Pashinyan’s Ruling Party Joins Forces With Former Political Rival Arush Arushanyan Ahead of Goris Elections

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Thursday that Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party will form an electoral alliance with the party backing Goris Mayor Arush Arushanyan, an unusual political arrangement he described as an effort to ease years of political tension in the southern Armenian city.

Arushanyan will not run on Civil Contract’s electoral list. Instead, the ruling party will join an alliance with the political force through which the longtime Goris mayor plans to contest the Oct. 25 local elections.

Pashinyan said the decision reflects the voting patterns of Goris residents, who have supported Civil Contract in national elections while continuing to back Arushanyan at the local level.

“We have chosen an approach aimed at avoiding renewed tensions in Goris in the context of the elections,” Pashinyan said during a Sept. 11 government briefing. “We have decided to take the path of reconciliation — not for the sake of Civil Contract or Arush Arushanyan, but for the sake of the citizens of Goris.”

Pashinyan pointed to Armenia’s 2021 parliamentary elections, when Civil Contract won support in Goris, followed by local elections in which voters backed Arushanyan.

He said the competing results had contributed to continued political confrontation in the community.

“This is a case where, in a sense, we have also had to yield to the will of the people and the residents of Goris,” Pashinyan said. “In these elections as well, Goris voted for the Civil Contract party. And we continuously receive signals from Goris asking why we keep generating processes based on confrontation there.”

Arushanyan has served as head of the Goris community since November 2017.

His relationship with Armenia’s central government became particularly contentious in 2021. Arushanyan was detained in July of that year and faced charges including abuse of official authority, coercing individuals to participate in elections or vote, illegal business activity and other alleged offenses.

Despite being in detention, Arushanyan’s bloc won the Goris local elections on Oct. 21, 2021.

A court changed his preventive measure in March 2022, allowing him to be released on bail.

The new alliance puts Civil Contract and a longtime local political rival on the same side ahead of the Oct. 25 vote, with Pashinyan presenting the move as an attempt to reconcile the competing political choices Goris voters have made in national and local elections.

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