Civil Contract ( hy, Քաղաքացիական պայմանագիր, , ՔՊ, KP, often shortened to Քաղպայմանագիր, ''K'aghpaymanagir'') is a

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...

. It was established on 24 July 2013 as a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

. Its governing board was formed on 9 December 2013. On 30 May 2015, it was registered as a

. Civil Contract participated in the

2017 Armenian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 2 April 2017. They were the first elections after a constitutional referendum in 2015 that approved reforms for the country to become a parliamentary republic. The result was a victory for the ruli ...

and the

2017 Yerevan City Council election Yerevan City Council elections were held on 14 May 2017. The Republican Party of Armenia won 71.25% of the total vote, the Way Out Alliance won 21%, while Yerkir Tsirani won 7.75%. Following the elections, Yerevan City Council elected Taron Marg ...

as part of the

Way Out Alliance The Way Out Alliance ( hy, «Ելք» դաշինք, ԵԼՔ; ''YELK Dashink, YELQ'') or Yelk Alliance or simply Yelk or Way Out was a liberal political alliance of three political parties in Armenia: Civil Contract, Bright Armenia and the Hanrap ...

(''Yelk''). Following the

2018 Armenian Velvet Revolution The 2018 Armenian Revolution, most commonly known in Armenia as #MerzhirSerzhin ( hy, ՄերժիրՍերժին, meaning "#RejectSerzh"), was a series of anti-government protests in Armenia from April to May 2018 staged by various political and ...

led by

Nikol Pashinyan Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan ( hy, Նիկոլ Վովայի Փաշինյան, ; born 1 June 1975) is an Armenian politician serving as the prime minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own newspaper in ...

, a new

political alliance A political group is a group consisting of political parties or legislators of aligned ideologies. A technical group is similar to a political group, but with members of differing ideologies. International terms Equivalent terms are used differ ...

rose to prominence known as the My Step Alliance. After the

2018 Armenian parliamentary election Snap parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 9 December 2018, as none of the parties in the National Assembly were able to put forward and then elect a candidate for Prime Minister in the two-week period following the resignation of incum ...

, the My Step Alliance gained a ruling majority in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

. The My Step Alliance dissolved in May 2021 as Civil Contract opted to participate in the

2021 Armenian parliamentary election Snap parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 20 June 2021. The elections had initially been scheduled for 9 December 2023, but were called earlier due to a political crisis following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War and an alleged attempted ...

s independently. Following the election, Civil Contract was able to retain their ruling majority.

Ideology

The Civil Contract Party has no definite official ideology. Its leader,

, states: "There are no clear lines between political ideologies anymore ... in the 21st century, those lines disappeared. It's not acceptable for me to call our party 'liberal,' 'centrist,' or 'social democrat,' because the goals we have to achieve are beyond '-isms. Despite this, Pashinyan himself has been described as a

radical centrist Radical centrism (also called the radical center, the radical centre or the radical middle) is a concept that arose in Western nations in the late 20th century. The '' radical'' in the term refers to a willingness on the part of most radical ce ...

, a

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...

, or a liberal (and occasionally a

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...

) in favour of a

liberal democracy Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...

by international media.

Goals

The party has announced their goal to double the population of Armenia within the next 20 years, ensure

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

and freedoms of all citizens, eliminate all forms of corruption and to further strengthen and develop the economy while protecting the environment.

Foreign policy

Prior to the 2018 election, Civil Contract was in favor of developing closer ties with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

and supported Armenia's inclusion in a

Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTA) are three free trade areas established between the European Union, and Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine respectively. The DCFTAs are part of each country's EU Association Agreement. They allow G ...

with the EU. Party leader Nikol Pashinyan was skeptical of Armenia's membership in the

Eurasian Union The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU or EEU)EAEU is the acronym used on thorganisation's website However, many media outlets use the acronym EEU. is an economic union of some post-Soviet states located in Eurasia. The Treaty on the Eurasian Ec ...

and complained that membership had brought no benefits to Armenia. However, following his electoral victory, Pashinyan changed his official position and announced his support of Armenia's membership in the Eurasian Union. Civil Contract claims that Armenia should not make a choice between the East and the West. Instead, Armenia should become an example and mediator of dialogue and cooperation. Civil Contract advocates for maintaining strong connections between Armenia and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

while promoting Eurasian integration with other CIS and Eurasian Union member states. At the same time, Civil Contract does continue to support Armenia's

European integration European integration is the process of industrial, economic, political, legal, social, and cultural integration of states wholly or partially in Europe or nearby. European integration has primarily come about through the European Union and its ...

through developing closer ties with the European Union and to eliminate visa requirements for Armenian citizens traveling to the EU's

Schengen Area The Schengen Area ( , ) is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and ...

. In October 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan stated that he sees a lot of potential growth in both economic and political ties with the EU. Avinyan also advised that, "Any future

EU accession The European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria ...

is a question that the people of Armenia need to answer and would only occur following the withdrawal of Armenia from the Eurasian Union." In 2019, the party's leader categorically ruled out the prospect of Armenia leaving the EAEU or the

CSTO The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. The Collective Security Treat ...

, stating that Armenia would not do a "u-turn" in Foreign Policy. A new party program was adopted, which stated the party's intention for Armenia to "not choose between East and West" and that the country's foreign relations ought to be based on protecting the nation's

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

. Civil Contract also believes in deepening relations with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

as well as securing international recognition of the

Republic of Artsakh Artsakh, officially the Republic of Artsakh () or the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (),, is a breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Artsakh controls a part of the former ...

and the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...

Formation

Civil Contract first came into the public consciousness on 23 January 2013, when MP

from the opposition bloc publicized a project to establish a new political process in the newspaper ''Haykakan Zhamanak'' (''The Armenian Times''). For several months afterwards, the text of the contract was widely discussed in Armenian political forums. An updated version of the contract was published and Civil Contract, a new political union, was announced on 24 July of that year. The union announced that before its first conference, the text of the contract would be amended and clarified and a detailed road map created.

Governing board

During the fifth convention of the party in June 2019 acting Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Suren Papikyan was elected as Chairman of the 21 member strong governing board. Civil Contract's governing board was introduced on 9 December 2013 during a press conference at the

Ani Plaza Hotel Ani Plaza Hotel ( hy, Անի Պլազա Հյուրանոց), is a 4-star hotel at the central Kentron District of Yerevan, Armenia. It was opened in 1970 as a state-owned enterprise during the Soviet period. After the collapse of the USSR, ''Ani H ...

. It was formed to organize the first party convention. The current governing board is: * Arayik Harutyunyan, historian, former minister of education *

Alen Simonyan Alen Roberti Simonyan ( hy, Ալեն Ռոբերտի Սիմոնյան; born 5 January 1980) is an Armenian politician currently serving as the president of the National Assembly of Armenia since 2 August 2021. He served as the acting presid ...

, lawyer, editor-in-chief of the Ararat Media Group *

, former journalist, former MP, prime minister * Suren Papikyan, chairman of the governing board, MP * Ruben Rubinyan, vice-president of the board, MP *Eduard Aghajanyan * Tigran Avinyan, deputy PM *Hakob Arshakyan, former minister of high-tech industry *

Ararat Mirzoyan Ararat Samveli Mirzoyan ( hy, Արարատ Սամվելի Միրզոյան; born 23 November 1979) is an Armenian politician currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. Before this, he served as President of the National ...

, former speaker of parliament *Vilen Gabrielyan *Romanos Petrosyan, former minister of the environment *Arsen Torosyan, former minister of health, chief of staff of the PM *Narek Babyan *Arman Boshyan * Lilit Makunts *Sipan Pashinyan * Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, former minister of the diaspora *Vahagn Hovakimyan *Armen Pambukhchyan * Arpine Davoyan

Finances

The Civil Contract Return Fund was established to ensure that the party's funding complies with Armenian law and its activities are democratically organized. Funds donated to Civil Contract will be stored in the fund's account and vault. Accounting will be conducted under the supervision of the board of trustees, which is independent of the governing board and controls the fund's expenditures. According to the party's contract, "Citizens who have donated money or property to the Contract shall have the right to request information on spending, and their demands are to be satisfied within three days' time."

Board of trustees

The Civil Contract board of trustees was announced on 22 February 2014. Haykak Arshamyan was elected chairman, and Hakob Simidyan was appointed director of the fund. Members are: * Lara Aharonian, Women's Resource Center co-founder, director * Haykak Arshamyan, PhD in history * Levon Bagramyan, economist, political scientist, Washington, D.C. * Arthur Ispiryan, musician * Levon Hovsepyan, economist * Ara Shirinyan, director * Maro Matossian, Women's Support Center director * Edgar Manukyan, PhD in economics,

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Canada * Sargis Kloyan, businessperson

Funding

The Civil Contract governing board published "Financing Politics and Civil Contract", an article touching on the issues of fiscal transparency and financing public and political life in Armenia, on 26 April 2014:

Velvet Revolution

On March 31, 2018, Civil Contract leader Nikol Pashinyan and his supporters began a march from

Gyumri Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

(Armenia's second-largest city) to the capital,

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

, to dissuade Prime Minister

Serzh Sargsyan Serzh Azati Sargsyan ( hy, Սերժ Ազատի Սարգսյան, ; born 30 June 1954)Of ...

from retaining power beyond his legal term limit. On April 17, Nikol Pashinyan announced the start of a national, nonviolent "velvet revolution" to thousands of supporters gathered near the

. On April 22, several hours after a brief meeting with Sargsyan, Pashinyan was arrested with about 250 other protesters. After mass strikes by

organized labor A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

and streets blockaded by over 300,000 protesters (including soldiers and Civil Contract members), Sargsyan resigned on April 23. He said then, "Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was wrong. The movement of the street is against my office. I'm fulfilling your demands." According to contemporaneous reporting by

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazee ...

's Robin Forestier-Walker, "Thousands of people are on the streets, cheering and hugging each other, jumping up and down and honking their horns... things happened so quickly, I don't think the crowd was expecting this, but it is exactly what they wanted".

2020–21 political unrest

On 18 March 2021, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced early parliamentary elections, to take place on 20 June 2021. The announcement was made during a period of

political unrest Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

in the country, following the defeat of Armenia in the

2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories. It was a major escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, involving Azerba ...

. Nikol Pashinyan subsequently resigned as Prime Minister, but continued his duties as acting Prime Minister. Civil Contract confirmed its intention to participate in the

s, with Nikol Pashinyan leading the party as its candidate for prime minister. The party also confirmed that they would be running in the election independently, effectively dissolving the My Step Alliance. While the party did run independently, Gurgen Arsenyan, leader of the United Labour Party confirmed that he would participate with Civil Contract. In addition, the vice-chairman of Mighty Homeland, Shirak Torosyan, also announced he would participate with Civil Contract. Following the election, Civil Contract won 53.9% of the popular vote, gaining a

supermajority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

of 71 seats in the National Assembly. Party leader Nikol Pashinyan was officially appointed Armenia's prime minister.

Electoral record

Parliamentary elections

References

External links

Official website

''Payqar''
official website and underground newspaper
''Haykakan Zhamanak''
website and newspaper.
''Armenaker Kamilion''
has a substantial number of English translations of Pashinyan's articles i
''Payqar''
{{Armenian political parties 2013 establishments in Armenia Centrist parties in Asia Centrist parties in Europe Political parties established in 2015 Political parties in Armenia Pro-European political parties in Armenia

Ideology

Goals

Foreign policy

Formation

Governing board

Finances

Board of trustees

Funding

Velvet Revolution

2020–21 political unrest

Electoral record

Parliamentary elections

See also

References

External links