Armenia seats new parliament, reshuffles elite roles

By Nicholas Castillo 

Armenia convened its new National Assembly on Sunday after a period of parliamentary leave.

Having won June 7’s parliamentary elections, the Civil Contract party received a majority of the mandates, albeit with a diminished share of seats — 64 down from 69. The opposition consists of 29 mandates for the newly formed Strong Armenia and 12 for former president Robert Kocharyan’s returning Armenia Alliance, down from its previous 29 seats. 

The parliament’s convocation, the ninth in Armenia’s post-independence period, took place without the customary blessing of the Catholicos of All Armenians, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, amid ongoing political confrontations between the Church and the government. Instead, after the inaugural session, lawmakers from the opposition Strong Armenia and Armenia Alliance factions traveled to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, where they received the patriarch's blessing.

According to Armenia’s parliamentary website, the National Assembly’s initial agenda focused on assigning parliamentary positions and the formation of several government committees.

As part of the new government, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced a reshuffle of high-level positions. Deputy Arusyak Manavazyan was elected the head of the governing party's parliamentary faction on Sunday. Former parliamentary speaker Alen Simonyan was replaced by deputy speaker Ruben Rubinyan, who was elected to the position on Monday. 

Following his nomination to head the assembly on Sunday, Rubinyan delivered a speech focused in large part on his previous role leading normalization talks with Ankara.  

Rubinyan argued that Ankara’s approach to Armenia-Turkey talks had been “conditional on the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

“This demonstrates that the phrase ‘without preconditions’ does not reflect reality, and Turkey continues to speak to Armenia with preconditions while also exerting pressure on Armenia,” he stated.

Rubinyan additionally claimed that due to Civil Contract’s victory in June, another war with Azerbaijan had been averted.

In addition to parliamentary appointments, Prime Minister Pashinyan announced that his new chief of staff would be Lilit Makunts, who had previously served as ambassador to the United States from 2021 to 2025. Makunts replaced Arayik Harutyunyan, who was elected to the parliament this past June. 

Further appointments, such as Deputy Parliamentary Speaker and Minister of High Tech Industry, are anticipated in the coming days. Meanwhile, other longstanding cabinet members are expected to retain their positions, such as Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Defense Minister Suren Papikyan.

While the first session of the parliament was marked by logistical procedures setting up the new body, more pressing issues are likely to present themselves in the coming months. Failing to secure a two-thirds constitutional majority, the governing faction will continue to face procedural challenges, most clearly in the instance of the proposed constitutional referendum demanded by Azerbaijan as part of ongoing normalization talks. 

At the same time, as opposition MPs took their mandates in the new parliament, law enforcement scrutiny has increasingly focused on members of both Strong Armenia and Armenia Alliance. 

Just three days before the new parliament came into session, the home of Strong Armenia faction head Narek Karapetyan was raided by Armenian police in connection with ongoing investigations into money laundering. 

Both Karapetyan and Armenia Alliance leader Robert Kocharyan, who himself will not take a mandate in parliament, have been stripped of their parliamentary immunity in recent weeks as legal investigations pick up steam targeting prominent figures.