow MP Ruben Mkhitaryan’s clothes were reportedly torn.
An ambulance was sent to the National Assembly after a call was received at 10:51 a.m. However, the acting director of Ambulance Service CJSC, Harutyun Harutyunyan, said the request was cancelled while the crew was on its way, meaning no medical assistance was provided.
He added that the service had no confirmed information about whether anyone had been injured. Rubinyan said he had deliberately allowed the live broadcast to continue so the public could see what was happening inside parliament.
New Ethics Rules Face a Test After Repeat Clashes
The latest violence follows another confrontation between ruling-party and opposition lawmakers on 6 October, raising questions about whether the Assembly can prevent political disagreements from turning physical.
On 5 October, a temporary ethics committee chaired by MP Maria Karapetyan presented eight principles intended to promote orderly proceedings, respect for political opponents, and public trust. The ethics process allows complaints about MPs’ conduct to be considered by the commission, which can determine whether a breach has occurred and recommend disciplinary action to the Speaker.
Possible measures include a warning, loss of microphone privileges for one sitting, removal from a sitting, or exclusion from the parliamentary chamber for up to seven days. The rules do not automatically impose penalties whenever a confrontation occurs. Their effectiveness depends on complaints being examined and recommendations being acted upon.
Thursday’s brawl therefore presents a test for the Assembly’s response to repeated disorder. How its leadership handles the latest incident could influence whether the new standards are seen as meaningful safeguards or simply another set of rules with limited effect.
The COP17 biodiversity summit, which is scheduled to end this Friday, has been taking place in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Yet just days before it began, prime minister Nikol Pashinyan formally inaugurated the Amulsar gold mine in the south-east of the country, despite the “disastrous” threat critics say it poses to the area’s rich ecosystem. ‘Mediapart’ visited the site.
Amélie Poinssot
GndevazGndevaz, Jermuk (Armenia). The mountainside beneath our feet, covered with apricot trees, is a brilliant green. Along the path, apple and plum trees are laden with fruit. Bears live in the area: ‘Mayis’ – not his real name – who is working on a house being built here, says that on several occasions he has come across their droppings and discarded fruit skins and stones. On his phone, he shows Mediapart footage he has taken of a deer and a bezoar goat (a threatened species found in the Caucasus and Central Asia) on the mountainside opposite, which he likes to gaze at in the evenings while taking a break.
He rarely looks downhill. A few hundred metres down the slope, nature is starting to disappear. Articulated lorries move back and forth between piles of earth, dirt tracks and an enormous crater filled with liquid, while gigantic black tarpaulins cover a vast area of land on an adjoining slope.
The Amulsar open-pit gold mine, at which preparatory work has been under way since 2024, officially opened on October 10th. Barely ten days before the start of COP17, the United Nations biodiversity summit that has been taking place in Yerevan, the Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan came to inaugurate the mine in person and announce the first gold extractions.
The area contains what is believed to be Armenia’s second-largest deposit of gold. The country, situated at the southern end of the Caucasus mountain range, has been extracting minerals and rare earth elements from its rich subsoil on an industrial scale since Soviet times.
According to people we have spoken to, more than 1,300 people are already working at the site, around 80 of whom live in the neighbouring village of Gndevaz. Yet eight years ago, when mining operations were originally due to begin, a massive local protest movement blocked the access road to the site for two years. Young people in particular took turns standing guard, in a movement supported by the country’s environmental organisations.
But in September 2020, the war launched by neighbouring Azerbaijan to recapture the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh brought the blockade to an end. Young men volunteered to defend their country against the offensive by their bitter enemies, society had more pressing concerns, and some of these volunteers would later return home in coffins.
Meanwhile, Lydian Armenia, a subsidiary of Jersey-registered offshore company Lydian International Limited, which had secured a government concession to operate the mine, refused to give up.
Indeed, the company quietly continued to press ahead despite a 2024 ruling by an Armenian court that an environmental impact assessment for the mine’s expansion had been conducted unlawfully, alarming findings by various environmental organisations, a complaint lodged by several NGOs in 2020 under the Bern Convention – an international treaty protecting wildlife – and the withdrawal from the project by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) .
The company had the backing of a government that had acquired a 12.5% stake in the project and which worked behind the scenes, away from media scrutiny. The inauguration itself went ahead without a single protest.
Climate of silence
In reality, an atmosphere of fear had taken hold, and silence now reigns locally. A few miles away, at the largest hotel complex in the spa resort of Jermuk, staff told Mediapart that it “wasn’t the right time” to answer our questions.
Yet the establishment had in the past spoken out against the project and expressed solidarity with the protest movement. One of its concerns then was that mining would drive tourists away from a region renowned for the quality of its natural springs.
In Gndevaz, Mihrdat Nersisyan is one of the few people who still dares to speak to journalists. “I was hoping that holding COP17 in Armenia was going to encourage the government to close this mine. Instead, it’s doing exactly the opposite… It’s depressing,” he tells us on the terrace of his house.
He believes that mining at the site, which is around 1,500 metres above sea level, will cause an irreversible disaster.
“Toxic substances present in the mountain will end up in the groundwater and the Arpa River, which flows below the mine: uranium, radium and thulium,” explains the retired engineer. “And then there are the substances used to extract gold from the rock: cyanide and sulphuric acid. But what we should really fear is contamination on a massive scale, extending far beyond Gndevaz and Jermuk.”
In this dry land, where the water comes from the mountains, Soviet infrastructure projects in the 1960s and 1970s involved digging water tunnels through the mountains. Since then, water from the Arpa River has been channelled northwards to the vast Lake Sevan through a 50-kilometre (31-mile) tunnel from the large Kechut reservoir. This is itself connected by a 20-kilometre (12.4-mile) underground conduit to the Spandarian reservoir to the south-east, allowing other valleys to be irrigated.
In other words, toxic substances could travel far beyond the mine itself. Sulphuric acid could also cause serious damage to the tunnels. Mihrdat says he does not want to see his local river turn orange, as has happened near the Kapan gold mine in the south of the country, which has been operating for decades.
In 2019, a report by the Bulgarian wildlife conservation organisation Balkani also highlighted shortcomings in Lydian Armenia’s environmental impact assessment and identified threatened species in the area for which habitat preservation is crucial.
There are far too many species to list them all here. Besides the brown bear and bezoar goat already mentioned, several species whose conservation status is highly precarious can be found in the area, including the bearded vulture, wolves, otters and lynx.
The extremely rare leopard, of which a handful remain in Armenia, was last spotted in the area in 2014. That was high up on the ridges of Amulsar, which in Armenian has the somewhat misleading name “barren mountain”.
Mihrdat used to be director of the local textile factory, which closed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, apart from agriculture, there are no jobs in the area, and he understands why some villagers have eventually resigned themselves to the mine’s arrival. “People know it’s dangerous to work there, but they have no choice,” he says. “The village is now deeply divided over the issue.”
Welcome jobs despite risks
‘Manvel’ – not his real name – is one of these local workers. We meet him in the courtyard of his family home, where he is busy repairing the engine of a car that has already had four or five owners. His mother, ‘Arpi’, his wife, ‘Lilit’, and his sister-in-law, ‘Varsenik’, are there with him.
He has been working as a site vehicle operator at the mine for five months. He has no idea what minerals lie beneath the ground or what chemicals are used to extract them, and is simply glad to have found work just a few minutes from home.
“We work four days on, four days off, and the pay’s good. Before, I worked on construction sites in Yerevan,” he says. The capital is more than two and a half hours away by road. He is not concerned about the mine’s environmental impact, and neither is his wife, who worked in the mine’s canteen for a few weeks. “The children of people who opposed the mine are working there today,” she says.
There’s no such thing as clean mining. The impact on biodiversity is always disastrous.
Arman Vermishyan, director of the Caucasus Nature Fund
Arpi, however, is under no illusions. Although she is happy to have her son close to home, she knows that mining can pose health risks. “It frightens me, but what can we do?” she asks.
Varsenik, her other daughter-in-law, is even more sceptical. “I have a daughter who already has health problems,” she says with a wry smile. “She’s studying English, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure she works somewhere far away from here.”
Lydian Armenia uses a cyanide-based extraction method, which is banned in some European countries and subject to “strict conditions” in the European Union because of its toxicity. “This is what’s known as heap leaching,” explains Artur Grigoryan, an environmental lawyer who recently wrote an article about the mine.
“The raw material is stored in the open air and washed with a cyanide-based solution in a large containment area. This method is particularly common with rocks that have a very low concentration of gold, as is the case at Amulsar.”
The company’s veil of secrecy
The signs erected by Lydian Armenia around the site give a misleading impression of what is happening there. “Archaeological site,” they announce. “Do not touch, move or damage archaeological or historical remains.”
Why are these warnings there? What measures has the company taken to compensate for the environmental damage caused by its operations? Has it revised its plans in light of the many criticisms of its initial environmental impact assessment?
We don’t know. Lydian Armenia, which we contacted around 12 days before our visit, has not responded to our requests for a meeting.
At the entrance to the site, where we again asked to speak to a company representative, security personnel were immediately dispatched to firmly turn us away, but not before gathering as much information as possible about us and the translator accompanying us. We were then followed by car wherever we went, until we finally left the area and headed back towards Yerevan.
“The government should have demanded a new environmental impact assessment, but it never did,” says Armenian environmental activist Anna Shahnazaryan. Wearing a ‘Save Amulsar’ T-shirt, she had been turned away by Armenian police the previous day at the entrance to the COP’s “blue zone” in Yerevan, the heavily secured area where official discussions and diplomatic negotiations take place. She was due to take part in a round-table discussion and had the necessary accreditation. UN officials eventually intervened to allow her in. “We have to keep fighting, to believe in our own power and in the ability of local communities to resist,” she tells Mediapart.
Mineral resources account for more than half of Armenia’s exports, and their extraction has already devastated entire ecosystems, as in Alaverdi in the north, where copper was mined for decades. Today, around ten companies operate some 20 active mining sites. The largest complex is in Kajaran, in the south, where copper and molybdenum deposits are extracted.
“There’s no such thing as clean mining. The impact on biodiversity is always disastrous,” stresses Arman Vermishyan, director of the Caucasus Nature Fund.
These are the consequences that Pashinyan’s government has chosen to ignore (see their response here in the appendix). Or perhaps, by getting the mine up and running, it was deliberately trying to catch the attention of the many financiers attending the COP? In just a few weeks, snow will cover the mountain, halting all mining operations until spring. And by Lydian Armenia’s own admission, another 100 million dollars is needed to complete the investment in Amulsar.
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The original French version of this article can be found here.