The Homeland Party () is a

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

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 ...

. It was founded on 30 May 2020 by Artur Vanetsyan.

History

The party had been registered in Armenia since 1991, and was previously led by Jasmen Asryan. However, the party went into a long period of inactivity. The founding congress of the newly relaunched Homeland Party was held on 20 May 2020, in Yerevan. Artur Vanetsyan was elected unanimously by party members as chairman and the party subsequently completed its registration with the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. Party leader Artur Vanetsyan, was the former Director of the National Security Services of Armenia. Vanetsyan was dismissed from his position by Prime Minister of Armenia,

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 ...

. Since then, Vanetsyan has been a vocal critic of Pashinyan's government and has called on the Prime Minister to step down from power. Vanetsyan stated that the current government has exhausted the confidence of the overwhelming majority of people. Vanetsyan has also declared support to the

Prosperous Armenia Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP; , abbreviated as ԲՀԿ BHK), is a conservative list of political parties in Armenia, political party in Armenia. It was founded by businessman Gagik Tsarukyan on 30 April 2004, when the constituent congress of the ...

party, stating that they are the only true opposition force of the current government. On 15 November 2020, Vanetsyan was arrested by Yerevan police due to a planned assault on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. In May 2021, 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 ...

and the Homeland Party announced that they would form their own political alliance, known as the

I Have Honor Alliance I Have Honor () is a political alliance in Armenia. It was founded on 15 May 2021 as an alliance between the Republican Party of Armenia and the Homeland Party. The Homeland Party withdrew from the alliance in June 2022. History The alliance was ...

, to run in the

2021 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 sp ...

s. Following the election, the alliance received 5.22% of the popular vote, gaining 6 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 Homeland Party was represented in parliament with one of those seats, held by Vanetsyan. On 21 June 2022, Vanetsyan announced that he was giving up his seat in parliament and withdrawing the Homeland Party from the I Have Honor Alliance. The Homeland Party currently acts as an

extra-parliamentary An extra-parliamentary opposition, also referred to as simply extra-parliamentary or extraparliamentary, is a political movement opposed to a ruling government or political party that chooses not to engage in elections. Many social movements could ...

force.

Ideology

The party has declared itself an alternative force and believes in developing and improving the security, stability and progress of Armenia; with rule of law and

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

as the benchmarks, while also fighting against

xenophobia Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

. The party has also supported the idea of collaborating with other political parties in Armenia with similar views and ideologies.

Armed wing

During 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 occupied territories. It was a major escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, involvi ...

, the armed wing of the party, the "Homeland" detachment, led by Vanetsyan, and consisting of about 80 men, took part in the Battle of Shusha. In January 2021, former director of the Armenian NSS, Argishti Kyaramyan, claimed that the members of the detachment, had left their positions during the battle, though Vanetsyan, and other members of the detachment later denied this claim.

Electoral record

Parliamentary elections

References