Armenia's selective prosecution: A threat to EU relations?

Armenian authorities arrested Artur Danielyan, leader of the opposition party Adekvad, in early October after a Facebook post criticizing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. According to the report, Danielyan's posts criticized Pashinyan and the country's security services.

The dispute centered on Pashinyan's stance on a possible prisoner exchange involving an Azerbaijani soldier imprisoned in Armenia. In an interview with Armenian outlet Infocom, Pashinyan ruled out swapping that soldier for Armenians detained in Azerbaijan. Danielyan responded by calling the prime minister a "scumbag" and accusing him of being unwilling to bring fellow citizens home.

The report says authorities have charged several opposition figures over the past two years, largely based on their social media activity. Over a dozen Armenian civil society organizations condemned Danielyan's prosecution in a joint statement, calling it "patently illegal, disproportionate, and politically motivated." The statement said the case "sends a direct signal to the broader public aimed at silencing dissent, critical views, and undesirable speech."

Another case involves Artur Osipyan, a displaced activist from Nagorno-Karabakh. Prosecutors indicted him for disrupting public order and obstructing the ruling party's campaign ahead of the June parliamentary election, and for inciting violence against Pashinyan in a March social media post.

The report cites a 2025 Freedom House finding that nearly 95 percent of court cases concerning incitement to violence under a 2020 criminal code amendment involved alleged threats against Pashinyan and his supporters. Potentially prohibited statements by ruling party members, the report says, were apparently not subject to the same scrutiny.

The EU spokesperson said the bloc "is closely following developments in the country, including as regards criminal investigations," and that such investigations "should be carried out in an independent and impartial manner, free from political considerations." Political analyst Tigran Grigoryan described the EU's approach as "very pragmatic and geopolitically driven," and German Council on Foreign Relations expert Stefan Meister said European support for Armenia is "mainly driven by the European Russia policy." Both views are attributed analysis, not established findings.