Member of Parliament Elinar Vardanyan has warned that Armenia’s authorities are deliberately provoking a new societal conflict between pensioners and the middle and younger generations. In a detailed Facebook post, the opposition MP criticized the government for fostering internal hostilities over the past seven years.
“The foundation of governance in Armenia over the past seven years has been division. This regime’s oxygen is internal conflict,” Vardanyan wrote. “Now, a new rift is being incited between pensioners and younger officials.”
She argued that while millions of drams are being granted to high-ranking officials as political handouts, proposals to give even modest sums (such as 10,000 drams) to pensioners are publicly dismissed as meaningless. “This is a disgraceful and disrespectful attitude toward nearly half a million pensioners,” she said, adding that such contrasts intentionally spark resentment, especially when officials receiving "bonuses" make in a lump sum more than a retiree receives in ten years.
“These are people who built the state, endured its hardest times, raised generations, and now they’re treated like this. The public has now seen and heard the authorities’ true attitude toward pensioners. This must not go unanswered.”
Vardanyan then outlined a "brief history of internal hostility" that she claims has been systematically promoted since 2018:
- Former vs. current officials, followed by the "black vs. white" narrative that infiltrated even families.
- A false divide between pro-Russians and pro-Westerners, enforced by media and NGOs, with dissenters silenced under the guise of “progress.”
- The revival of the "Artsakhtsi vs. Hayastantsi" (Karabakh Armenian vs. Republic-born Armenian) divide, which resurfaces conveniently.
- The “peace advocates vs. war supporters” framing, branding those who oppose one-sided concessions and forgotten POWs as warmongers, while positioning themselves as peacekeepers, though under Azerbaijan’s terms.
- A manufactured clash between church “reformers” and defenders, with state-backed religious events on one side and youth-led, civil resistance on the other.
Vardanyan warned that more such divisive narratives are being prepared for the upcoming 2026 parliamentary elections and called on all non-government forces to unite in resisting them, regardless of their differences.
“We must not allow new waves of internal hostility. These are false narratives serving only one man and a narrow elite. The state’s interests lie elsewhere,” she concluded.
