The Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan, has joined the de facto ruling party, the Republican Party of Armenia (Hayastani Hanrapetakan Kusaktsutyun, HHK).

According to Armenia Now the decision was made just prior to the HHK’s conference at the end of November. In another report, it is noted that in “in 1994 Sargsyan was a member of the National Democratic Union (NDU) party board, however, after assuming the chairman’s position of the Central Bank of Armenia in 1998 he dropped his NDU membership and had no other party affiliation”. No official reason was given for the decision to join the HHK.

In addition, two high-profile ministers also joined the HHK immediately after: the Minister of Economy, Nerses Yeritsyan, and the Minister of Finance, Tigran Davtyan.

Finally, it might also be noted that the mayor of Yerevan, Gagik Beglarian, also officially joined the HHK in November. My understanding is that both he and PM Sargsyan were elected to the HHK’s executive at the November conference.