Armenia between Russia and the West : Realpolitik and Identity Reconstruction in PM Pashinyan's Tweets

Abstract: My research is focused on the relation between the foreign policy vector and national identity as projected by Armenia’s Prime Minister (PM) Nikol Pashinyan in the public sphere. This study is a search for expressions of ‘sameness’ and allegiance in the geopolitical balancing and reconstruction of Armenia’s foreign policy narrative, ideology and identity.  The work entails an exploration of how Armenia’s relations to the EU, France, Iran, Russia, and the US are being projected through the Prime Minister’s Twitter account from 2018 through 2022. A quantitative and qualitative (discourse) analysis of PM Pashinyan’s tweets through these five years indicated that references to Russia predominantly have contents and direct contextual links to the sphere of security and defence. There is an absence of positive tonality toward Russia following Armenia’s war with Azerbaijan in 2020 and the Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement. In contrast, during the whole five-year period France stands out as receiving unanimously positive remarks with content on various subjects. France stands out as being referred to the most in values and ideology. The EU, US and Iran all feature less than Russia and France. Posts with the US mentioned are in the sphere of external relations and in connection with the Armenian diaspora. The Armenian communities in Iran are also subject of a number of tweets. Many Twitter posts referring to Armenian-Iranian state relations include references to shared history and heritage. In summary, my analysis illustrates a foreign policy engagement towards the West from PM Pashinyan. However, his tweets also acknowledge the strong ties to Russia in security and defence and the deep heritage shared with Iran.