Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis Tuesday Armenia in Political Limbo as Sargsyan Leadership Move Collapses Vol. XXXVI, No. 24 Analysis. From GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs sources in Yerevan. Longtime Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyan's plan to emulate the leadership transition models implemented by neighboring Turkey and Russia collapsed on April 23, 2018, when the newly-installed Prime Minister was forced to resign in the face of mass protests in the three largest cities of the country. Mr Sargsyan had engineered a transfer of most of the executive powers of the Presidency to the post of Prime Minister, coincided to time with the end of his second and final term as President, and then have Parliament, under the control of his Republican Party of Armenia (Hayastani Hanrapetakan Kusaktsutyun : HHK), elect him as Premier. Presidential elections were held in Armenia on March 2, 2018, and, as a result of the 2015 Armenian Constitutional Referendum, this was to be the first time that the country's President would be elected by the National Assembly instead of by direct, popular vote. Under the results of the referendum, the Presidency would now become largely ceremonial under what the Government called a move from a "semi-presidential system" to a parliamentary republic. Outgoing Pres. Serzh Sargsyan was, in any event, constitutionally prohibited for running for a third consecutive term. Former Prime Minister (November 4, 1996 to March 20, 1997) Armen Vardani Sarkissian, and subsequently Ambassador to the Court of St. James in the UK, ran unopposed for the Presidency, and received 90 votes from the National Assembly, representing 85.71 percent of the parliamentarians. Although he ran as an independent, he was nominated by the Republican Party of Armenia (outgoing Pres. Sargsyan's party) , and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Pres. Sarkissian (no relation to the outgoing President) was sworn into office on April 9, 2018. On April 17, 2018, Parliamentarians elected former Pres. Sargsyan, 63, as Prime Minister, in a 76 to 17 vote, ensuring that he would retain control of the Government, now in the hands of the Office of Prime Minister. Mr Sargsyan claimed that his premiership would not amount to a third term in office because he would, he said, wield fewer powers than he did in the Presidency of the republic, noting: "People have still not realized that there is no one-man rule anymore." Mr Sargsyan's candidacy was backed by the deputies from his ruling Republican Party (HHK), its junior coalition partner, Dashnaktsutyun, as well as more than a dozen lawmakers representing businessman Gagik Tsarukian's nominally opposition alliance. Mr Tsarukian did not attend the session. However, Mr Sargsyan's election as Prime Minister immediately caused protests to erupt, particularly in Yerevan, Gyumri, and Vanadzor. Opposition figure and journalist Nikol Pashinian (leader of the Way Out alliance, which won nine seats in the 2017 elections) was the clear leader of the street protests, and he and several other protestors, including opposition politician Sasun Mikaelian, were arrested on April 22, 2018, after leading a march against the Prime Minister in Yerevan's southern Erebuni district. Talks between Mr Pashinian and Prime Minister Sagsyan had earlier failed to reach an accord. The arrests only exacerbated the situation, with thousands of protestors filling Republic Square on April 22, 2018, so on April 23, 2018, Mr Pashinian was released and rejoined the street protests. The protestors had claimed that Mr Sargsyan had promised, when the Referendum of 2015 took place, that he would not seek the Premiership after departing the Presidency, and had now violated that pledge. As a result, on April 23, 2018, Mr Sargsyan resigned the Premiership. In a statement on his website, outgoing Prime Minister Sargsyan said that Mr Pashinian "was right. I was wrong", and "I am leaving the post of prime minister", and "The movement of the street is against my tenure. I am fulfilling your demand." The Russian Government expressed solidarity with Armenia following the Prime Minister's resignation. The former Prime Minister, Karen Vilhelmi Karapetyan, who had been displaced by Mr Sargsyan on April 17, 2018, resumed the Premiership on April 23, 2018, in an acting capacity until Parliament could elect a new Prime Minister.