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    Categories: 2018

Armenia’s political crisis explained: What comes next?

dpa international (Englischer Dienst), Germany
 Tuesday 2:18 PM GMT


Armenia's political crisis explained: What comes next?

by Peter Spinella in Moscow

Moscow (dpa) -

Representatives of the country's leadership and political opposition
are expected to meet for negotiations, including the prospect of snap
elections, after the prime minister resigned in less than a week.

Armenia's prime minister, Serzh Sargsyan, tendered his resignation
this week after a series of protests against his rule.

Q: Why did he resign?

A: Sargsyan, 63, was president of the former Soviet republic for a
decade until he reached his term limit this year. He was out of power
for a week and a half before parliament appointed him prime minister
this month.

As Sargsyan promoted his candidacy and then became prime minister,
Armenia's capital, Yerevan, was jolted by several days of protests.

"Sargsyan was not an oppressive leader," said Simon Saradzhyan, an
international affairs expert at Harvard's Belfer Center. "When he
realized that one of the likely alternatives to his resignation is
bloodshed, he stepped down," Saradzhyan told dpa.

Q: What does the political opposition demand?

A: Opposition politicians, led by parliament member Nikol Pashinyan,
had called for Sargsyan to be ousted and snap elections to be held.
Representatives of the country's leadership and opposition are
expected to meet on Wednesday for negotiations.

The government is likely to offer partial concessions in an effort to
divide the protest movement, said Mikael Zolyan, a political analyst
at the Regional Studies Center think tank in Yerevan. "The opposition
will keep up the pressure," Zolyan told dpa. "I suspect continued
protests."

Q: How had the prime minister's powers been increased?

A: Armenia held a national referendum two-and-a-half years ago to
strengthen the authority of the prime minister, directly appointed by
parliament. The political system was thus to be changed from
semi-presidential to a parliamentary republic.

The referendum, firmly backed by the dominant Republican Party of
Armenia, passed amid allegations of vote tampering.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which
independently monitored the vote, had cited in its report "widespread
irregularities, interference and intimidation in the voting and
counting process throughout the country."

Q: What's next?

A: Whether the political opposition will be appeased largely depends
on who the next prime minister will be. Currently, the previous prime
minister, Karen Karapetyan, has resumed the post for the interim.

"The Republican Party controls the majority of seats in parliament, so
while there's a significant change, it is not revolutionary," said
international affairs expert Saradzhyan.

"I hope whoever ends up running the country realizes that there's deep
discontent among the public with socio-economic ills, corruption,
etc," he said.

Mike Maghakian: