The central committee of the Tashnag Party in Lebanon, the largest political representative of the country’s Armenian community, has unanimously elected Albert Balabanian as its new secretary-general, the party announced in a statement shared with the press Wednesday evening.

Balabanian succeeds MP Hagop Pakradounian, who was elected secretary-general in 2015. Although little known to the general public, Balabanian had attended several diplomatic meetings in recent months alongside Pakradounian in his role as the party’s organizational affairs officer.

Pakradounian, meanwhile, has been elected to the party’s new global committee, where he will oversee Middle East affairs. His appointment came during the Tashnag Global Congress, which aimed to define the party’s general policies for the coming years and elect a new leadership. Pakradounian announced his new role Monday in a post on X.

Tashnag’s stance on Nagorno-Karabakh

Internationally, Tashnag is known for its strong positions regarding the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. In September 2023, the party organized demonstrations outside Azerbaijan’s embassy in Lebanon, drawing hundreds of protesters opposing the announced dissolution of the Armenian-majority region, which was placed under Azerbaijani control by Soviet authorities in 1921. At the time, Pakradounian declared, “When Armenians are killed, we are not a peaceful people.”

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Alignment with the "axis of resistance"

In Lebanon, Tashnag, represented in Parliament by Pakradounian, is widely regarded as close to the "axis of resistance." The party has branches in Syria, Iran and Armenia, and since the 1980s, it has aligned itself with Soviet policies, later shifting toward the positions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Lebanese faction historically follows the leadership of Tashnag in Armenia, which is also pro-Russian, and members rarely deviate from the party’s official stance.

The party’s ties to the "axis of resistance" are further explained by the naturalization of several thousand Armenians from Syria — who are now Lebanese citizens — under former Interior Minister Michel Murr (1996–2000). Tashnag’s alliance with Hezbollah and Amal has also helped ease tensions between Armenians and Shiites in the multi-sectarian neighborhood of Burj Hammoud, home to a large Armenian community, particularly following a period of unrest last July.

In the current government, Tashnag is represented by the newly appointed Minister of Youth and Sports, Nora Bairakdarian. In Parliament, the party is allied with the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), with its two MPs belonging to the "Strong Lebanon" bloc led by Gebran Bassil. Politically, Tashnag has traditionally aligned itself with the ruling establishment or at least one of the dominant Christian political forces.

Five other Armenian MPs serve in Parliament: former minister Georges Bouchikian — who was expelled from Tashnag in 2024 and elected on a Hezbollah-backed list in Zahleh — Paula Yacoubian from the protest movement, Jihad Pakradouni of the Lebanese Forces and independent MP Jean Talouzian.