Armenian President resigns from office
President Armen Sarkisian of Armenia has announced his resignation from his position due to what he said was the inability of his office to influence policy during times of national crisis.
Sarkisian’s resignation which was announced late on Sunday was preceded by a period of instability in the small Ex-Soviet Union nation-state as well as a cold relationship between the country’s president and prime minister.
“This is not an emotionally-driven decision and it comes from a specific logic.
“The president does not have the necessary tools to influence the important processes of foreign and domestic policy in difficult times for the people and the country.
“A reality in which the president cannot veto laws that he believes to be bad for the people and the country is unfortunate.
“I hope that eventually the constitutional changes will be implemented and the next president and presidential administration will be able to operate in a more balanced environment,” the statement released on the outgoing president’s website added.
French News Agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that the economically struggling Caucasus nation has been enmeshed in a war with its long-standing rival Azerbaijan, another former Soviet Union member-state.
Azerbaijan had in late 2020 defeated Armenia which lost the disputed territory in the war, culminating in massive street rallies and a domestic crisis that put the President and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on a collision course.
The war, which left more than 6,000 people dead, saw Russian peacekeepers deployed to the disputed mountainous region.
Armenia’s constitution stipulates that the parliament — which is controlled by parties aligned with Pashinyan — should hold a vote to decide the next president within 35 days.
Sarkisian, a former professor of physics, was born in 1953 in the capital Yerevan and served as prime minister between 1996-1997.
He was Armenia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom at the time he was elected president in March 2018 by the legislature with a large majority.
The resignation comes shortly after a visit to the United Arab Emirates after which his office announced that he would be taking a leave of absence to undergo medical checks, without providing details.
With an estimated population of 10 million people, Armenia has a large and politically powerful diaspora spread across the world mostly in Russia, the United States and France.
