Armenia Is Racing Toward Dictatorship

In this moment, Arthur Khachatryan, an MP from Hayastan Dashinq (Armenia Alliance) and a member of ARF Dashnaktsutyun, lays out why he believes Pashinyan is no longer simply governing but consolidating one-man rule. He points to an interview in which Pashinyan claimed the government majority can amend any law, including how the Armenian Apostolic Church leadership, political parties, NGOs, and news outlets are formed. For Khachatryan, that is the blueprint for a dictatorship.

He then reads back some of the most alarming statements from the parliament floor. Pashinyan reportedly told Levon Kocharyan he would hang him and take off his shoes, and warned that if the courts do not reach a verdict on illegal enrichment, the people will take by force what belongs to them. Khachatryan calls this an endorsement of a lynch court and argues a prime minister cannot be an advocate for mob justice. His conclusion is blunt: this is not a backsliding of Armenia, Armenia is racing toward dictatorship.

The exchange sits inside a larger discussion about opposition strategy after the June 7 parliamentary elections, in which the collective opposition gathered hundreds of thousands more votes than in 2021 yet Pashinyan retained a majority. Khachatryan frames the confiscation campaigns, the pressure on the church, and the threats against opponents as pieces of a single project to concentrate political, judicial, and law enforcement power under one person. He says the opposition has conveyed this warning to international media and to diplomats accredited in Armenia, quoting Martin Luther King that at the end of the day people remember not the words of enemies but the silence of friends. For an informed audience following the 2026 Armenian parliamentary election aftermath, the clip captures the opposition’s central charge against Civil Contract in a few vivid sentences.