REFLECTIONS

The Armenian Protests and the Euromaidan Effect

Eugene Chausovsky

Senior Eurasia Analyst, Stratfor

Apr 24, 2018 | 18:12 GMT

Armenians in the capital Yerevan celebrate Serzh Sarkisian's resignation as prime minister on April 23, 2018.

(VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

Serzh Sarkisian's resignation as Armenian prime minister after more than 10 days of widespread protests reflects the changing positions of governments throughout Eurasia toward demonstrations.
The Euromaidan uprising in Ukraine in 2014 shifted government attitudes toward employing large-scale security crackdowns, with Armenia and others — including Russia and Belarus — opting to take less confrontational routes toward protests.
The dropoff on protest crackdowns is relative, however, with Eurasian states maintaining centralized political systems that are suspicious of dissent. These systems will be increasingly tested by evolving attitudes and expectations in the region.

In the face of more than 10 days of nationwide protests, Armenia's longtime leader Serzh Sarkisian stepped down April 23 as prime minister, a position he'd assumed only days earlier. "I made a mistake," Sarkisian told the country. "In this situation, there are several solutions, but I will not resort to any of them … I abandon the post of the head of our country." Sarkisian's "mistake" was pursuing the prime minister position after term limits prevented him from extending his tenure as president in March. As his second five-year term in the office was nearing its end, Sarkisian spearheaded changes to Armenia's Constitution that transferred powers from the presidency to the parliament, changes that effectively would have enabled him to continue his rule indefinitely under a different title. As Sarkisian's intentions became clear -- there had been earlier discussions of him foregoing the premiership to rule from behind the scenes...

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