Pashinyan Declares Beginning of Armenia’s ‘Fourth Republic,’ Breaking With Karabakh-Era Politics

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared the beginning of what he calls Armenia’s “Fourth Republic” on Thursday, saying the country is moving into a new political era built around peace and a redefined role for the state.

Pashinyan made the announcement as his government presented its program for 2026-2031, laying out a vision that seeks to break with the political foundations that shaped Armenia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“The Republic of Armenia is thus entering the stage of its history that we call the Fourth Republic,” Pashinyan told the Cabinet.

The prime minister tied the shift to his government’s “Real Armenia” concept, an idea he has publicly promoted since 2024. He said the results of the June 7 parliamentary elections gave that vision a popular mandate and made it Armenia’s official state ideology.

“It is very important to note that, as a result of the elections, the ideology of Real Armenia ultimately prevailed, which means that the ideology of Real Armenia has become the official ideology of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

He contrasted that vision with the origins of Armenia’s Third Republic, which emerged from the final years of the Soviet Union and the Karabakh movement.

According to Pashinyan, the Third Republic was built around conflict and the pursuit of what he called historical justice. He also noted that many of the political figures who have shaped modern Armenia came out of the Karabakh movement.

The “Fourth Republic,” Pashinyan said, is intended to follow a different path. Rather than defining the state through conflict and historical claims, his government is placing peace and a practical reassessment of the state’s responsibilities at the center of its political agenda.

The remarks amount to one of Pashinyan’s clearest attempts to frame Armenia’s recent political changes as the beginning of a new era of statehood, with his government seeking to redefine the country’s priorities after decades in which the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was a central force in Armenian politics.

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