Key Developments in the Country and the Regional Context

Chapter 1

2021 saw the consequences of the unprecedented dual crises Armenia faced over the previous year, the global COVID-19 pandemic and the renewed conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh (NK). These overlapping crises together exposed the entire population to a range of traumas, from significant loss of life to extensive economic and social costs, especially affecting the poor and most vulnerable communities.

Key Developments

On January 11, 2021, an agreement was signed by Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, announcing their decision to build infrastructure, transportation, and trade networks that would extend from Iran to Russia on the north-south line and from Azerbaijan to Turkey on the east-west line. The country entered into a phase of internal turmoil in the face of protests demanding Government resignation, snap parliamentary elections, opposition declaring national resistance against the election results, cease-fire violations, normalization attempts with Turkey, and negotiations with Azerbaijan. Responses to the humanitarian and displacement crisis, border delimitation and demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan and return of Armenian prisoners of war became top priorities for the country. The victory of the ruling Civil Contract party in the snap parliamentary elections held in June 2021 endowed the government with renewed legitimacy.