Pashinyan’s New Year address exposes erosion of institutional boundaries
09.01.2026
By Tigran Grigoryan
As the 2026 parliamentary elections draw closer, every sphere of Armenia’s public life is gradually turning into an instrument of domestic political struggle. This politicization has extended even to traditionally unifying moments, including the festive season. Accordingly, many of the negative trends observed throughout 2025 found clear expression in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s New Year address.
First, it was ensured that Pashinyan would be the sole official addressing the nation immediately before midnight on New Year’s Eve. Since Armenia’s 2015 constitutional reform, which transformed the country into a parliamentary republic, three figures traditionally addressed the nation on this occasion: the President, the Catholicos of All Armenians, and the Prime Minister. Starting in 2024, the President’s address was moved several hours earlier. The Catholicos was also offered an earlier time slot on Public Television that year, but he declined and instead broadcast his address through private television channels and other platforms. This year, the Catholicos was most likely not offered any airtime ahead of the New Year at all, due to his ongoing confrontation with Prime Minister Pashinyan.
The fact that the President’s address - the head of state’s speech - has been shifted to an earlier time slot for the second year in a row, allowing Prime Minister Pashinyan to monopolize the moment of addressing the nation at the arrival of the New Year, is particularly indicative of the current state of Armenian politics. This development reflects both the increasingly personalist style of governance under Pashinyan and the erosion of even a nominal separation of powers, as the presidency has effectively become another institution under the de facto subordination of the Prime Minister.
The content of Pashinyan’s address highlighted another defining feature of the current political system: the use of administrative resources for political purposes. The New Year address itself was transformed into such a resource. A speech that is traditionally meant to unify the nation and emphasize shared values and narratives, regardless of political preferences, contained pronounced elements of pre-election campaigning. In his address, Pashinyan notably stated: “In 2021, we were saying ‘there is a future’; today we say ‘the future is today.’” “There is a future” was the ruling party’s campaign slogan during the snap parliamentary elections of 2021, and it is rumored that “The future is today” will be the party’s slogan for the 2026 elections. Pashinyan reiterated this mantra at the conclusion of his address, explicitly referring to the upcoming elections and declaring that the future - which has already arrived - will prevail.
Pashinyan ended his speech with a “hand-heart” gesture, which moments later was replicated by a drone performance in the sky above Yerevan’s Republic Square. This “hand-heart” gesture is part of the Prime Minister’s and the ruling party’s new social media strategy, under which Pashinyan uploads short, viral videos where he listens to random songs and concludes with the same gesture. It has also been observed at ruling party gatherings. BBC Russian recently published an article analyzing the logic and objectives behind this new communication strategy.
State Pressure on the Church and Constitutional Concerns
The first days of the new year were also marked by Prime Minister Pashinyan’s continued efforts to remove Catholicos Karekin II. On January 4, the Prime Minister convened, at his official residence, a group of bishops who had joined his campaign against the Catholicos. During the meeting, a statement was adopted calling for reforms within the Armenian Apostolic Church, including the removal of the Catholicos. Notably, Pashinyan himself signed the statement, explicitly indicating his capacity as Prime Minister of Armenia. This marks a significant departure from his initial claims at the start of the confrontation with the Church leadership, when he insisted that he was calling for the Catholicos’s resignation merely as an ordinary believer and that the state was not interfering in Church affairs. The image of Prime Minister Pashinyan standing behind the bishops as they signed the statement in his residence was highly symbolic and was widely circulated on social media.
Pashinyan’s next step was a "pilgrimage procession" on Armenian Christmas Day, which culminated in a brief speech by the Prime Minister near a church in central Yerevan. This speech raised serious concerns not only about state interference in Church affairs and the autonomy of religious organizations, but also about the broader principle of the separation of Church and state. Pashinyan’s statement, “The Church and the state are now together,” was assessed by many civil society representatives and political actors as contradicting Armenia’s Constitution. It is also noteworthy that multiple state officials, including high-ranking officers of the armed forces, participated in the event, once again raising questions about the possible use of administrative resources and administrative pressure.
Democracy Watch is a joint initiative of CivilNet and the Regional Center for Democracy and Security.
This material has been funded by UK International Development from the UK government; however, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policies.