Armenia Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigns amid protests

YEREVAN (AL-JAZEERA ): Armenia’s newly elected prime minister has resigned following days of protests against his government, according to the politician’s website.

In the past 10 days, thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in the capital, Yerevan, accusing Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan of corruption and authoritarian rule.

On Monday, Sargsyan said he would adhere to the demands of the protesters and step down.

“[Opposition leader] Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was wrong. This situation requires solutions, but I won’t participate in them. I leave the post of this country’s prime minister,” a statement on Sargsyan’s website said.

“The movement on the streets is against my office. I will fulfil your claim,” according to the statement.

Sargsyan’s statement did not reveal when he will leave office.

Sargsyan, 63, had promised not to run for the post of prime minister having served two consecutive five-year terms as president, but was formally nominated by Armenia’s ruling Republican Party earlier this month.

Armenia amended its constitution to change the government from a presidential to a parliamentary system in a 2015 referendum, making the presidency largely ceremonial and strengthening the office of the prime minister, a position which is not constrained by term limits.
On Sunday, police detained Pashinyan at a protest in Yerevan, but he was released on Monday, fewer than 24 hours later.

Addressing the crowds after his release, Pashinyan said he was held “in isolation for 24 hours” and asked people “to let him catch up on the latest developments in Yerevan”.

“I won’t say it later, it’s already clear, isn’t it? We have won,” Pashinyan said after his release.

Pashinyan had called on his supporters to launch a “velvet revolution” to remove Sargsyan from power.

Al Jazeera’s Robin Forestier-Walker, reporting from Yerevan, said Sargsyan’s resignation was “astonishing”.

“Thousands of people are on the streets, cheering and hugging each other, jumping up and down and honking their horns … things happened so quickly, I don’t think the crowd was expecting this but it is exactly what they wanted,” Forestier-Walker said.

“We saw soldiers take to the streets, we saw priests, children and their parents, young and old coming out to show Armenia was really united in wanting these changes.”

“This is an indication of how much people in Armenia have realised that they had the power to affect change in a system that was widely regarded as corrupt.”