The Ramifications of a Resignation

Vahe H. Apelian 

Aside the political ramifications, President Armen Sarkissian’s resignation highlights a growing phenomenon, the lack of allegiance of high placed officials to the country they serve having sheltered their and their family's welfare elsewhere. We see the ramification of the trend in Lebanon where the governing, who also are the wealthier, remain indifferent to the plight of their countrymen but remain driven to safeguard their own interests. But what made Armen Sarkissian resignation stand out are the way he tendered his resignation and the reasons he gave for resighning.

Yesterday, PM Nikol Pashinyan in his televised response to reporters’ questions said that he knew of the president’s resignation a few hours before it became public because president Sarkissian had telephoned him about the matter. The PM noted that initially he was not sure whether the president wanted to discuss the matter of his resignation with him or he was letting him know that he is resigning. It turned out to be the latter.

It also turns out that President Sarkissian was out of the country when he informed the PM of his decision to resign.  Not only that, but President Armen Sarkissian had no plans to return to Armenia to thank those who advanced his candidacy and elected him as the president and  meet those with whom he toiled during the past four tumultuous years when the country went through the Velvet revolution, snap elections; faced the pandemic, endured the second Artsakh war, and is braving the  inevitable aftereffects of the war.

The President noted that the primary reason for his resignation is the Constitutional provisions that do not give him enough influence to make a difference. Quoting him: "The question may arise as to why the President failed to influence the political events that led us to the current national crisis. The reason is obvious again - the lack of appropriate tools ... - the Constitution. The roots of some of our potential problems are hidden in the current Basic Law." But, a recording is being circulated where Armen Sarkissian notes that the mandate for the president is clearly spelled out in the Constitution and he voiced no objection. He is a very intelligent man not to have known the constitutional provisions of the presidency he assumed in the parliamentarian system of governance.

it was President Serzh Sargsyan who recommended the candidacy of Armen Sarkissian for the presidency on January 19, 2018, almost three months before Sargsyan’s term as the president ended on April 9, 2018. Subsequently Sargsyan was elected as the PM of Armenia  on April 17, 2018, after having served the country as its president for the preceding 10 years, since April 9, 2008. Serzh Sargsyan thus became the first PM of the fourth republic. On December 6, 2015,  a constitutional referendum was held in Armenia and amendments were voted in the Constitution changing governance in Armenia from presidential to parliamentary system republic.

The first parliamentary National Assembly elected Armen Sarkissian as the president on March 2, 2018. His election as president was welcomed. 90 out of the 105 delegates of the National Assembly voted for him. He was inaugurated with great fanfare on 9 April 2018 in the Karen Demirchyan Complex in Yerevan.

President Armen Sarkissian exuded royalty and projected an image of being someone who gives no reason for reproach. But much like Prince Andrew claiming that he does not know how his image appears next to an underage girl with his arm around her waist in Jeffrey Epstein’s upscale townhouse in New York city; president Armen Sarkissian realizing the Constitutional constraint of his office, after having served under the same mandate for four years, does not sound convincing. 

His unexpected resignation may tarnish his image and give credence to the reports claiming that he is not or was not a citizen of Armenia, when he was elected as president, contrary to the dictate of the Constitution. Instead of the landlocked Armenia, President Sarkissian is alleged to be a citizen of a far distant dual-island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. His island citizenship makes him a British subject since at least 2013. 

His abrupt resignation will also muddle people’s perception of the image he projected as a person a few notches above the rest of the bare-knuckle players of politics in Armenia and as someone who can bring about order in the political chaos of Armenia and salvage it. “Can Armen Sarkissian save Armenia?” asked Kapil Komireddi in an article in  Spectator Worldon January 3, 2022, just three weeks before Sarkissian tended his resignation on January 23.

It was clear that his resignation did not concern the PM. Nikol Pashinyan avoided dwelling on it. But the political ramification of electing the next president became clear when the PM spelled what will be expected from the next president, a harmonious relationship between him as the PM, and the president of the National Assembly. The three top political leaders of Armenia, the Prime Minister, the President, and the President of the National Assembly, need to espouse a common vision for Armenia, PM Pachinyan emphatically noted.

The PM also noted that if the upcoming candidate as president is not elected the first time around, as he will need 75% of the votes of the National Assembly to be elected. The Civil Contract coalition has 2/3 votes and needs delegates from the opposition to vote for the candidate they will present. He noted that the Constitution makes a 2nd and even a 3rd tier provision, if the preceding fails and that the CC will have the votes to elect the next president of Armenia. 

Will the election of the next president render an imperial parliamentary system? Or is it the new majority exercising its will, much like previously, in the presidential system of governance? Things to ponder as  the free and independent post-Armenia shapes itself.