Different Face of Populism in Armenian Politics: Nikol Pashinyan

Populist leaders have been gaining momentum in countries around the world in recent years, coming to power with great momentum and quickly losing support when their big promises fail to materialize. One of these leaders is Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who discussed a lot with the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh. There are some populist strategy areas in Pashinyan’s policies. His promises of economic reforms and anti-corruption measures resonated with the public but implementing these reforms without causing economic instability has proven challenging. This research argues that his communication style, which often appeals directly to the people and bypasses traditional political channels, is characteristic of populist leaders. This study discusses that his populist rhetoric, particularly regarding Armenia's conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, has exacerbated tensions and hindered diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict. All of these issues are explored with analysing Pashinyan’s political discourse in this article. The main purpose of this article is both to show that Pashinyan's populism is a unique type of populism different from other types of populism and to fill the gap in the literature on populism in Armenian domestic politics.