OPINION: Europe’s silence as Armenia enters a fear election

Op-ed by Vartan Oskanian, Armenia’s former foreign minister

Armenia approaches its parliamentary elections of June 7, 2026 not in the atmosphere of democratic competition promised after the events of 2018, but under a growing climate of intimidation, fear, and political pressure. The country that once presented itself as a democratic success story in the South Caucasus increasingly resembles a state where power is defended not through persuasion or institutions but through intimidation, pressure, and the misuse of authority.

Nikol Pashinyan’s conduct during the pre-election period has become increasingly alarming, confrontational, and openly incompatible with the standards expected in a democratic state preparing for elections.

In one extraordinary outburst directed at the leaders of the main opposition parties, he declared: “I will smash you. I will make you kneel before me. I will extinguish you.” Such rhetoric does not belong in democratic competition, nor in the vocabulary of a sitting prime minister entrusted with safeguarding constitutional order. It is the language of intimidation and political domination.

In another disturbing episode, Pashinyan publicly confronted a refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh and reportedly asked: “Why are you not dead anyway? Why are you alive?” apparently implying that the displaced individual should have remained behind and fought during the forced exodus from Artsakh. Equally troubling was a public confrontation with a female citizen during which Pashinyan physically crowded, insulted, and humiliated her in public. 

These are not isolated incidents or unfortunate slips of language. They reflect a broader pattern of conduct increasingly associated with the personalization of power, the intimidation of critics, and behavior that sits uneasily with both democratic norms and the spirit of Armenia’s own constitutional and legal order.

Yet in the face of all this, Europe’s silence has been striking. The same European institutions that have rightly spoken forcefully on democratic backsliding elsewhere appear reluctant to apply the same standards in Armenia. Strategic preferences and geopolitical calculations seem increasingly to have replaced objectivity.

Europe should use this period to speak clearly and impartially. It should call for restraint in political language, equal treatment of opponents, protection of dissent, respect for institutions, adherence to the rule of law, and transparency in all actions involving political rivals. Remaining silent while obvious abuses unfold risks turning Europe from an observer into an enabler.

There is a very real possibility that Armenia may enter a new political phase after June 7. Governments change. Political realities evolve. Europe’s long-term relationship is not with any one administration but with the Armenian state and the Armenian people.

If European actors continue subordinating democratic principles to short-term geopolitical interests or political preferences, they risk severely damaging their credibility with whatever political reality emerges afterward. Brussels has invested decades and hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money into Armenia’s democratic development. That investment should not now be sacrificed to political convenience or selective standards.

Otherwise, many Armenians, and any future government, may reasonably conclude that Europe’s support was never truly about democracy, rule of law, or pluralism, but about alignment with a preferred political actor. 

Silence under such circumstances is not neutrality. It is political choice.

May 2026