Riot police did not allow the several dozen protesters to approach the main government building in the Armenian capital where von der Leyen held talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. The protesters held pictures of other prominent opposition figures who were arrested in the run-up to or after the June 7 parliamentary elections on various charges rejected by them as politically motivated.
“Ursula von der Leyen is shaking the hand of and lavishing praise on someone who has filled Armenia’s jails with political prisoners,” said Menua Soghomonian of the Hayakve opposition movement whose leader Avetik Chalabian was arrested on June 24 for allegedly urging Russia to assist the Armenian opposition in the elections.
“Before coming there, Mrs. von der Leyen, you were in Baku where you shook the hand of a man [Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev] soaked in blood … And you are here today, encouraging authoritarianism in Armenia with your diplomatic gesture,” he charged.
“Under the guise of European integration, the Armenian authorities arrest their political opponents, implementing a clearly dictatorial and anti-democratic policy directed against human rights,” said Manuk Sukiasian, a representative of another opposition group, Mayr Hayastan.
The group’s pro-Russian leader, Andranik Tevanian, was arrested on May 23 on charges of spying for Russian intelligence strongly denied by him. Mayr Hayastan ran in the elections in a de facto alliance with Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party, one of the ruling Civil Contract party’s three main challengers.
Armenia - Andranik Tevanian speaks during the Prosperous Armenia Party's campaign rally in Yerevan, May 21, 2026.
For its part, Hayakve is allied to the main opposition Strong Armenia alliance led by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian. Hundreds of Strong Armenia members or supporters have been detained in recent months mainly on charges of giving or taking vote bribes. Several dozen of them reportedly remain in jail or under house arrest. Karapetian’s bloc strongly denies the accusations levelled against them. The Armenian authorities maintain, for their part, that none of the opposition detainees is a political prisoner.
Also arrested ahead of the elections was Armen Ashotian, the deputy chairman of President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK). Ashotian is facing corruption charges denied by him and the HHK.
“We must force Europe to talk about human rights violations in Armenia,” Hayk Mamijanian, a member of the outgoing Armenian parliament and another senior HHK member, said during Thursday’s protest.
The EU has supported Pashinian and avoided public criticism of his government’s human rights record throughout his eight-year rule. Armenian opposition leaders claim that Pashinian has thus been rewarded for effectively siding with the West in its deepening confrontation with Russia.
They also say that the recent mass arrests were aimed at helping Civil Contract win the June 7 elections described by them as fraudulent. Pashinian’s party denies the vote-rigging allegations.
The EU has likewise described the vote as democratic and hailed its official outcome. Von der Leyen said after the talks with Pashinian that Armenians “chose democracy and rule of law” and backed their government’s efforts to “partner with the European Union.”