Powerless in the face of the crisis that Armenia is going through, its president, Armen Sarkissian, announced his resignation this Sunday, January 23. He considers that his functions, largely ceremonial, do not allow him to truly “influence” the political life of the country.
“This is not a decision motivated by emotion and it stems from a specific logic,” he said in a statement posted on his official website. Since executive power is essentially in the hands of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, “the President does not have the tools to influence important processes of foreign and domestic policy in difficult times for the people and the country”, judge Armen Sarkissian.
Born in 1953 in Yerevan, the resigner was himself Prime Minister, in 1996-1997, before becoming President in March 2018. Recently, in 2020, he was at the center of a political crisis which arose after the defeat of Armenia in the war which opposed it to its neighbor and longtime rival: Azerbaijan.
The two countries were vying for control of the disputed Nagorny-Karabakh region. On this subject, Armen Sarkissian and his Prime Minister were in disagreement, in particular concerning the dismissal of the chief of staff of the army in the aftermath of this conflict, which made more than 6,500 dead.
Already hit by economic difficulties since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia emerged weakened from this war. Also, Armen Sarkissian wishes his country happier days.
When he leaves his post, he hopes “that the changes in the Constitution will finally be implemented”, but also “that the next president and the presidential administration will be able to function in a more balanced environment”.