On October 13, Belgium will hold local elections, with many Belgian citizens of Armenian origin set to participate.
Each community in Belgium will elect its leaders and council members. Armine Hareyan, representing the Reformist Movement Party, is running in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert municipality in Brussels.
Since moving to Belgium in 2010 for personal reasons, Armine has been actively involved in the Armenian community. During and after the 44-day war, she worked tirelessly to raise awareness about Armenia and Artsakh-related issues, and to expose the violations by Azerbaijan at both Belgian and European levels.
“Our aim is to ensure that both Belgian and European institutions respond appropriately. After the 2020 Artsakh war, the Belgian Parliament adopted several resolutions condemning Azerbaijan, and I had a modest role in drafting and advancing those resolutions,” Armine Hareyan said in an interview with Public Radio of Armenia.
Armine shared that her growing recognition in political circles led the Reformist Movement to invite her to run for the European Parliament. She couldn’t decline the opportunity, seeing it as an excellent platform to highlight important issues affecting the Armenian community, ranging from everyday concerns like social matters to broader topics like Armenia’s security amongst others.
“One of the party’s MPs, Michel de Maegd, who has a strong affinity for Armenians and frequently raises issues important to us in various platforms, offered me to run on their party list. The list was headed by Sophie Wilmès, Belgium’s Prime Minister during the COVID-19 pandemic, who is highly respected and appreciated by Belgians. I couldn’t miss such an opportunity. Honestly, I was surprised, as I had initially thought I’d start in politics through local elections,” Armine said.
In the June 9 elections, she received nearly 23,000 votes, a significant achievement that exceeded expectations. “I was surprised by the result since there aren’t that many Armenian voters in the community, meaning that many non-Armenians voted for me too. Even now, people recognize me and say, ‘Oh, we voted for you!’ So, it’s clear that Belgians know me,” she explained.
Encouraged by this experience, Armine decided to run in the municipal elections as well. In addition to her political involvement, she is a representative of the Belgium-Armenia Chamber of Commerce. At the time of the interview, she was in Armenia attending the World Congress on Innovation and Technology (WCIT 2024). Although she missed crucial campaign days due to her two-week stay in Armenia, she emphasized the importance of her work with the Chamber, a project she has been involved in for over a year.
“We convinced Belgian entrepreneurs to visit Armenia and explore investment opportunities across the ICT sector. This project is vital because it can benefit Armenia, and that’s a top priority for me,” Hareyan said.
Armine also highlighted the challenge of preserving the identity of national minorities in the diaspora, from supporting Sunday schools to community centers. She stressed the need to stay active and address the community’s concerns.
“In recent years, the Armenian community in Belgium has become quite politically active. This trend wasn’t visible before, but now, the younger generation is well-educated, integrated into Belgian society, and actively involved. Today, Armenians appear on various party lists. There is even another Armenian on my list, Khachik Hovhannisyan, which is a unique situation. However, we aren’t in competition, as voters can choose both of us.”
If elected, Armine Hareyan intends to focus on the development of community life and use her platform to address the concerns of the Armenian community and seek solutions for their issues.
