# Armenia > [!info] Gateway page > One of the fifteen former Soviet republics compared at [[Post-Soviet States]]. **Armenia** is the most consequential defection from Russia's alliance system — a treaty ally that concluded the treaty was worthless. When [[Azerbaijan]] attacked Armenian territory in September 2022 and Armenia invoked the [[Collective Security Treaty Organization]]'s mutual-defence clause, the alliance declined to act. Everything since follows from that refusal. | Item | Detail | |---|---| | Independence | Independence referendum 21 September 1991 (Declaration of Independence 23 August 1990) | | Head of state | President Vahagn Khachaturyan | | Head of government | Prime Minister [[Nikol Pashinyan]]; his Civil Contract party won the 7 June 2026 election, and he was reappointed 2 August 2026 | | CSTO | Participation frozen since 23 February 2024; not formally withdrawn | | Other Russia-led blocs | [[Eurasian Economic Union]] and CIS member | | EU | Accession law passed March 2025; Pashinyan announced on 25 August 2026 that Armenia would apply "in the near future" | | Russian forces | 102nd Military Base at Gyumri, lease running to 2044 | | Population | About 3.10 million (January 2026) | ## The 2026 mandate The June 2026 election was a referendum on the turn west. Civil Contract won 49.75% and 64 of 105 seats in the final count. Second, with 23.27% and 29 seats, was Strong Armenia, the pro-Russian party of the Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan — who had been arrested in June 2025 on charges of calling for the government's overthrow. The government's confrontation with the Armenian Apostolic Church ran in parallel: two archbishops were arrested in late June 2025 over an alleged coup plot, and Pashinyan has campaigned openly against Catholicos Karekin II. ## Unwinding the Russian presence | Date | Step | |---|---| | 23 February 2024 | CSTO participation frozen | | 31 July 2024 | Russian border guards leave Yerevan's Zvartnots airport | | Early 2025 | Armenian guards replace Russians at the Margara checkpoint on the Turkish border | | 26 March 2025 | Parliament passes the EU accession law | | 29 May 2026 | The Eurasian Economic Union says it will consider suspending Armenia over its EU push; review set for December | | 24 August 2026 | Pashinyan: Armenia has no plans to return to the CSTO and he would be "very pleased" if it expelled Armenia | | 2–3 September 2026 | Putin says Russia would leave Gyumri "even tomorrow" if asked; Pashinyan replies Armenia "will not object" | ## The peace deal and the corridor Armenia and Azerbaijan initialed a peace agreement at the White House on 8 August 2025. It remains unsigned: Baku makes a new Armenian constitution — removing the preamble's reference to the 1990 Declaration of Independence — a condition. The same summit created the U.S.-developed transit route across southern Armenia linking Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave, branded the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). Chatham House's Laurence Broers judged that the route "renders obsolete Russian supervision" of the southern corridor that the 2020 Russian-brokered ceasefire had assigned to Russian border guards. ## Where it stands with Moscow Pulling away, with the remaining ties — the Gyumri base, Eurasian Economic Union membership, trade dependence — now openly negotiable. Moscow's answer has been economic pressure (2026 restrictions on Armenian mineral water, wine, cognac and fish *[single-sourced]*) and, per Carnegie's Mikayel Zolyan, treating Armenia as "yet another hybrid battlefield" against the West rather than a guaranteed ally. ## See Also - [[Post-Soviet States]] — all fifteen former republics compared - [[Azerbaijan]] - [[Nikol Pashinyan]] - [[Eurasian Economic Union]] - [[Collective Security Treaty Organization]] — the alliance Armenia froze - [[Armenian Genocide]]