Armenian opposition leader says will hold talks with acting PM on Wednesday

Under a revised constitution, the prime minister now holds most power in the southern Caucasus nation, while the presidency has become largely ceremonial.

Yerevan has been ridden by mass protest actions since April 13.

Though peaceful, the tumult has threatened to destabilise Armenia, a Russian ally in a volatile region riven by its decades-long, low-level conflict with Azerbaijan.

The Kremlin said it was closely watching the political crisis in Armenia – which hosts a Russian military base – but would not interfere.

Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan steps down amid protests, says he will not be involved in “required solutions” to unrest. It’s not my style.

In a dramatic turn of events a day after he had rejected opposition demands for his resignation, Sarkisian made a pointed and direct statement to the country on April 23, saying that he was acquiescing to calls from protest leader Nikol Pashinian and the demonstrators the opposition lawmaker has led for 11 days and leaving office.

In his statement published on his website, Mr Sargsyan said he was “addressing all citizens of the Republic of Armenia. for the last time as leader of the country”.

Former Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan addresses the U.N. General on September 19, 2017 during his tenure as the Armenia’s president.

The President of Parliament, Ara Babloian, first Deputy prime minister, Karen Kapetian, and Minister of Defense, Viguen Sarkisian, called on Monday a “dialogue” between protesters and authorities.

With Mr. Sargsyan’s political allies still firmly in control of government, it is not clear how much will change with his departure from office.

The opposition will push for an early parliamentary election to prevent Sargsyan from running Armenia from behind the scenes, Pashinian said. People hugged and kissed each other, and motorists honked their horns.

Over the weekend Nikol Pashinyan, an opposition MP and leader of the protests, was arrested but was released Monday shortly before the announcement. Earlier Monday, protest leader Pashinyan was freed after police detained him Sunday following failed talks with Sarkisian.

“I hope that the upper echelons of the Republican Party of Armenia will recognize the victory of the non-violent revolution”. During a visit to Washington a couple of years later, he frankly told us that his small Caucasian country of roughly 3 million people had little choice, since Armenians working in Russia supplied one-fifth of the country’s gross domestic product and Russian companies monopolized its energy supplies.

Last week Putin rang Sarksyan to congratulate him on becoming premier. “The sooner it happens, the better it is for Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh”, Pashinyan said. Corruption is also a major problem in Armenian society.

Unlike popular movements in other prodemocracy revolutions in recent years in Ukraine and Georgia, the opposition in Armenia has not said it wishes to be allied with Europe.