Why Armenians stuck with Pashinyan (opens in new tab)

YEREVAN, Armenia — The best of a bad lot was how many Armenians described victorious Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of Sunday's pivotal election — the first since the bitter defeat in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan. While the election has frequently been framed outside Armenia as a choice between pro-Russian or pro-Western forces, few locals on the streets of Yerevan saw it in such stark terms. With a population of just over 3 million, Armenia is heavily econom