The People's Party of Armenia (in Armenian: Հայաստանի Ժողովրդական Կուսակցություն, ''Hayastani Zhoghovrdakan Kusaktsutyun'') is a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes 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 political ideology ...

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 ...

History

Prior to the 1999 Armenian parliamentary election, the People's Party of Armenia formed a

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 diffe ...

with the Republican Party of Armenia, 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 rep ...

. The party decided to participate as part of the

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

coalition in the

2003 Armenian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 25 May 2003. There were 56 constituency seats and 75 elected on a national basis using proportional representation. They saw the Republican Party of Armenia emerge as the largest party, with 33 of t ...

. 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 Stepan Kareni Demirchyan ( hy, Ստեփան Կարենի Դեմիրճյան; born June 7, 1959) is an Armenian politician and son of the Communist-era Armenian leader Karen Demirchyan. Biography Stepan Demirchyan was born in Yerevan and receive ...

, 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 elections under the

Armenian National Congress The Armenian National Congress ( hy, italic=yes, Հայ Ազգային Կոնգրես, translit=Hay Azgayin Kongres) is an Armenian political party led by former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and formed in 2008. Its direct predecessor was the ...

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 constitutional referendum in 2015 that approved reforms for the country to become a parliamentary republic. The result was a victory for the rul ...

, 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. Demirchyan congratulated winner Nikol Pashinyan following the elections.

Ideology

Prior to the 2007 election, the party shifted its support from being Pro-Russian to Pro-European. Demirchian stated that, “Armenia has to take the road of

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 ...

", effectively changing the parties preference from

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-eigh ...

and the CIS towards

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

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