Vaհe H Apelian
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| Serzh Sargsyan on April 17, 2028 in the National Assembly |
On April 17, 2018 the National Assembly of Armenia elected Serzh Sargsyan Prime Minister under 2015 amended constitution which ushered Armenia from presidential form of governance to parliamentarian form of governance. The election tally was 77 for and 13 against his candidacy. His election was followed by a Q&A session regarding the settlement of the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh / Artsakh conflict, during which Serzh Sargsyan struck a cautionary note letting it be known the negotiations are at a standstill. Armenpress reported the day’s session and posted the following report:
YEREVAN, APRIL 17, (2018) ARMENPRESS. During a Q&A session on the election of the Prime Minister at the special session of the Armenian Parliament, RPA faction MP Karen Bekaryan addressed question to Serzh Sargsyan, candidate for PM, on the negotiation process over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, reports Armenpress. MP Bekaryan noted that the negotiation process doesn’t inspire optimism.
“It’s clear for everyone that it is conditioned by unconstructive approaches and behavior of the Azerbaijani leadership”, Karen Bekaryan said and asked Serzh Sargsyan how in these circumstances he imagines the future of peaceful negotiations and what new steps he is going to take to return the Azerbaijani leadership to more constructive negotiations.
Serzh Sargsyan said the negotiation process really doesn’t inspire optimism, but more concretely, this process, according to him, is simply suspended as the expectations of the Azerbaijani leadership from the negotiations result are unrealistic and unacceptable.
“I should state that before this stage we have taken all possible measures to move forward the negotiation process so that the agreements reached will have some stability and serve as a base for successfully completing the negotiations. Unfortunately, some time later it turns out that our meetings and negotiations not only on talks over the existing document on the NK conflict, but also on matters of creating some trust measures, maintaining the ceasefire regime are unnecessary as our partners do not maintain the agreements”, he said.
Serzh Sargsyan said based on the claims of Artsakh’s President, leadership, he once again announces:
“We are ready, and our desire is to solve the conflict by peaceful means, and this conflict can be solved, the negotiation process can intensify if the Azerbaijani leadership refuses from its empty imaginations according to which mutual concessions mean only concessions by Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia. This cannot happen”, he said.
But as for the future steps, Serzh Sargsyan said the future will show what additional steps can be taken for one of these key issues to have an effective solution.»
While the session was taking place, Nikol Pashinyan who was leading the popular unrest that will be known as the Velvet Revolution, declared that the Republic of Armenia does not have a prime minister by the name of Sezh Sargsyan.
April 17 to April 22, the country's seat Yerevan was caught in the frenzy of the unrest.
On April 22, 2018 Nikol Pashinyan declared that tomorrow on April 23, at 10 am in the morning, he will be meeting with Serzh Sargsyan in «Armenia Mariott» hotel. But he and a few others were arrested and held in solitary confinement overnight, then released on April 23.
On April 23, 2018, the planned meeting between PM Sezh Sargsyan and Nikol Pashinyan took place in the morning and culminated in the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan in the afternoon, who declared: «Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was wrong. The current situation has several solutions, but I will not go to any of them. It is not mine. I leave the post of Prime Minister of Armenia as the head of the country. The street movement is against my tenure. I fulfill your demand: peace, harmony and logic for our country. Thank you.”
May 8, 2018, Nikol Pashinyan was elected the PM of Armenia with 59 votes in favor and 42 votes against. «The Way Out – ելք”, “Tsarukyan Alliance” and ARF voted in favor of Nikol Pashinyan, including a few members of the Republican Party of Armenia.
The antigovernment protests started on March 31, 2018, when Nikol Pashinyan and his supporters started their march from Gyumri towards Yerevan, and ended on May 8, 2018, with Nikol Pashinyan’s election. The protest came to be known as Armenia’s bloodless Velvet Revolution, that brought about a new government.
At first glance the success of the bloodless protests was attributed no less to PM Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation as the PM, ostensibly to lead to a peaceful transition of power.
However, the ensuing developments indicated that his resignation was a Machiavellian political gambit. War with Azerbaijan all along deemed more likely than any time before, as Serzh Sargsyan cautiously had said in the National Assembly on April 17, 2018. The old guard calculated that Armenia’s defeat under PM Nikol Pashinyan’s watch will facilitate their taking over the government anew, attributing the defeat to the inexperienced PM.
But the Armenian public saw it otherwise and reelected Nikol Pashinyan on June 2021, post 44-day Second Artsakh war, snap general election. The Armenian public had elected Nikol Pashinyan led Civil Contract alliance in the December 2018 snap general election to rule on the May 8, 2018 parliamentary election.
The post 44-day Second Artsakh war snap general election in June 2021, secured Nikol Pashinyan led Civil Contract party 54% of the vote, against Robert Kocharyan led Armenia Alliance that had 21% of the votes and Serzh Sargsyan led “I have Honor Alliance” that had 5% of the votes.
The election results cemented Nikol Pashinyan led Civil Contract’s hold of the Armenian government, which in turn led to the signing of the August 8, 2025 peace deal with Azerbaijan brokered by the U.S.
***
Sources
Armenpress 17/04/2018 13:00: “Armenia’s desire is to solve Karabakh conflict through peaceful means – Serzh Sargsyan”
«Հայկական Թավշյա Հեղափոխություն», Ստեփան Գրիգորյան. 2018
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