Legitimacy Is Not Determined by Accepting—or Rejecting—a Parliamentary Seat
Russia is due to hold elections to the State Duma this September. The country’s economic situation is, to put it mildly, far from encouraging. Fuel shortages caused by Ukrainian strikes could develop into a serious crisis. Does that mean Vladimir Putin might cancel—or even postpone—the elections? Political scientists say no. Such a scenario is virtually inconceivable.
Why? Because in autocracies such as Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia, elections are not simply political events where citizens express their preferences. They are, above all, a ritual with three principal functions.
First, the authorities seek to demonstrate that life is proceeding as normal and that the country remains stable.
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Second, the bureaucracy—in Armenia’s case, primarily regional governors and heads of administrative districts—must prove that it remains disciplined, effective and fully committed to serving the country’s leader.
Third, the regime’s core electorate is expected to reaffirm its loyalty to that leader. In both Armenia and Russia, the backbone of that electorate appears to be women over the age of fifty, whose admiration for the “ruler” goes hand in hand with hostility toward his opponents. Armenia has one additional peculiarity: these pro-government “activists” are free to flood social media with obscene, sexually explicit abuse. In Russia, by contrast, social media are essentially banned.
Elections, therefore, serve as an important demonstration of strength for autocratic regimes.
Do they reinforce a government’s legitimacy? No. They have nothing to do with legitimacy.
As public debate over the meaning of legitimacy has intensified recently, I found the opinion of experts particularly interesting.
In an interview with me, political scientist Tigran Torosyan offered a useful definition: a government is legitimate when the overwhelming majority of citizens believe that its actions are lawful. In Armenia, however, the picture is exactly the opposite. The overwhelming majority are convinced that the authorities act unlawfully.
The difference lies in how people assess that reality. People like me believe that lawlessness and arbitrary rule are unacceptable. Supporters of Nikol Pashinyan, on the other hand, believe such actions are entirely justified: “He’s doing the right thing. He should go even further. That’s exactly how these people should be treated. If anything, he’s not going far enough,” and so on.
Yet despite our opposing views, we agree on one essential point: the authorities violate the law at virtually every step.
That is precisely why they lack legitimacy.
To quote Torosyan once again, legitimacy has absolutely nothing to do with who holds parliamentary seats. That is my answer to those who argue that the opposition should refuse to take up its mandates in order to avoid “legitimizing” the ruling Civil Contract party.
Civil Contract no longer needs anyone to legitimize it—or delegitimize it. Nothing can legitimize Civil Contract anymore.
Even if Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Ursula von der Leyen were to sing in unison every morning about Nikol Pashinyan’s legitimacy, that would not change the situation.
Accepting parliamentary mandates, however, is the right decision.
Nothing could be more convenient for Civil Contract than for the opposition and its supporters to spend several weeks—or even several months—marching through the streets of Yerevan, only to go home afterward. Repeating the path by which Civil Contract itself came to power in 2018 is simply not possible. That is its own political terrain.
In Armenia—as in any authoritarian system—the authorities fear not street protests but organized institutional political forces: a calm, serious and constructive opposition working through political institutions.
The opposition parties that have entered Parliament appear to have chosen precisely that approach.
That, more than anything else, explains Nikol Pashinyan’s increasingly hysterical behavior.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
Aravot Daily
14.07.2026
