The People's Party of Armenia (

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

: Հայաստանի Ժողովրդական Կուսակցություն, ''Hayastani Zhoghovrdakan Kusaktsutyun'') is a

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

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

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

History

The party nominated Karen Demirchyan as their presidential candidate in the 1998 Armenian presidential election. Demirchyan came in second place, winning 40.1% of the vote. Prior to the 1999 Armenian parliamentary election, the People's Party of Armenia formed a

political alliance A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who a ...

with the

Republican Party of Armenia The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA, ; , ''HHK'') is a National conservatism, national-conservative List of political parties in Armenia, political party in Armenia led by the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan. It was the first polit ...

, known as the "Unity Bloc". The alliance won 41.4% of the popular vote, winning 62 seats 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 repr ...

. The party decided to participate as part of the

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

coalition in the 2003 Armenian parliamentary election. After the election, the Justice coalition won 13.6% of the popular vote and 14 out of 131 seats. It became the second largest group within the National Assembly. Its presidential candidate, Stepan Demirchyan (son of Karen Demirchyan), won 28.03% of the popular vote in the first voting round of the 2003 Armenian presidential election, but lost the presidential election after the second voting round. The party ran independently in the 2007 Armenian parliamentary elections and received 1.68% of the popular vote, however it did not win any seats. Some party members participated in the

2012 Armenian parliamentary election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to s ...

s under the Armenian National Congress electoral list. Before the

2017 Armenian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 2 April 2017. They were the first elections after a 2015 Armenian constitutional referendum, constitutional referendum in 2015 that approved reforms for the country to become a parliamentary republi ...

, the party formed a political alliance with the Armenian National Congress. However, the alliance received just 3.72% of the vote and failed to gain any seats. The party decided not to participate in 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 (Armenia), National Assembly were able to put forward and then elect a candidate for Prime Minister in the two-week period follo ...

. Demirchyan congratulated winner

Nikol Pashinyan Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan (born 1 June 1975) is an Armenian politician who is serving as the 16th and current Prime Minister of Armenia, prime minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own newspaper in ...

following the elections.

Ideology

Prior to the 2007 election, the party shifted its support from being

Pro-Russian Russophilia is the identification or solidarity with, appreciation of, or support for the Russia, country, Russians, people, Russian language, language, and history of Russia. One who espouses Russophilia is called a russophile. Its Opposite ...

to Pro-European. Demirchian stated that, “Armenia has to take the road of

European integration European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...

", effectively changing the parties preference from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and the CIS towards

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the West.

References

Political parties established in 1998 1998 establishments in Armenia Political parties in Armenia Socialist parties in Armenia Pro-European political parties in Armenia {{Armenia-party-stub

History

Ideology

See also

References