By Levon Baronian
In Nikol Pashinyan’s Armenia, the message to political opponents is becoming unmistakable: Bend the knee or face the consequences.
On October 21, authorities arrested Arsen Gevorgyan, the leading opposition candidate in Stepanavan, along with 13 others, just four days before municipal elections. Gevorgyan, representing the Strong Armenia alliance led by Samvel Karapetyan, was accused of electoral bribery. His alliance denounced the arrests as politically motivated.
Meanwhile, in Amasia, Mayor Jemma Harutyunyan, previously elected with opposition backing, has switched allegiance to Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party ahead of her reelection campaign.
The pattern extends well beyond these two communities.
Goris Mayor Arush Arushanyan, once an outspoken Pashinyan critic who faced years of legal battles, has also aligned himself with Civil Contract. In Gyumri, opposition Mayor Vardan Ghukasyan was arrested. In Vanadzor, opposition leader Mamikon Aslanyan was imprisoned after his electoral bloc challenged the ruling party’s grip on power.
The message is clear: Those who submit to Pashinyan find a path forward. Those who resist find prosecutors at their doors.
Pashinyan came to power in 2018 promising to end political persecution and the abuse of state institutions. Today, his government stands accused of employing precisely the tactics it once condemned.
Even observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have noted concerns over selective law enforcement targeting opposition figures.
This is how political competition is suffocated: not necessarily by banning opposition parties outright, but by making opposition costly and submission rewarding.
And this is taking place under the leadership of the same prime minister who presided over the catastrophic loss of Artsakh, the displacement of its Armenian population, and the weakening of Armenia’s national security.
Rather than answer for these failures, Pashinyan is presiding over a political environment in which his opponents face arrest while former adversaries line up under his party’s banner.
Armenia does not need another generation of political servants bending the knee to whoever occupies the prime minister’s office. It needs leaders willing to stand upright, defend their convictions, and answer to the Armenian people—not to Nikol Pashinyan.
