"This is not mine"

Street protests in Armenia defeated, Prime Minister of the Republic Serge Sargsyan, who had served as president of the country before ten years, resigned. This is a great achievement, but it is likely that the only thing. And this is also the advantage of the parliamentary republic, which should be known to the Russian leadership.

The reason for the start of demonstrations in Yerevan was not the policy of Sargsyan or his republican party, but the very fact that the politician decided to remain at the head of the country.

Protests in Armenia Gardmanahay/Wikimedia Commons

Recall that Armenia until recently was the presidential republic, like most of the post -Soviet states. According to the Constitution, Serge Sargsyan, elected in 2013 for the second five -year presidential term, could not lead the country after 2018. However, in 2015, a referendum was held to change the Constitution, as a result of which it was decided to reformat Armenia to the Parliamentary Republic, where the president, but the Prime Minister, elected by the parliamentary majority, played a key role.

In 2015, Serge Sargsyan promised that after the constitutional reform he would not take advantage of the new possibilities to extend his stay at the helm, but move away from business. But in 2018, when the amendments to the Constitution entered into force, he decided that the situation changed the new president of the country, first chosen not on popular vote, but in parliament, he invited the deputies to appoint Sargsyan to the post of prime minister of the country.

The ex-president did not have any formal obstacles to the transition to a new job-but a few parliamentary opposition, headed by deputy Nikol Pashiyan (his faction "Elk" took only 9 mandates out of 105) called on people to go out, and soon Yerevan became the site of the next bloodless, "velvet" revolution.

On Monday, March 23, Serge Sargsyan, who had already held the post of prime minister by that time, resigned. “Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was mistaken. The situation has several solutions, but I will not go to any of them. This is not mine, ”the statement says. “Peace, harmony and logic in our country,” he wished at the end.

Protests in Yerevan April 20, 2018 վետիսյ 91/Wikimedia Commons

The problem is that the parliament of the republic was elected five years in 2017, that is, the powers of deputies expire only in 2022. Now the majority in parliament has a Republican Party (58 out of 105 seats), the leader of which is the former president and Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan. Even if the former president and prime minister finally moves away from business and will not intervene in politics, the ruling power has enough resources in order to hold power for the next four years, and, possibly, longer.

This is a great advantage of the parliamentary model of government: it is not so tied to a leader that can change while maintaining the positions of the ruling party. Moreover, in parliamentary republics there are frequent cases when the prime minister is changing, and the composition of the government almost completely remains the same.

Now the acting prime minister of Armenia is Karen Karapetyan, who held this post in 2016-2018. And the first deputy prime minister in the short-lived office of Sarsyan. Most likely, soon the parliament will approve Karapetyan as the head of government.

Karen Karapetyan Government.ru

Nevertheless, you should not directly compare the situation in Armenia with the situation in Russia - although some opposition politicians are already doing this. Firstly, Armenia is really in the ring of enemies. Of the four neighboring countries with one, diplomatic municipality (with Turkey) has not been established with one, but with Azerbaijan there is a smoldering war in Nagorno -Karabakh. If at some point the power in Yerevan weakens, then this may end, at least, by the resumption of the war in Karabakh. Secondly, the Russian elite quickly studies both on the example of Ukraine and on the example of other states, so soon numerous reports will appear about why the opposition managed to force Sargsyan to resign and how to avoid such a scenario in Russia.