Crowds celebrating the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan (Armine Avetisyan /OC Media)
Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan has resigned less than a week after he was appointed, according to a statement published Monday afternoon on his official website. His resignation comes as widespread protests against his rule entered their 11th day in the capital Yerevan.
‘Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was wrong. There are some solutions to the current situation, but I will not go into any of them. They do not belong to me. I’m leaving the post of Armenian Prime Minister. The street movement is against my tenure. I fulfil your demand. Peace, harmony, and common sense to our country’, Serzh Sargsyan wrote.
Release of Nikol Pashinyan
Nikol Pashinyan (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
On Monday afternoon, opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan, the figurehead of the protests, and several other protest leaders were released from custody.
Greeting cheering crowds in Yerevan’s central Republic Square, Pashinyan said he was in ‘negotiations’ with the authorities.
Pashinyan, an MP and leader of the opposition Civil Contract party, along with MPs Sasun Mikaelyan and Ararat Mirzoyan, also from the Civil Contract party were detained Sunday, more than an hour after Pashinyan’s meeting with Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who rejected Pashinyan’s demands for his resignation.
RFE/RL quoted police as denying the opposition leaders had been detained, saying the three ‘were forcibly taken from the site’ of an ‘illegal rally’. They were later charged with violating the Law on Freedom of Assembly, according toEVN Report.
Following their detention, crowds estimated at over 100,000 people came out onto Yerevan’s central Republic Square Sunday evening.
Also on Monday, RFE/RLreported that a large number of soldiers joined the protests. The Armenian Ministry of Defence ‘strongly condemned’ their participation in the rally.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators came out into the streets in an 11th day of protests and civil disobedience, with gatherings also reported outside the capital in Gyumri, Vanadzor, Ashtarak, and others.
People dancing and cheering in the streets (Armine Avetisyan /OC Media)
On Monday afternoon, the leader of Prosperous Armenia party, Gagik Tsarukyan announced that his party was ‘joining the people’. Prosperous Armenia won 33 seats in Armenia’s parliament, the National Assembly, out of 131 in the 2017 elections and is the second biggest party in parliament after the ruling Republican Party.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, toldTASS before Sargsyan’s resignation that the protests were Armenia’s ‘internal affair’. He said that Russia was closely monitoring the situation, but hinted that Russia was not planning to ‘interfere’.
Constitutional reforms
Serzh Sargsyan stepped down as President on 9 April as part of ongoing constitutional reforms to change the government from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary system.
Having previously played down suggestions he would run again for political office, Sargsyan announced on 11 April that he would seek the position of Prime Minister, now the most powerful post in the country. On 17 April, he was sworn in as PM by Armenia’s parliament, the National Assembly.
Protests loosely organised around the slogan ‘No to Serzh’, have been held since March, with thousands coming out into the streets daily since 13 April, in what Pashinyan has called a ‘velvet revolution’.
Armenia has extended the protection status for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, without which they would not be able to leave the country.
On Thursday, the Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that the status of protection granted to Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians was extended until 31 December 2025, with the possibility of further extension.
This status was given to over 100,000 Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians who did not apply for Armenian citizenship following the mass displacement in 2023.
Armenia’s opposition has held a hearing in defence of the inclusion of the Declaration of Independence in Armenia’s constitution, with opposition figures insulting supporters and members of the ruling party.
The opposition Armenia Alliance faction held the hearing on Thursday to discuss the draft statement regarding the inviolable relevance of Armenia’s Declaration of Independence.
The hearing took place against the backdrop of continued statements from Azerbaijan that the inclusion of the d
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said Azerbaijan is taking ‘constructive’ actions to facilitate the right to return of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, as evidence mounts of the demolition of residential and cultural heritage buildings in Nagorno-Karabakh.
‘We have repeatedly commented on and emphasised the constructive steps taken by Baku to provide the population that left their native places with the opportunity to return there’, Zakharova said during a press briefing o
Human rights activist Zaruhi Hovhannisyan has slammed the Deputy Chair of the Armenian Parliament’s Defence Committee, Armen Khachatryan, for attempting to downplay the responsibility of the authorities in the non-combat deaths of soldiers.
‘In our civilian life, we have many suicides, we have many accidents. I don’t know why you don’t talk about it, the reasons for those suicides’, Khachatryan said on Tuesday, in response to a question regarding the recent death of a soldier outside of comba
Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan has resigned less than a week after he was appointed, according to a 
