'Opposition aims to take power by forming post-election coalition' – Armenian parliament vice-speaker
Pre-election reshuffle of Armenia’s opposition forces
Ahead of the parliamentary elections expected on 7 June, Armenia’s opposition is regrouping. Pro-Russian opposition politician Andranik Tevanyan, leader of the Mother Armenia party, and oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan have announced they will run together. Tevanyan is a former MP from the Armenia faction, led by former president Robert Kocharyan. Tsarukyan heads the Prosperous Armenia party.
According to Tevanyan, their alliance signals the formation of “a power centre with a serious programme and a team ready to take power into its own hands”.
Members of the ruling Civil Contract faction say they see the alliance as an attempt to repeat the scenario the opposition played out during the municipal elections in Gyumri.
In spring 2025, snap municipal elections were held in Gyumri. None of the parties secured 50% plus one of the vote. The ruling Civil Contract party won the largest share, but none of the opposition forces agreed to form a coalition with it.
Instead, three of the four opposition groups that passed the electoral threshold joined forces and backed the candidate of the Communist Party of Armenia, Vardan Ghukasyan. As a result, he became mayor of the country’s second-largest city. Following the upcoming parliamentary elections, the question of who will become Armenia’s prime minister will be decided.
According to parliament vice-speaker Ruben Rubinyan, the decision by part of former president Robert Kocharyan’s team to join Tsarukyan’s list and run together suggests that the opposition intends to replicate, at the national level, the scenario played out in Gyumri.
“The plan is very simple. Three forces will take part in the elections, and in the process they may even claim they have nothing to do with one another. Then they intend to come to power by forming a coalition or voting for each other,” he said.
By the three forces, Rubinyan was referring to those led by former president Robert Kocharyan and two businessmen — Gagik Tsarukyan and Samvel Karapetyan.
Other representatives of the ruling party have also warned of a possible repeat of the Gyumri scenario. MP Vaagn Aleksanyan said the “oligarchic opposition” was seeking to contest the elections through large alliances that would later form a coalition.
“But I have bad news for you. You will not be able to pull off ‘Operation Gyumri-2’. You won’t see it happen,” Aleksanyan said.
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What is known about the new Tevanyan–Tsarukyan political bloc
Following the snap parliamentary elections in 2021, Andranik Tevanyan became an MP from the opposition Armeniafaction led by former president Robert Kocharyan. In 2023, he gave up his parliamentary seat to run in elections to Yerevan’s Council of Elders — the capital’s local self-government body, which functions as a city parliament. Tevanyan’s party won 12 seats.
In 2025, his party also took part in local government elections in Gyumri and Vagharshapat, surpassing the electoral threshold and securing two seats in each city.
Although Kocharyan’s political force is expected to participate in the 2026 parliamentary elections, his former ally Tevanyan has decided to join forces with Gagik Tsarukyan instead.
“This year must become the year of overthrowing the current regime. If we all share one political goal and do not take steps against one another, this man’s song [Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s] will be sung,” Tevanyan said.
Tsarukyan has not yet announced who will be his bloc’s candidate for prime minister, but has said he has three potential candidates rather than one — all of whom are “competent and well prepared — each better than the other”.
The Democratic Alternative party, led by political analyst Suren Surenyants, will also contest the elections as part of the alliance on the same list. Some Armenian media outlets report that former head of the National Security Service and leader of the Homeland party, Artur Vanetsyan, may also join. However, his party has said no such decision has yet been made.
Party of businessman Samvel Karapetyan hopes for ‘qualified majority‘
David Ghazinyan, a member of the political council of the opposition Strong Armenia party, said the possibility of cooperation with other opposition forces is not currently under discussion:
“We are not considering any scenario other than securing a qualified majority. When the time comes, we will understand what to do.”
The leader of Strong Armenia is Russian-Armenian dollar billionaire Samvel Karapetyan. He was detained in the summer on charges of publicly calling for the seizure of power. Karapetyan remains under house arrest. The party has nominated Karapetyan as its candidate for prime minister. Under Armenia’s constitution, he is ineligible as he also holds Russian and Cypriot citizenship.
In any case, Ghazinyan expressed confidence in the opposition’s victory:
“On 8 June, this government will no longer be in power. Respecting the choice of our people, at best this government can hope to become the opposition — and I believe it will be a very small one in parliament.”
‘After 2026, you won’t see a single oligarch or ex-president in politics’ – Pashinyan
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently commented on the nomination of businessman Samvel Karapetyan as a candidate for prime minister. He described it as “another attempt to discredit Armenia”.
Pashinyan said he believed opposition forces would suffer a “crushing defeat” in the upcoming elections:
“All representatives of the former authorities and oligarchs will be definitively and irreversibly pushed out of the political arena. After 2026, you will not see a single oligarch or former president in politics.”
Karapetyan’s party, Strong Armenia, responded that Pashinyan’s remarks revealed his anxiety. Former presidents also reacted to the statement.
The head of former president Robert Kocharyan’s office said:
“After 8 June, there certainly will not be a leader for whom the entire nation feels ashamed.”
The party of another former president, Serzh Sargsyan, has not yet decided whether it will take part in the elections. However, its representatives advised Pashinyan to reflect “not on political defeats, but on Armenia’s defeat under his leadership.”
Reaction
Vaagn Aleksanyan, an MP from the ruling party:
“The oligarchic opposition in Armenia, which stands against the country’s independence, is trying to carry out ‘Operation Gyumri-2’ across the entire republic. At one of his press conferences, Robert Kocharyan said the opposition has one chance — and that is ‘Operation Gyumri-2’, meaning they must contest these elections in large blocs.
And we are watching those blocs take shape before our eyes:
- Andranik Tevanyan – Gagik Tsarukyan.
- Samvel Karapetyan’s party [he did not specify with which force],
- Robert Kocharyan – the ARF Dashnaktsutyun party.
These people will try to recreate the Gyumri effect nationwide. They may even formally attack one another, claiming they are not allied. But after the elections, they will vote for one another or form a coalition.”
Ruben Rubinyan, Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly:
“We must ensure that it is the people of Armenia who continue to decide who holds power and who becomes prime minister — not Kocharyan and two oligarchs, one Russian and one local.
We have sacrificed too much to establish justice and peace in our country. And now, when we stand on the threshold of making those achievements irreversible, we cannot allow Kocharyan and the two oligarchs to derail them.
The team of Kocharyan and the two oligarchs has in no way confirmed that it would sign a peace treaty if it came to power. They resort to wordplay, but they do not say it outright. At times they claim they need additional guarantees; at others they speak of negotiations or revising the text. Whatever the case, they do not utter the following words:
‘If we come to power, we will sign the peace treaty.’
Why? Because their task is to dismantle the architecture that, after so many years of hardship and sacrifice, has given us the chance to catch our breath and secure a lasting peace.”
Reshuffle of Armenia’s opposition
