The 2012 Armenian Parliamentary Elections: Implications for Armenian Foreign Policy

Armenian parliamentary elections were held on 6 May
2012. Five parties and a coalition won seats in
Parliament. Three of them are opposition parties, two in
the previous legislature were allies of the presidency
party, the Republican Party. The latter comfortably won
the elections. With 45% votes through the proportional
system and 29 seats through the majoritarian one, the
Republican Party has the majority of seats, 69
out of 131.

So the two main issues in Armenian foreign
policy - the protracted conflict with Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh and relations with Turkey - will be
addressed in continuity with the policy expressed so far
by President Serzh Sargsyan, unless the regional
counterparts change their strategies. With the party he
chairs being confirmed as the leading political force of
the country, Sargsyan will run for his second term in the
upcoming presidential elections.

(full working paper in English available at http://www.iai.it/pdf/DocIAI) /iaiwp1214.pdf