The nationwide poll released this week also found that most of them do not expect major economic benefits from the possible opening of Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan.
It was commissioned by the Washington-based International Republican Institute (IRI), financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and conducted by an Armenian polling organization in late November and early December.
According to IRI, 46 percent of 1,512 randomly interviewed people felt that “Armenia is heading in the wrong direction,” up from 34 percent in the previous survey conducted last July shortly after the snap elections won by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. The capital Yerevan had the highest percentage of such respondents.
The proportion of those who anticipate positive change in the country fell from 41 percent to 34 percent in that period. It stood at 62 percent in late 2019.
Civil Contract won the June 2020 polls with about 54 percent of the vote, according to their official results. Pashinian regularly cites that victory in response to opposition criticism of his policies and accusations of misrule.
The latest IRI poll suggests that 61 percent of Armenians believe their country is “governed in the interest of some groups,” rather than the majority of the population. Just under a fifth of those polled were “very satisfied” with the work of the prime minister’s office, with another 30 percent only “somewhat satisfied.”
Of all state institutions, the office of the outgoing human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, had the highest approval ratings, followed by the Armenian police, local governments and the military.
Tatoyan has been increasingly critical of Pashinian’s administration, accusing it of undermining judicial independence and bullying opposition groups that defeated the ruling party in recent local elections.
Respondents were also asked about what they see as the key challenges facing Armenia more than one year after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Their most frequent answers were “territorial, border issues” (28 percent) and “national security” (15 percent).
“With the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a history of military confrontation in the region, Armenians are understandably concerned about national security and threats along the [Armenian-Azerbaijani] border,” said Stephen Nix, director of IRI’s Eurasia Division. “They would like to see a resolution to these long-standing territorial issues.”
Pashinian, who is blamed by his political opponents for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war, has repeatedly promised to usher in an “era of peaceful development.” He has stressed the importance of having economic links with Azerbaijan and Turkey, saying that they will significantly benefit the Armenian economy,
The IRI poll shows most Armenians do not share the prime minister’s view. According to its findings, only 5-6 percent of them think that the economic impact of open borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey will be “definitely positive.”
More than two-thirds of respondents described Turkey as “the greatest economic threat to Armenia.”