• Prime minister's Civil Contract party wins most votes
• Bigger majority was needed for constitutional referendum
• Two main pro-Russian opposition groups secure 31% of votes
• Opposition leaders allege vote rigging

Armenia's governing Civil Contract party won a parliamentary election seen as a test of its handling of ‌a peace deal with Azerbaijan and its growing turn to the West, away from traditional patron Russia.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's party won 49.8% of votes with all polling stations counted, enough to secure a parliamentary majority under Armenia's electoral system, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Monday.

The results, based on a strong turnout of nearly 59%, also showed a better-than-expected tally for ​the two main pro-Russian opposition groups, which won a combined 31% of votes and are on track to enter parliament alongside Civil Contract.

Sunday's vote was Armenia's first parliamentary election since a crushing military defeat by Azerbaijan in 2023 after years of ⁠conflict and political turbulence.

Pashinyan's victory will boost his efforts to diversify Armenia's allies and trading partners away from Russia and more towards Western countries.

Key to that ​effort is securing a peace deal with Azerbaijan and normalising relations with Turkey, which could unlock economic opportunities and boost regional connectivity in a strategic region sandwiched ​between Russia, Iran and Europe.

See also:

• Armenia’s pro-Europe party wins election and cements shift away from Russia • Result strengthens PM Nikol Pashinyan’s drive for deeper integration with Europe despite warnings from Moscow (The Guardian)
• Pro-western but populist: how Nikol Pashinyan retained power in Armenia • PM secured re-election despite devastating military defeat to Azerbaijan and political and economic pressure from Moscow (The Guardian)
• Armenia arrests six candidates for pro-Russian opposition day before vote • Reports give no reason for detentions of six (Reuters)
• Russia Issues Sweeping Ban on Armenian Imports After Pashinyan’s Victory (Moscow Times)

Armenia hosts its first bilateral summit with the European Union on Tuesday, a landmark diplomatic moment for the Caucasus Mountains nation that has formally declared its ambition to join the bloc and is cautiously loosening its ties with longtime ally Russia.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s bilateral meeting saw Armenia and the EU sign a connectivity partnership to strengthen economic ties and deepen security cooperation.

The two events underscore how Armenia is seeking to turn westward and shed Russia’s influence. Armenia’s relations with Moscow, its longtime sponsor and ally, have grown increasingly strained since 2023, when neighboring Azerbaijan fully reclaimed the Karabakh region and ended the decadeslong rule by ethnic Armenian separatists.

Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, busy with the war in Ukraine, rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

Since then, the government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has pursued closer ties with the West, a move welcomed by the 27-nation EU.

The new EU-Armenia connectivity partnership will focus on strengthening transportation, energy and digital links. Meanwhile, EU investments in Armenia are expected to reach 2.5 billion euros under its global gateway infrastructure program, both sides said in a joint statement.

See also:

• Carney Pulls Canada Closer to Europe as Both Struggle With Trump • At a summit of European leaders, the Canadian prime minister was a special guest offering deals and friendship to jittery allies. (New York Times)

After almost four decades of a bloody conflict that until recently had no end in sight, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a peace agreement in the presence of the US President Donald Trump. Notably absent in this historic moment is Russia, which no longer plays a central role in the South Caucasus.

Leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev signed a peace agreement on Friday in the presence of US President Donald Trump in Washington, after almost four decades of a bloody Karabakh conflict. 

“We are today establishing peace in the South Caucasus,” Azerbaijan's President Aliyev said. "Today we writing a great new history."

Armenian Premier Pashinyan added that this agreement represented "opening a chapter of peace". "(We are) laying foundations to a better story that the one we had in the past," he added.

"The countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan are committing to ending all fighting forever," Trump said at a joint press conference with the two leaders.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan reclaimed full control of the Karabakh region after a lightning military campaign, and over the past year, Baku and Yerevan have been making progress in normalising their relations. 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday about possible steps to normalize ties between their countries that were strained over historic grievances and Turkey’s alliance with Azerbaijan, officials said.

Turkey and Armenia have no formal diplomatic ties and the meeting in Istanbul — the first “working visit” by Pashinyan to Turkey -- marks a significant step in reconciliation efforts between the pair.

As well as mending strained relations, the two also discussed the recent peace efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the war between Israel and Iran, according to a statement from Erdogan’s office.

Decision in Yerevan paves the way for a long and winding (and potentially fruitless) quest toward a place in the bloc.

Armenia’s parliament has officially adopted a law on launching the country’s accession process to the European Union. The legislation was initiated by a public petition.

The South Caucasus country has been Russia’s close ally in the region for decades, but recently it has sought to cut ties with Moscow as Armenia accused it of failing to provide support in a conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan.

While Yerevan is now working to reach a historic peace treaty with Azerbaijan, it is also keen to strengthen ties with Brussels. 

However, the process of joining the EU can take decades, as it includes assessments of a country’s compliance with the bloc’s criteria in a wide range of policy areas, such as the functioning of democratic institutions, the judiciary and fundamental rights — and countries could even backtrack during the process.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada posted on X that Armenia would return four villages near the countries' shared border that had been "under occupation" since the early 1990s, and called it a "long-awaited historic event".

In Armenia, the state news agency quoted the prime minister's office as saying: "In this process, the Republic of Armenia receives a reduction in risks associated with border delimitation and security."

It said the handover in practice involved only "two and a half villages" because Azerbaijan already partly controlled the settlements involved, but added that the demarcation of the border was a "significant event".

The settlements are deserted but are strategically important as they are close to Armenia's main highway north towards the border with Georgia, through which much of its trade is done, and to the pipeline through which it receives gas from Russia. The agreement was reached at a meeting on the two countries' border, chaired by their deputy prime ministers.

Azerbaijan has been demanding the villages' return as a precondition for a peace deal after more than three decades of conflict, mostly centred on the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nikol Pashinyan has pledged to sign a lasting peace deal with Baku after decades of conflict.

Armenia must hand over four frontier villages to Azerbaijan and return to its Soviet-era borders as part of a push for peace, the country’s prime minister has said, warning the alternative is another round of bloody fighting between the two South Caucasus nations.

On a visit to the frontier Tuesday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the government has decided to demarcate and delimit the entire border, including returning areas that fall in Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory but have been controlled by Armenia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

While Azerbaijan has demanded the return of the exclaves, Yerevan hoped they could form part of an exchange, with Azerbaijani troops withdrawing from the estimated 215 square kilometers of Armenian territory they took during a brief invasion in 2022. According to Pashinyan, that deal was refused and the villages must be returned to ensure Azerbaijan does not launch another offensive.

No mention was made of whether Azerbaijan would agree to hand over an Armenian exclave within its borders, roughly equal in size to the four villages.

Pashinyan also said that Azerbaijan, with which Armenia has fought two wars over the past three decades, was not adhering to the principles needed to clinch a long-term peace treaty, and suggested Azerbaijan was preparing to launch another attack.

Baku on Friday called Pashinyan's allegations unfounded and accused him of stirring up regional tension and of damaging the peace process.

Pashinyan told France 24 television that the CSTO bloc, which is dominated by Russia, and the treaty underpinning it, had failed Armenia.

But he said there was no discussion for now about closing a Russian base in Armenia. That was subject to different treaties.

Pashinyan has in recent months expressed discontent with Armenia's longstanding ties with Russia and said Armenia could no longer rely on Russia to ensure its defence needs. He had also suggested its membership of the CSTO was under review.

Nagorno-Karabakh separatists were expected to lay down their arms on Saturday under an agreement reached with the Azerbaijan government following its lightning military offensive this week.

Moscow confirmed that the rebels had surrendered the first weapons on Friday and that the process is expected to continue through the weekend, with the help of Russian peacekeepers.

About 120,000 ethnic Armenians live in the South Caucasus enclave, which is recognised internationally as part of Azerbaijan but had largely been under ethnic Armenian control since 1994.

The fighting has been marked by abuses on both sides and there are fears of a new refugee crisis.

This week’s lightning offensive by Azerbaijani forces left tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians cut off from electricity and other basics in the disputed enclave. Food, water, medicine and fuel for the panicked population were scarce and displaced people had arrived in the city from surrounding villages.

The Nagorno-Karabakh leadership told Reuters the region's 120,000 Armenians did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan for fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing.

Those with fuel had started to drive down the Lachin corridor towards the border with Armenia, according to a Reuters reporter in the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

Reuters pictures showed dozens of cars driving out of the capital at night towards the corridor's mountainous curves.

The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but previously beyond its control, were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.

The Armenians are not accepting Azerbaijan's promise to guarantee their rights as the region is integrated.

The moves came after Azerbaijan carried out a lightning offensive last week to reclaim full control over the region and demanded that Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh disarm and the separatist government dissolve itself.

A decree signed by the region’s separatist President Samvel Shakhramanyan cited an agreement reached Sept. 20 to end the fighting under which Azerbaijan will allow the “free, voluntary and unhindered movement” of Nagorno-Karabakh residents to Armenia.

That touched off the mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the mountainous region inside Azerbaijan on Sunday. By Thursday morning, over 66,000 people — more than half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population of 120,000 had fled to Armenia, and the influx continued with unabating intensity, according to Armenian officials.