Republican Party of Armenia
The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA, Armenian: Հայաստանի Հանրապետական Կուսակցություն, ՀՀԿ; Hayastani Hanrapetakan Kusaktsutyun, HHK) is a national-conservative political party in Armenia led by the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan.
Not to be confused with Artsakh Republican Party or Hanrapetutyun Party.
Republican Party of Armenia Հայաստանի Հանրապետական Կուսակցություն
2 April 1990
140,000 (claimed, 2008)[1]
Homeland Salvation Movement (2020–2021)
I Have Honor Alliance (2021)
European People's Party (observer)
It was the first political party in independent Armenia to be founded (April 2, 1990) and registered (May 14, 1991). It is the largest party of the right-wing in Armenia,[3] and claims to have had 140,000 members at its heyday.[1] It was the ruling party of Armenia from 1999 to 2018. After the latest parliamentary elections in June 2021, the party entered parliament as a part of the opposition I Have Honor Alliance.
The Economist magazine has described the RPA as a "typical post-Soviet 'party of power' mainly comprising senior government officials, civil servants, and wealthy business people dependent on government connections."[4] It has been described by political commentators as essentially lacking political ideology.[5][6]
Ideology[edit]
The Republican Party's national-conservative ideology is based on tseghakron, an early 20th-century Armenian nationalist ideology (roughly translated as "nation-religion"). It was formulated by Garegin Nzhdeh and holds that the Armenian national identity and state should carry religious significance for all ethnic Armenians.[7] "Tseghakron" literally means "carrier of race", referring to those who represent and carry what is the spiritual and biological essence of the "classical" Armenian. However, it is often erroneously interpreted to mean "race-religion".[8]