Former human rights defender Tatoyan to challenge Pashinyan in 2026 elections
Following his recent re-entry into politics, Armenia’s former human rights defender Arman Tatoyan has officially announced that his newly formed political movement Wings of Unity will contest the upcoming parliamentary elections — and that he personally intends to run for the post of prime minister.
‘We are determined to form a government, and I am running for the position of Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia’, Tatoyan said on Thursday during a press conference in Yerevan. ‘We will move forward as an independent political force, uniting the efforts of society toward common goals’.
Tatoyan, 43, began his career in the state system in 2003 and served as Armenia’s Human Rights Defender from 2016–2022. He was initially nominated for the post with backing from the then-ruling Republican Party, but also received support from then-opposition lawmaker and current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
While his early years as human rights defender were largely nonconfrontational, relations with the current authorities deteriorated sharply after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020 and Azerbaijan’s subsequent incursions along Armenia’s borders. Tatoyan repeatedly accused the government of neglecting the needs of border residents, while officials in turn accused him of pursuing political ambitions under the guise of human rights advocacy.
Ani Avetisyan
When asked by reporters whether his movement would raise the issue of regaining control over Nagorno-Karabakh, Tatoyan stressed that while displaced residents have a legally recognised right to return, his movement would not base its political platform on ‘false expectations’.
‘Over 120,000 of our compatriots were displaced from their homes and have the right to return. This is not my personal interpretation — it is a principle recognised by the International Court of Justice’, he said. ‘But we will not build our agenda on illusions about the physical return of [Nagorno-Karabakh]. That would be dishonest toward the people’.
Tatoyan also ruled out abandoning interstate cases filed by Armenia against Azerbaijan over alleged war crimes, despite mutual commitments in draft peace negotiations to withdraw such claims. Citing the brutality of Azerbaijani attacks in 2022, he said, ‘How can I look into the eyes of the families of tortured women and tell them we withdrew those cases?’
Tatoyan was joined at the press conference by David Ananyan, the former head of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee, who is expected to oversee the movement’s economic agenda. Ananyan, who resigned in 2020 amid disagreements with the government over COVID-era regulations, has since become a vocal critic of the Pashinyan administration.
OC Media
