YEREVAN (A.W.)—Armen Sarkissian was elected the fourth President of Armenia by the country’s National Assembly on Friday.
The head of the election commission, Gagik Melikyan, said Sarkissian was elected with 90 votes for and ten votes against, in a secret ballot election— the first in Armenia’s history, in which the president is elected by the National Assembly instead of popular vote.
Sarkissian—the only presidential candidate—was recommended by President Serge Sarkisian (no relation) on Jan. 19 and nominated by the ruling coalition. A quarter of the parliamentary votes were necessary to nominate a candidate for the presidency. The Tsarukyan bloc did did not wish to nominate a candidate, while the opposition Yelk bloc did not have enough members to nominate a candidate.
The powers of the current President will expire on April 9, after which the current model of power, which lays much of the executive powers (including total say in defense and foreign policies) in the hands of the president, will change.
Sarkissian served as prime minister of Armenia from Nov. 4, 1996 to March 20, 1997. Previously, he had been Armenia’s ambassador in London. He has also served as the Armenian ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the Holy See.
President [Serge] Sarkisian received on President-elect Sarkissian shortly following his election. President Sarkisian congratulated Sarkissian on his election as President of the Republic, wished him success, and expressed confidence that the coming years for Armenia would be the years of best achievements.
“Dear Mr. Sarkissian, I sincerely congratulate you on your election as Armenia’s President. This, of course, is a very important event in the life of our people and the state, and, of course, is a very important milestone on the way to the establishment of parliamentary democracy. I am sure that you will do your best to fulfill the duties of the President of Armenia,” President Sarkisian said during the meeting, according to official sources.
How does this man being president benefit Armenia?
Can someone please explain this?
Thank you for any information you can come up with.
If it’s “a very important event in the life of our people” and the state, why don’t the people have the opportunity to vote on it?
Any nominee chosen by serjuk’s corrupt ruling RPA party automatically becomes tarnished in the eyes of the public at large as he will be dancing to their corrupt tune nor can he become the country’s president but only parliaments chosen president as he was not voted in by the public.The Armenian public has a right to know all about this nominee who was absent for 22 years from Armenia and he is a British national and resident which under the Armenian Constitution disqualifies him from that position if we are a law abiding nation,his two sons never served a day in the army and are British nationals and residents and feel very British. He needs to be thoroughly vetted for his past official work and also all about his business dealings such as “Amuslar” gold mine, “Jermuk International Pepsi Cola Bottler company”,“Nestle” company in Armenia,he is the owner of “Yerevan my love” foundation where he received an area of 298 square meters, worth about 380,000 dollars in Kozern district by the government decision in 2013. We need to know all about his shareholdings in all these and other companies in order to see if any foreign government or person/s has any leverage over him.He also needs to explain why he suddenly resigned after two months of being PM,what was the serious disagreement between him and our hero Vasgen,I believe it was all to do with Artsakh,was he beaten by Vasgen? He also needs to explain his very troubling thinking that Artsakh should be part of Azerbaijan under an autonomous statues, also he needs to explain why he didn’t want to leave his position as ambassador to the UK when he was sacked by President R.Kocharian for plotting against the President and also the fact that he wanted to have a monopoly on the ambassadors position in the UK from day one bearing in mind that he also passed the ambassadorship to his wife in that period the reason being is that he used the position for his enrichment which is against the law he also has the same thinking on Artsakh as LTP and the same faulty thinking as LTP on all our national issues which is nothing but a disgrace.
One of the reasons the outgoing President gives for appointing Mr. Armen Sarkissian to become the 4th President of the Republic of Armenia is that the candidate ‘ has never been involved in politics nor has he been member of a political party’. If Mr. Sarkissian is not a ’political animal’ why has he served as the ambassador of Armenia to the Court of St James’ for so many years? The main and sole duty of an ambassador is to represent his country. Armen Sarkissian has exploited his position to mass a fortune for himself and his friends on the back of his country. He has appropriated the position for his own benefit. When he was dismissed from his post in 2000 he ceremoniously lowered the flag of the Republic of Armenia, folded it and handed it over to the Chairman of the Armenian community in London. By this public show in front of an assembled crowd of supporters he was expressing the outermost disdain any person can display in towards his people and country. Armen has made so many serious political mistakes,He could never be trusted as he is all about looking after himself apart from the fact that he also believes that Artsakh should be part of Azerbaijan with an autonomous statues which he said so in London a while ago which is a total disgrace to put it mildly. The nominee has so many grey areas to address, what a sham.
Before assuming his new post he should be asked to produce a report on his achievements as ambassador for the benefit of his people. This very year oligarchs and corrupt politicians in the remote African countries of Zimbabwe and South Africa have been forced to step down accused of stripping their countries assets.
Mr. Armen Sarkissian has been part of the Armenian government for decades and for very that reason he bears full responsibility for the state of his country, to the people he is supposed to have represented as a diplomat. It is a paradox that a scandal plagued ambassador who has been appointed President of the Republic of Armenia is actively lobbying the diaspora instead of giving an account of his long years of tenure in London to the Armenia people.The bottom line remains that he has done nothing to stop his countries slide into poverty, corruption and stem the flow of migration apart from looking after himself financially.
These are very serious and valid questions which the public needs to hear all the answers rather than being covered up and ignored and spun by the pro regime media with positive articles printed on a daily basis for this nominee.This sort of unvetted and half baked appointments will never do our country any good or earn the respect of the nation nor by breaking the constitutional law where the nominee needs to be a resident and national of Armenia for the past six years which this nominee clearly wasn’t.The president elects disdain for his own people has reached such a level that he has the vanity to stand up before his nation to claim that he has the support of the diaspora to maintain his legitimacy for the position of the President elect of the Republic of Armenia. But the point is that he has not been elected neither by the people of Armenia nor by the Armenians in the diaspora. It is astonishing that no one in Armenia has reminded him that he is to be the President of Armenia and not the President of the Armenians in the Diaspora. The latter position does not exist. He will be a dismal failure just like his RPA party master & election rigger serjuk. I have no trust or confidence in both of them.
Mihran,
In this event, the “serjuk’s corrupt ruling RPA party” had absolutely no say on choosing the president of the country. Armen Sarkissian as president is a typical globalist project. These groups brought him to Armenia and Serge and the ruling party had no other choice but to elect him. If you know who Armen Sarkissian is, how a Yerevan State University professor ended up in Cambridge in the mid-1980s during the Soviet times, why he was left to be the longest serving Armenian ambassador, and why the UK has become his home country, you’ll understand what I mean…
congrats Armenia!
The rotten political course in Armenia lead by the Sarkissians goes on.
So, after Serjic we are going to have a “ceremonial president” where parliamentary democracy is on the way. This is one of reasons, why some of those old Oligarchs sitting in parliament won’t give up their corrupt position, and will undermine president elect limited power! Meanwhile Armen needs to lose his belly fat ASAP!