On Tuesday, neoconservative acolyte Secretary of State Marco Rubio flew into Yerevan. Rubio arrived in the Armenian capital from India, where he was doing damage control on behalf of President Trump. While in Yerevan, he signed a series of documents with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, intended to deepen US-Armenia ties. He also endorsed the beleaguered government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, one week before the country heads to the polls in the June 7 parliamentary elections.

Although Rubio’s visit lasted just one hour, it signaled the Trump administration’s outsize ambitions for the Caucasus, just as it launched a new attack on Iran, once again, amid diplomatic negotiations. “If nothing else, Rubio’s visit to Armenia shows the Trump administration’s continued addiction to election interference abroad,” notes James Carden, a former adviser to the Obama State Department.

Meanwhile, tucked away among Yerevan’s bustling city streets, in a cozy studio apartment, two young guerilla activists—Hovhannes Ishkhanyan and Nare Navasardyan—contemplate ways to assist Armenian political prisoners. Both are self-described democratic socialists who supported the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” that swept Pashinyan to power. Since the 2020 Karabakh War, however, both have turned sharply against the Armenian PM, as have most Armenians. Ishkhanyan and Navasardyan also wear the hats of journalists and filmmakers and represent a rising independent activist scene in Yerevan. As they underscore, promises to bring true democracy to the post-Soviet republic have been betrayed. Instead, Armenians face a reality in which investigative journalists are silenced, political opponents are hounded, and the pillars of national identity are under attack.

The election on June 7 is the first since Pashinyan’s controversial recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) as part of Azerbaijan in 2022, a declaration that paved the way for Baku’s ethnic cleansing of the majority-Armenian region. Rising discontent in Armenia over economic inequality and democratic decline have not helped the embattled PM. The poll numbers of the opposition forces have been rising—especially Samvel Karapetyan’s big-tent Strong Armenia party and the center-left Armenia Alliance led by former president Robert Kocharyan. Thus, with the election fast approaching, Pashinyan has become increasingly desperate to bolster his political standing.

“This issue of self-determination and democracy is not just an Armenian issue. It’s a universal issue,” maintains Ishkhanyan. “When Pashinyan betrayed Artsakh, he betrayed democracy. He betrayed the right of Artsakh to self-determination. And today we see democracy in Armenia itself being dismantled by his regime. One day is a year in Armenia. Almost every day, there are violations—legal violations, constitutional violations, voting violations, international law violations. Every day, Pashinyan’s gang, masquerading as a ‘democratic’ government, violates my rights.”

Between sips of Armenian coffee, Ishkhanyan sits back and muses: “What business does Rubio have here? Did he come to speak out for the Armenian churches in Artsakh now being demolished by Azerbaijan? Or did he come here to protect this traitor who violated, and promises to violate, the Constitution by threatening to overthrow the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church?”

Pashinyan has publicly clashed with the Armenian Church and its spiritual head, Catholicos Karekin II, over the latter’s efforts to keep the plight of the Artsakh Armenians in the public eye. The conflict escalated to a point where Pashinyan has inexplicably declared his intention to appoint a new head of the Armenian Church, in clear violation of Armenian law. The situation, the activists stress, is strikingly similar to President Trump’s recent clash with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran War.

“By law,” Ishkhanyan notes, “Armenian clergymen have the same right to participate in politics as all other citizens. It does not mean that the church is part of the state, but it means that clergymen have the right to express opinions about politics like everybody else. So we stand for their rights. What Pashinyan is doing is unconstitutional.”

“Rubio’s presence here is blatant election interference,” chimes in Navasardyan. “But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine in America having a whole network of organizations getting funding from China or Iran with no FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act], no limitation, spreading misinformation about all the candidates opposing their preferred one. This is what we see. It’s absurd, but only accepted because Armenia is perceived as a marginal post-Soviet country that cannot stand up for itself.”

Referring to Rubio’s recent role in attempting to instigate a coup in Cuba, she adds, “Rubio is Cuban, sure, but look at what he’s doing to his own Cuba! He exemplifies US imperialism’s weaponization of ethnic diasporas against their home countries.”