Armenian PM rejects demands to quit despite 10 days of opposition protests
Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan yesterday rejected demands to step down, as protests against the former president’s appointment as premier extended to a 10th day.
Protesters accuse Mr Sarksyan of clinging to power after he was appointed premier this month after 10 years as president. Tens of thousands of opponents marched through Yerevan, blocking streets in the city centre and staging sit-ins.
Under a revised constitution approved in 2015, most state powers in the small, former Soviet state have shifted to the prime minister while the presidency has become a largely ceremonial post.
Mr Sarksyan met the opposition politician leading the protests, Nikol Pashinyan, in Yerevan yesterday but left a few minutes after talks began.
“This is not talks, not a dialogue, it’s just an ultimatum, blackmail of the state, of the legitimate authorities,” Mr Sarksyan told Mr Pashinyan.
He said the opposition “did not learn the lesson of March 1”, referring to a protest rally after his re-election in 2008 when 10 people were killed in clashes with police.
Parliament voted on Tuesday to allow Mr Sarksyan to become premier.
“No one has dared and will dare speak to us in the language of threats. I am telling you: you have no understanding of the situation in the country. The situation is different to the one you knew 15-20 days ago,” Mr Pashinyan told Mr Sarksyan. “The situation in Armenia has changed, you don’t have the power of which you are told. In Armenia, the power has passed to the people,” he said.
Mr Pashinyan was “forcibly taken” from a protest rally yesterday, Armenia police said.
But they dismissed reports of his arrest as riot police and demonstrators clashed in the capital.
“Despite repeated calls to stop illegal rallies, Pashinyan continued leading a demonstration” in Yerevan, police said. Mr Pashinyan and two opposition MPs “were forcibly taken from the site” as riot police dispersed the rally.
Tens of thousands of protesters in the capital Yerevan blocked streets and staged sit-ins