Nikol Pashinyan

Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia

Born on June 1, 1975 in Ijevan, he graduated from Ijevan Secondary School N1.

In 1991-1995, he studied at the Yerevan State University. In the fifth year of graduation, he was dismissed from the YSU for political reasons.

Since 1992, he had been actively engaged in journalism. He was on the staff of Dprutyun, Hayastan, Lragir, Lragir-Or and Molorak newspapers. In 1998, he founded Oragir daily, which was closed down by a court decision in 1999 for political reasons.

In 1999, he was appointed editor-in-chief of Haykakan Zhamanak daily and held the post until 2012.

In August, 1999, he was sentenced to one year in prison for political motives. Later, at the request of international and Armenian journalists, the Court of Appeals delayed the imprisonment for a year. As a result, the imprisonment was never enforced.

In 2006, he was a founding member of the "Alternative" socio-political initiative. He headed the proportional list of Impeachment alliance in the parliamentary elections of 2007.

During the 2008 presidential election, he was member of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign headquarters.

Following March 1, 2008 incidents, he was wanted by the Police and spent 1 year and four months in hiding. On July 1, 2009, he came out of hiding and surrendered himself to the Office of General Prosecutor, where he was arrested and sentenced to seven years in January 2010 on charges of organizing mass disorders on March 1, 2008.

He has been widely recognized as a prisoner of conscience in Armenia and by the international community. After spending one year and 11 months in prison, he was released on May 27, 2011 by virtue of the general amnesty declared by the Armenian authorities.

In the parliamentary elections of 2012, he was elected to the National Assembly by the proportional list of the Armenian National Congress Alliance. In 2012-13, he was Chairman of the NA Ethics Committee.

In 2013, he founded the Civil Contract public-political association. From 2013 to 2015, he was on the governing board of Civil Contract public-political association. Since 2015, he has been a board member of the homonymous Civil Contract party.

In May 2016, he was the commander of Civil Contract party volunteer detachment.

He was elected to the National Assembly by the electoral list of Yelk Bloc in the general elections of April 2, 2017 from Constituency N4, which covered Kentron, Erebuni, Nork-Marash and Nubarashen administrative districts of Yerevan.

From May, 2017, he headed National Assembly’s Yelk parliamentary faction.

On March 31, 2018, he initiated the My Step movement in Gyumri’s Vardanants Square, which resulted in a non-violent velvet popular revolution in April-May of the same year.

On May 8, 2018, at the request of the popular movement, he was elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia in the National Assembly.

On October 16, 2018, in line with the electoral pledge, he resigned to hold snap elections and exercised the duties of Acting Prime Minister.

On December 9, 2018, he headed the My Step Alliance’s proportional list in the snap elections of the National Assembly and was My Step’s candidate for the post of Prime Minister. The Alliance won about 70 percent of the vote in the elections.

In light of this fact, pursuant to part 1 of Article 149 of the Constitution and in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 89 of the Constitution, he was appointed Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia on January 14, 2019.

Resigned on April 25, 2021 for the purpose of resolving the internal political situation in the country through parliamentary elections, fulfilling the duties of the acting Prime Minister.

Headed the proportional list of the "Civil Contract" party and was the candidate for the post of Prime Minister of the party in the June 20, 2021 extraordinary elections of the National Assembly.

The party received 53.91% of the votes during the election. He was appointed Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia on August 2, 2021, according to Article 149, Part 1 of the Constitution.

In the regular elections of the National Assembly on June 7, 2026, he headed the proportional list of the "Civil Contract" party and was the party's candidate for Prime Minister.

In the elections, the party received a vote of confidence of 49.7 percent of the voters. In accordance with Part 1 of Article 149 of the Constitution, on August 2, 2026, he was appointed Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

He is married with three daughters and one son.

During his tenure as Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan has received a number of high international awards. In 2023, Pope Francis awarded Nikol Pashinyan the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Pope Pius IX for his contribution to strengthening relations between Armenia and the Holy See.

In 2024, the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, Constantine Tassoulas, awarded Nikol Pashinyan the Gold Medal of the Hellenic Parliament.

In 2025, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev awarded Nikol Pashinyan with the highest state award of Kazakhstan, the Order of the "Altyn Qyran" ("Golden Eagle").

In 2026, the President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan awarded Nikol Pashinyan with the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity for his efforts to establish peace and cooperation in the region.

In 2026, Nikol Pashinyan was awarded the Gernika Award for Peace and Reconciliation.

In the same year, by the decision of the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron, Nikol Pashinyan was awarded the "Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor", the highest state award of France.