Weekly update

26 June
Following Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections on June 20, two opposition forces have entered the Armenian Parliament, former President Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia Alliance has garnered 27 seats and the I Have Honor electoral bloc has garnered six seats. According to civilnet.am, both alliances have announced their intention to challenge the results of the election in the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country. First, the Central Electoral Commission will draw up a legal document or protocol on the election results seven days after voting day, on June 27. Any political force that wishes to appeal, can do so by submitting an application to the Constitutional Court five days after the official publication of the election results. The court must then make a decision within 15 days of the submission of the application. If an elected candidate decides to not take up their seat in parliament in protest, the seat is then given to the next candidate on the electoral list of that bloc or party. If there is no other candidate in the first section of the electoral list that can take up the parliamentary seat, then the seat will remain vacant.
https://www.civilnet.am/news/624236/2021-armenian-elections-whats-next/?lang=en

25 June
President Emmanuel Macron of France said only a political settlement of the Karabakh conflict can bring stability to the region. In line with asbarez.com, the French leader reiterated his long-held position in a congratulatory message to acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for garnering the lead in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Armenia. “The Armenian people can count on the full support of France in its determination to strengthen democracy and the rule of law. Economic cooperation between France and Armenia will continue to strengthen,” Macron said in his message.“Determined to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable groups of the population, France, together with your country, is helping to overcome the consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with full respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia,” added Macron, who reaffirmed France’s commitment as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group to the search for a comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
https://asbarez.com/macron-calls-for-karabakh-settlement-with-respect-for-armenias-sovereignty/?fbclid=IwAR3JienoqtO31FMkWilAF2ZV6VP83dXitEkyNtlNM1UpEvWogdUZ3Tj2YkU

24 June
In mid-October of 2020, when the fighting reached its peak and hundreds of civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh were already wounded and many killed, Hetq podcast producer Sam Martirosyan sat down and talked to a London-born Israeli educator and political activist. Elie Joseph, who opposed the Israeli policy of selling weapons of mass destruction to authoritarian regimes around the world. According to hetq.am Elie challenged the Israeli Ministry of Defense in the High Court of Israel.
https://hetq.am/hy/podcast/18

23 June
A series of rallies held in Stepanakert, Karabakh’s capital, on June 21 and 22, have highlighted the deep political tensions in the region as it tries to rebuild after last year’s bloody 44-day war with Azerbaijan, reported  civilnet.am. On June 21, a day after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party overwhelmingly won snap parliamentary elections, about 1,500 people gathered in Stepanakert, demanding the resignation of Arayik Harutyunyan, the president of the Republic of Artsakh. The demonstrators on Renaissance Square, Stepanakert’s main square, were unhappy that Harutyunyan had congratulated Pashinyan earlier that day on his electoral victory. “I wish success to you and your team,” Harutyunyan said in a statement to Pashinyan. “I hope the results of the elections will enable Armenia’s authorities to strengthen the security and foreign policy positions damaged by the war.” A day earlier, on the day of the vote, Harutyunyan made a highly publicized visit to the office of Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party in Yerevan. Following the meeting, Harutyunyan said he had come to the office “on personal business” and later said that his “visit to the office of the Civil Contract Party on the day of the elections was misinterpreted.”
https://www.civilnet.am/news/623896/competing-stepanakert-rallies-underscore-post-war-political-tensions-in-karabakh/?lang=en

22 June
Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission on Monday verified the preliminary results of Sunday’s snap parliamentary elections, providing an overall picture of what the next parliament in Armenia will look like and how the seats will be distributed. According to asbarez.com, CEC Chairman Tigran Mukuchyan said a the commission’s board meeting, which was live-streamed, that acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party garnered 53.92 percent of the votes. In second place, with 21.04 percent of the votes, is the Armenia (Hayastan) Alliance led by former president Robert Kocharian and includes the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Trailing far behind in third place with 5.23 percent of the votes is the “I Have Honor” alliance between former president Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia and the Homeland Party headed by former national security adviser Arthur Vanetsyan.
https://asbarez.com/what-will-be-the-makeup-of-armenias-next-parliament/?fbclid=IwAR2JjzRIEJMRo_JDVHeQXR8BSeqYhoJveSu4PkXOdJh7en1EOmX5JYNGdmo

21 June
Former President Robert Kocharian’s main opposition Hayastan alliance said on Monday that it will ask Armenia’s Constitutional Court to overturn the official results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections that gave a landslide victory to the ruling Civil Contract party. According to azatutyun.am Hayastan reiterated that the results are “extremely dubious.” “We have serious grounds to consider these elections illegitimate,” it said in a statement. The bloc again charged that irregularities reported by its proxies from many polling stations “testify to a systematic and pre-planned falsification of the election results.” It accused the Armenian authorities of abusing their administrative levers and harassing Hayastan activists to keep Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in power. It also pointed to power outages that plunged much of Armenia into darkness shortly the start of vote counting late on Sunday. “The Hayastan alliance will use all legal tools, including an appeal to the Constitutional Court, to challenge the election results,” added the statement.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31318981.html

20 June
Vote counting was underway in Armenia after a tight post-war parliamentary election that pitted reformist leader Nikol Pashinyan against ex-president Robert Kocharyan on Sunday. In line with france24.com, Pashinyan called the snap election after last year's devastating war with Azerbaijan plunged the post-Soviet country into crisis, but observers fear the results could further polarize society. Analysts say the election result is nearly impossible to predict, with both Pashinyan and Kocharyan drawing massive crowds on the eve of the polls and planning post-election rallies. Polls closed at 8:00 pm (1600 GMT), and the first official results were expected later Sunday. "On the whole, the election was conducted in accordance with the country's legislation," said the head of the Central Electoral Commission, Tigran Mukuchyan.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210620-armenia-begins-voting-in-snap-election-amid-enduring-post-karabakh-tensions

19 June
Armenian leaders wrapped up campaigning on Friday ahead of snap weekend polls to end a political crisis sparked by a humiliating military defeat to Azerbaijan last year. According to france24.com Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the early election in the hopes of renewing his mandate but is in a tight race with his main rival, former leader Robert Kocharyan. Pashinyan rose to power in 2018 on pledges to oust corrupt elites and turn around the country's fortunes after decades of poverty and corruption.But he has lost much of his lustre after Armenia ceded swathes of territory to arch foe Azerbaijan following a six-week war over a lingering territorial dispute that claimed over 6,000 lives. Some polls show Pashinyan's Civil Contract Party is neck-and-neck with former president Kocharyan's electoral grouping. According to a survey released on the last day of campaigning on Friday, Kocharyan's bloc edged ahead of its main rival but neither were expected to get more than 30 percent of the vote.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210619-armenia-s-pm-pashinyan-rival-kocharyan-in-tight-race-ahead-of-snap-parliamentary-vote