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Armenian PM Resigns in Face of Protests

by VOA News

   Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned unexpectedly Monday
   after days of protests against him by opposition supporters who claimed
   he was clinging to power after serving the maximum 10 years as
   president.
   "The street movement is against my tenure. I am fulfilling your
   demand," he said in a statement.
   Thousands of people cheered his resignation in the streets of the
   Armenian capital, Yerevan, the 11th day of demonstrations. Hundreds of
   soldiers joined the anti-government protesters in celebrating.
   Motorists honked their horns and Armenians hugged and kissed each
   other.

   The 63-year-old Sargsyan's resignation came shortly after the release
   of opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan.

   Pashinyan was arrested Sunday as he participated in a demonstration
   that began after Armenia's ruling party last week elected Sargsyan
   prime minister, after a decade serving as president.

   Pashinyan had said he would like the demonstrations to be the "start of
   a peaceful velvet revolution" -- a reference to the 1989 protests that
   ended communist rule in Czechoslovakia.
   The country's prosecutor general said Pashinyan and two other
   opposition politicians "were detained as they were committing socially
   dangerous acts."
   After Sargsyan was named prime minister, the demonstrations
   intensified, with about 15,000 people rallying last Wednesday at
   Yerevan's central Republic Square. Some held posters that read, "Make a
   step and reject Serzh." The anti-government protests swelled to 50,000
   people on Sunday.

   A meeting Sunday between Sargsyan and the 42-year-old Pashinyan was
   held with the aim of ending the continuing anti-government protests.
   But Sargsyan walked out of the meeting when Pashinyan told him he came
   to discuss his resignation, to which the prime minister responded,
   "This is blackmail."
   Sargsyan had previously said he would not seek to be elected as prime
   minister as his presidential term ended and was viewed as reneging on
   that promise by becoming premier.
   But as he quit, Sargsyan said, "Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was
   wrong."
   Sargsyan was nearing the end of his second and final term as president
   earlier this year when the country moved from a presidential to
   parliamentary system.

   The new system empowers the position of the prime minister, which does
   not face term limits, making it more powerful than the president, who
   is now more of a figurehead.
   Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was "very attentively
   observing what is happening in Armenia," which was once a Soviet
   satellite country that has retained close ties to Moscow.
   Peskov called the South Caucasus country "extremely important" for
   Russia, but he rebuffed a question about whether Russia would attempt
   to interfere, saying the Yerevan political dispute was "exclusively an
   internal affair."