{"id":7003,"date":"2019-03-27T20:45:06","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T20:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/?p=7003"},"modified":"2019-03-30T21:11:07","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T21:11:07","slug":"one-year-of-armen-sarkissians-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/one-year-of-armen-sarkissians-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"One Year of Armen Sarkissian&#8217;s Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 9 marks one year that Armen Sarkissian\u00a0assumed the office of the president of Armenia. On that day in 2018, President-elect\u00a0Armen Sarkissian\u00a0assumed the office of\u00a0<em>President<\/em>\u00a0of the Republic of Armenia at the special sitting of\u00a0<em>RA<\/em>\u00a0National Assembly. Being the only candidate for the presidency, on March 2, he was elected the fourth president with 90 votes for and 10 votes against. Hence, he becomes the first president of the Republic of Armenia elected by the parliamentary system.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the previous three Presidents of RA, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.president.am\/hy\/constitution-2015\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">powers<\/a> of President Armen Sarkissian are <a href=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/new-powers-of-president-in-armenia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">restricted<\/a> under the terms of the Constitution approved in 2015 and the amended laws in favour of the Prime Minister. <em>Ampop Media <\/em>wrote about it last year.<\/p>\n<p>This time, <em>Ampop Media <\/em>discussed with the political analysts what were the main functions of President Sarkissian, and what made him prominent for the public within a year.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Read also<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"DClUw5VW9V\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/new-powers-of-president-in-armenia\/\">Hereinafter Without Powers: The Post of the President of Armenia<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" src=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/new-powers-of-president-in-armenia\/embed\/#?secret=DClUw5VW9V\" data-secret=\"DClUw5VW9V\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Hereinafter Without Powers: The Post of the President of Armenia&#8221; &#8212; Ampop.am\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The newly-appointed president as a delegate and peacemaker<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>On the day of accepting the proposal to run for presidency, Armen Sarkissian noted that one of his main duties is to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aniarc.am\/2018\/02\/16\/sargsyanner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contribute<\/a> to the consolidation of national unity, the need of which was obvious still on the first days of his office.<\/p>\n<p>In April, 2018 \u00a0thousands of citizens, joining the leader of the opposition \u2033Civil Contract\u2033 party, MP Nikol Pashinyan and his teammates, began nationwide <a href=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/armenian-velvet-revolution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">protest actions<\/a> demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. On April 21, President Sarkissian <a href=\"https:\/\/armenpress.am\/arm\/news\/930921.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">went to<\/a> the Republic Square to negotiate with Nikol Pashinyan.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the agreement between the President and Nikol Pashinyan, the next day, on April 22, Serzh Sargsyan &#8211; Nikol Pashinyan meeting took place, which did not come to a discussion phase, as Serzh Sargsyan left the meeting place. And the next day, on April 23, Serzh Sargsyan resigned.<\/p>\n<p>Armen Sarkissian met Nikol Pashinyan for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yerkir.am\/news\/view\/148981.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">second time<\/a> to loosen the domestic political tension after the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6929\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6929\" style=\"width: 1766px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6929\" src=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37320.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1766\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37320.jpg 1766w, https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37320-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37320-768x522.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37320-1024x696.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1766px) 100vw, 1766px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6929\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Photo Courtesy of President.am<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2033Armen Sarkissian&#8217;s main investment in the loosening process of domestic political tension is his participation as a stabilization factor,\u2033says political analytic Hrant Mikaelyan. According to him, Armen Sarkissian, being elected during the period of former authorities, was able to keep his post due to these intermediary efforts.<\/p>\n<p>The political scientist also mentions that the president was elected for a seven-year term and the new authorities had no intention to make any illegal steps, as he had no conflict with them. Mikayelyan emphasizes Armen Sarkissian&#8217;s international broad connections, too, which gradually become more and more visible and can serve in favour of Armenia, though the economic benefits of these connections are not vivid yet.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6930\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6930\" style=\"width: 1372px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6930\" src=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37485.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1372\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37485.jpg 1372w, https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37485-300x262.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37485-768x672.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/37485-1024x896.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1372px) 100vw, 1372px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6930\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The official welcoming ceremony<\/em>\u00a0of\u00a0<em>President<\/em>\u00a0of\u00a0<em>Georgia Salome Zourabichvili <\/em>at the <em>RA Presidential Palace, March 13, 2019; Photo Courtesy of President.am<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the opinion of political analyst Manvel Sargsyan the international meetings of the President may seem insignificant at first, but important issues are \u00a0being solved, in fact.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Foreign Relations<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Armen Sarkissian represented Armenia at a number of international events over the past year. In September, 2018, the president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shantnews.am\/news\/view\/158015.html\">participated<\/a> in the summit of Minds as a keynote speaker in the French town of Chamonix. 300 representatives of 28 countries discussed the opportunities of making investment and strategic decisions in the modern world.<\/p>\n<p>A month later, President Sarkissian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.president.am\/hy\/press-release\/item\/2018\/10\/26\/President-Armen-Sarkissian-participated-in-the-Crans-Montana-Forum\/\">represented<\/a> Armenia \u00a0at the\u00a0<em>annual session<\/em>\u00a0of the \u201c<em>Homeland and Global Security<\/em>\u201d conference of the\u00a0<em>Crans Montana Forum<\/em>\u00a0in\u00a0<em>Geneva<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Switzerland<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>President Armen Sarkissian was on official visit at the Future Summit conference held\u00a0in the United Arab Emirates. He was again the keynote speaker.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Foreign Visits<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The agenda of Armen Sarkissian&#8217;s state and working trips is usually full of meetings with the representatives of science and technology centers. His working visit to Germany in February, was full of numerous meetings.<\/p>\n<p>He made 14 foreign visits during one year of his tenure.<\/p>\n<p>Here, besides meetings with the representatives of well-known scientific-educational and industrial centers, Sarkissian also met with a number of high-ranking officials \u2013 the presidents of Albania, Serbia, Latvia, Qatar Sheikh, Executive Director of the UN World Food Program and others.<\/p>\n<p>The analysts says, such a large-scale activity of the president is still in the framework of its constitutionally mandated powers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Domestic Inconveniences and Reasons <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The main messages of the president&#8217;s speech about global security threats at the Crans Montana Forum, were built on quantum theory. The same intention is noticed in his other speeches,too.<\/p>\n<p>Political scientist Hrant Mikaelyan states that the reason for referring to math theories instead of numerous theories of political science is the lack of knowledge and experience in the political field.<\/p>\n<p>Manvel Sargsyan also noticed the lack of appropriate experience. He assures that diplomatic work can not make a person a serious political player if he is not a politician.<\/p>\n<p>According to Manvel Sargsyan, the factors of being far from RA domestic political life for many years and being out of the revolutionary wave prevent the president from being more influential in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Political technologist Armen Badalyan notes that the Constitution does not allow him to take practical steps in the domestic life, but he is a part of it by participating in the meetings with the purpose of investments.<\/p>\n<p>The interlocutors agree that Armen Sarkissian managed to have a high reputation in the wide public circles in spite of having restricted participation in both domestic and foreign activities.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6936\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6936\" style=\"width: 801px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6936\" src=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sargsyan.-icecream1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"801\" height=\"575\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6936\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Courtesy of\u00a0 President.am<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, Hrant Mikaelyan notes: \u2033Though he has managed to maintain a high reputation in the wide public circles, in the narrow political and expert circles there is some mistrust. The reason is that his position and goals are still unclear on important issues.\u2033<\/p>\n<p>According to the political scientist, another reason for accepting the President with some reservations are his family businesses, which suppose dependence on the outside world.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>By<\/em><\/strong><strong><em> Lilit Poghosyan<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Translated by Mary Grigoryan<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>For Armenian original\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/spotlight-news-march-16-22\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CLICK HERE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>ATTENTION \u00a9<\/strong>\u00a0The copyright of stories and visualizations on Ampop.am belongs to \u201cJournalists for the Future\u201d NGO. It is forbidden to use Ampop\u2019s content and images without active hyperlinks to the source website. Uploading of infographics and images of Ampop.am is possible only in case of an agreement reached with JFF.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 9 marks one year that Armen Sarkissian\u00a0assumed the office of the president of Armenia. On that day in 2018, President-elect\u00a0Armen Sarkissian\u00a0assumed the office of\u00a0President\u00a0of the Republic of Armenia at the special sitting of\u00a0RA\u00a0National Assembly. Being the only candidate for the presidency, on March 2, he was elected the fourth president with 90 votes for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[212],"tags":[272,273,209,688,609],"class_list":["post-7003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-armen-sarkissian","tag-new-president","tag-nikol-pashinyan","tag-ra-president","tag-reform"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur.jpg",1340,541,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-300x121.jpg",300,121,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-768x310.jpg",768,310,true],"large":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-1024x413.jpg",1024,413,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur.jpg",1340,541,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur.jpg",1340,541,false],"wp_review_large":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-320x200.jpg",320,200,true],"wp_review_small":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-65x65.jpg",65,65,true],"herald-lay-a":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-990x541.jpg",990,541,true],"herald-lay-a-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-1320x541.jpg",1320,541,true],"herald-lay-b":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-470x264.jpg",470,264,true],"herald-lay-b-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-640x360.jpg",640,360,true],"herald-lay-b1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"herald-lay-b1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-414x276.jpg",414,276,true],"herald-lay-c1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-470x313.jpg",470,313,true],"herald-lay-c1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-640x426.jpg",640,426,true],"herald-lay-d":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-215x120.jpg",215,120,true],"herald-lay-d-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"herald-lay-d1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-130x86.jpg",130,86,true],"herald-lay-d1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-187x124.jpg",187,124,true],"herald-lay-f":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"herald-lay-f-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-414x232.jpg",414,232,true],"herald-lay-g1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-74x55.jpg",74,55,true],"herald-lay-g1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-111x83.jpg",111,83,true],"herald-lay-i-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"herald-lay-i1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-215x161.jpg",215,161,true],"herald-lay-i1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/photolur-300x225.jpg",300,225,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ampop Media","author_link":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/author\/editor\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"April 9 marks one year that Armen Sarkissian\u00a0assumed the office of the president of Armenia. On that day in 2018, President-elect\u00a0Armen Sarkissian\u00a0assumed the office of\u00a0President\u00a0of the Republic of Armenia at the special sitting of\u00a0RA\u00a0National Assembly. Being the only candidate for the presidency, on March 2, he was elected the fourth president with 90 votes for&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7003"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7012,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7003\/revisions\/7012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}