Armenia’s Revolution Will Not be Monopolized

Maxim Edwards

 

MASIS, Armenia — “Who will we vote for? Nikol Pashinyan, of course!” said Karen Karapetyan and Aghavni Tovmasyan, incredulous. This couple in their thirties arrived at a polling station here last Sunday to vote in snap parliamentary elections. Their candidate won by a landslide: Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party took 70.5 percent of the vote. “Mighty, mighty, mighty people!” wrote Pashinyan on his Facebook page the morning after the results. “I love you all, I’m proud of you, I bow before you.”
Pashinyan was swept to power on a platform of combating corruption, widespread poverty, and unemployment. All those problems are on show in this town of 18,000 in the shadow of Mount Ararat. Locals in Masis work in agriculture or two large tobacco factories; most of the town’s industry was shuttered after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

How 11 days of protests brought down Armenia's leader Serzh Sargsyan

Alasdair Sandford

 

The statement from the prime minister’s office came as a shock — for its frankness as much as its content.

“Dear compatriots,” it began, before addressing everyone in Armenia including “those standing in streets chanting ‘Say no to Serzh’, as well as security forces and politicians.

“(Protest leader) Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was mistaken. There are several solutions to this situation, but I will not apply to any of them. It’s not for me. I’m leaving the post of the country’s leader, the Prime Minister.”

These were not the words anyone expected from so-called strongman Serzh Sargsyan, accused by opponents of wanting to cement his own position of power above all else.