Civic.am

The Civil Contract party founded the online news website Civic.am and was itself established in 2015. The party is chaired by Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia since 2018. Pashinyan is listed in the party's beneficial ownership declaration as the official responsible for overseeing the party's general and ongoing activities.

Pashinyan was first elected Prime Minister in 2018 following Armenia's Velvet Revolution. The Civil Contract party won parliamentary majorities in elections in December 2018 and June 2021, with Pashinyan serving three consecutive terms as Prime Minister. The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2026.

Notable journalistic investigations have raised concerns about the party's funding. In 2024, CivilNet and Infocom found that some individuals listed as donors in 2022 were unaware that donations had been made in their names, many supposed donors lacked the financial means for such contributions, and some donation amounts exceeded legal limits. According to these investigations, some party supporters or local election candidates made donations on behalf of others.

Law enforcement agencies launched two criminal cases on charges of accepting illegal large-scale donations, exceeding maximum donation limits, and receiving donations from unauthorized sources. One case has been terminated, while the other remains under investigation.

Astghik Sapeyan serves as editor of Civic.am, though the date of her appointment is not publicly available. According to her Facebook page, she has also worked at 1in.am. In a March 2019 statement published on the National Security Service website, the NSS identified her as chief editor of Zhamanak and 1in.am while denying information published on 1in.am.

Sapeyan has a familial connection to Tavros Sapeyan, head of the Talin community in Armenia and a member of the Civil Contract party. No additional biographical information about her is publicly available.

Nikol Pashinyan is a journalist turned politician who founded Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper in 1999 and served as its editor-in-chief until 2012. From 2006 to 2008, he also served as director of Dareskizb LLC, the company that owns armtimes.com. He became Prime Minister of Armenia in 2018 following the Velvet Revolution. Since 1992, Pashinyan worked with various newspapers. In 1998, he founded the daily newspaper Oragir, which was shut down by court order in 1999 for political reasons. During his journalistic career, several criminal cases were initiated against him on charges of defamation and insult. In August 1999, he was sentenced to one year of conditional imprisonment. At the request of the international and Armenian journalistic community, the appellate court postponed execution of the sentence for one year, which resulted in the imprisonment not being carried out.

Pashinyan began his political career as an opposition figure by participating in the founding of the Alternative socio-political movement in 2006. In the 2007 parliamentary elections, he was the top candidate on the Impeachment alliance list. During the 2008 presidential elections, he served as a member of Levon Ter-Petrosyan's campaign headquarters. After the events of March 1, 2008, he went into hiding for one year and four months while wanted by law enforcement. On July 1, 2009, he voluntarily surrendered to the prosecutor's office and was arrested. In January 2010, he was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of organizing mass disturbances. After serving one year and eleven months, he was released on May 27, 2011, under an amnesty. Following his release, he was elected to the National Assembly in the 2012 parliamentary elections on the proportional list of the Armenian National Congress alliance.

In 2013, he founded the Civil Contract public-political association, which became a party in 2015. In the April 2, 2017 parliamentary elections, he was again elected to the National Assembly on the Yelk alliance's electoral list. From May 2017, he served as head of the Yelk parliamentary faction.

In 2018, Pashinyan launched the My Step movement, which led to the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan following the Velvet Revolution. Pashinyan was elected Prime Minister of Armenia and is currently serving his third term, which will conclude in 2026. His Civil Contract party is preparing to participate in the 2026 elections.