The capital rejected Pashinyan

Political expert Beniamin Matevosyan presents a professional analysis on this topic in Alpha News live as part of his “Headline” project.

On September 17, elections to the City Council were held in Yerevan, the main result of which made Yerevan the third and largest city after Gyumri and Vanadzor that rejected Nikol Pashinyan and his team.
To remind, in both Gyumri and Vanadzor the Civil Contract party also failed to win the elections, and only the use of administrative resources and behind-the-scenes processes helped Pashinyan retain power in these cities, while citizens rejected the government and its political course.

As for other election results, we should note:

Andranik Tevanyan took a political risk – giving up his deputy mandate before the start of the election, and the election results proved that the risk was justified. Moreover, the agenda with which Tevanyan went to the elections proved its viability. The statements of both Armenian and foreign analysts, who for a long time tried to convince that ‘the Artsakh agenda is no longer interesting to the Armenian people’ turned out to be false.

It should be noted that Tevanyan was the only representative of the radical opposition to participate in the elections. Of course, Tevanyan was supported by the Armenia bloc, the Dashnaktsutyun party, and a number of public organizations (by the way, Tevanyan was the only candidate in the elections who was supported by representatives of other political and social forces), but it is obvious that the result elections for the Mother Armenia bloc could have been even more positive if all other political forces, putting aside all political differences, had supported it. But even without it, Tevanyan and the Mother Armenia bloc, following the election results, became a very important factor in the political field of Armenia, which not only did not exhaust its consolidation resource, but even increased it following the election results.

The second remarkable result of the elections was that Ruben Vardanyan suffered a second political defeat. The first time he lost in Artsakh. When he came to the post of state minister, he did not calculate the possible scenarios for the development of events, did not create political support for himself, which led to his resignation. Vardanyan lost for the second time on September 17. Although many noted that the reason for the defeat was the personnel of his party, which largely consists of people from Pashinyan’s political team, the reason was much deeper.

The election campaign of the Mother Armenia bloc, in comparison with the campaign of the Country of Living party, proved that it is a solid political course and most importantly clear ideas that ensure the victory. It is not unlimited financial resources, the favor of a large number of media, or the vagueness of the slogans that allows us to hope for the support of the people. Now we can state that the Country of Living project has suffered a crushing failure, which in many ways can put an end to its future.

September became a difficult month for Pashinyan, who, within a few days, lost political support in Artsakh (“Pashinyan from Karabakh” Arayik Harutyunyan resigned), and was also unable to ensure the victory of his party in the elections to the City Council.

Regardless of whether the repressive policy will be activated or not, whether the authorities will try to nullify the election results or not, it should be noted that the month of September proved that Pashinyan is not legitimate on an all-Armenian scale, both in Armenia and in the Republic of Artsakh. His power is not legitimate.

Of course, this is the first such major defeat for Pashinyan’s team, but it opens a window of opportunity for a strategic turn in the political field of Armenia, which can avoid not only the final loss of Artsakh, but can also help ensure the security of Armenia itself. And all this thanks to the fact that the capital of Armenia rejected Pashinyan.