While official Baku and its friendly media sharply criticized the elections and Armenia’s new leadership, some in the country expressed optimism that the door to a peace deal may have opened, if only a crack.
The formerly ruling Republican Party is on life support, but it has provided a useful foil for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and sparring between the two has dominated the parliamentary election campaign.
The controversy highlights how, in spite of all the geopolitical conflicts that divide them, the post-Soviet peoples are united in their love of the condiment.
A new party, made up of many of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s allies from the street protests that brought him to power, is challenging him from the left.