The Towards Russia Party (), also known as Strong Armenia with Russia Party is an

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 ...

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, ...

History

The party held its founding congress on 6 February 2021 and it is led by Hayk Babukhanyan. The party does not have any political representation within 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 ...

and 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. Following the

2020–2021 Armenian protests The 2020−2021 Armenian protests (also known as the March of Dignity; ) were a series of protests that began following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement, Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement on 10 November 2020. After Prime Minister ...

, the party confirmed that it would participate 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, but ultimately the party failed to register. Hayk Babukhanyan held a meeting with Mher Mesropyan, leader of the Voice of the Nation Party. The leaders discussed possible cooperation between the two parties. Representatives from the Constitutional Rights Union and the

National Unity Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, Id ...

Party were also present and endorsed the creation of 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 ...

. All four parties called for greater integration between Armenia and Russia, while also supporting closer ties between Artsakh and Russia. On 13 April 2021, the Towards Russia Party, the Voice of the Nation Party, and the Constitutional Rights Union officially announced the formation of a political alliance named "New Union". Meanwhile, the Alliance Party initially supported the "New Union" alliance, but opted not to join.

Ideology

The party is staunchly pro-Russian, and calls for Armenia to create a deeper partnership with

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 to join the

Union State The Union State is a supranational union consisting of Belarus and Russia, with the stated aim of deepening the relationship between the two states through integration in economic and defence policy. Originally, the Union State aimed to crea ...

of Belarus and Russia. In February 2021, the party held a rally in Yerevan where Hayk Babukhanyan stated, "Long live a strong Armenia with Russia, long live the military-political brotherhood of the Russian-Armenian peoples." The party also calls for increasing the defense and security budget. The party has opposed Prime Minister

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 ...

Pro-Western The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

policies and has claimed Pashinyan is being ruled by

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

References

External links

Strong Armenia with Russia Party
on Facebook {{Armenian political parties Political parties established in 2021 Russophilic parties in Armenia Eurosceptic parties in Armenia

History

Ideology

See also

References

External links