Yet another opposition bid to oust Pashinyan fails amid internal divisions

By Alexander Pracht

Armenia’s parliamentary opposition has failed to unite behind a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan due to internal disagreement, despite holding just enough seats to trigger the procedure. The I Have Honor bloc, associated with the former president Serzh Sargsyan, announced Monday that it will not support former Pashinyan ally Edmon Marukyan as a replacement nominee for prime minister.

“The proposed candidate is no different from the current leadership and bears equal responsibility for the country’s dire situation,” bloc leader Hayk Mamijanyan wrote on Facebook.

Mamijanyan said his group remains open to discussing a no-confidence initiative in principle but sees Marukyan’s candidacy, put forward by independent MPs Hovik Aghazaryan and Hakob Aslanyan, as unacceptable.

Aghazaryan was expelled from Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party last year and now sits as an independent MP. With his defection, the opposition currently holds 36 seats in parliament, just enough to formally initiate a motion of no confidence, which requires support from at least one-third of lawmakers. Armenian law mandates that any such motion must simultaneously nominate a new prime minister. However, in order for the motion to pass, the opposition would need 54 votes, an outcome that is not possible under the current parliamentary makeup, as Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party retains a majority of seats.

Marukyan, who requested meetings with opposition factions on Friday, previously led the Bright Armenia party and was part of the Way Out alliance with Pashinyan ahead of the 2018 revolution. Although his party failed to clear the electoral threshold in the 2021 parliamentary elections, Marukyan remained in the political arena as Armenia’s ambassador-at-large, a position to which he was appointed by Pashinyan and held until resigning in March 2024.

Since then, Marukyan has turned against Pashinyan and has called on Armenia not to abandon the Nagorno-Karabakh issue on the international stage. He has also advocated for the rights and ability to return for Armenians displaced from the region.

Earlier this month, former President Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia Alliance accused former President Serzh Sargsyan and the We Are Awake civic movement of attempting to “blackmail” its MPs amid efforts to initiate a motion of no confidence against Pashinyan.

While expressing general support for efforts to oust the prime minister, the alliance said it would contribute its 28 parliamentary signatures only if the remaining eight could be secured by others and if those initiating the motion could also guarantee public backing.

Kocharyan and Sargsyan, once allies and successive presidents of Armenia, have traded accusations since March over who bears responsibility for Pashinyan’s rise to power during the 2018 revolution.