Iveta Tonoyan pointed to the Civil Contract party’s pledges to prevent the Armenian opposition from winning the elections scheduled for June 7.
Senior Civil Contract figures exposed in recent days their fears regarding the emergence of three opposition election contenders led by Tsarukian, another wealthy businessman, Samvel Karapetian, and former President Robert Kocharian. They seem particularly irked by the ongoing creation of Tsarukian’s new bloc that will be made of up of not only the BHK but also at least two other opposition parties.
“I advise them to already publish a list of those whom they are not going to allow to participate in the elections,” Tonoyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was accused by other critics of planning to secure an election victory through fraud or foul play when it emerged in December that his administration requested election-related assistance from the European Union. The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, revealed that Yerevan is seeking the kind of “help to fight foreign malign interference” which the EU provided to Moldova ahead of parliamentary elections held there in September 2025.
Two Moldovan opposition parties deemed pro-Russian were barred from participating in the elections won by the country’s pro-Western leadership. The EU justified those bans, alleging Russian interference in the Moldovan elections. Armenian opposition groups fear that some of them may likewise be disqualified from the June vote.
Pashinian declared on February 13 that there will be no former presidents and “oligarchs” in the Armenian political arena after the June vote. He did not elaborate.
Pashinian’s political allies said in the following days that the three opposition groups are intent on unseating him by collectively winning a majority in the new Armenian parliament and then cutting a power-sharing deal. They said Kocharian, Karapetian and Tsarukian aim to replicate the opposition victory in municipal elections held in Gyumri almost a year ago.
Pashinian’s party won most votes but fell well short of a majority in the local council empowered to appoint the city’s mayor. The mayor was installed by four opposition groups that participated in the elections separately.
“Let’s wait for the election results,” Tonoyan said when asked about a possible repeat of that scenario.
“I wonder why the phrase ‘Gyumri-2’ drives government representatives into convulsions,” she said. “As far as I know, there was nothing unconstitutional or illegal in the post-election processes [in Gyumri.] Why is a government that has declared Armenia a bastion of democracy terrified of a democratic process?”
On Thursday, law-enforcement officials raided Tsarukian’s private compound just outside Yerevan. According to his lawyers, they “inspected” the vast plot of land surrounding his hilltop villa in the village of Arinj as part of a criminal case opened against a former head of the community in 2020.
Tsarukian was questioned as a witness in the case years ago. Armenia’s Investigative Committee refused to say why it is showing a renewed interest in the probe now. Tsarukian’s aides do not exclude a connection between the “inspection” and his electoral plans.
The 69-year-old tycoon seems undaunted by the possibility of another criminal case against him. In a statement issued earlier on Friday, he said he is receiving positive feedback from many citizens to his pre-election program titled “Proposal to Armenia.”
“I am going to tour our villages and cities,” said Tsarukian. “I will come to any settlement where people have a desire to meet with me and talk clearly and directly about complex issues by looking each other in the eye.”