Politics

Armenia’s president resigns amid political tensions

Tbilisi, Jan 23 (EFE).- Armenian President Armen Sarkisian on Sunday announced his resignation saying that he lacked the powers to influence the country’s domestic and foreign policy.

“We are living in a reality (…) in which the president cannot veto the laws that he considers inconvenient for his people and the state,” Sarkisian said, according to a statement published on the Armenian presidency’s website.

Sarkisian’s resignation came amid tensions with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet. The 68-year-old urged the premier to step down after the country was defeated by Azerbaijan in the November 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Losing the war against the Turkish-backed Azerbaijan cost Armenia nearly 70 percent of the territories it had controlled since the end of the earlier 1992-1994 war with the neighboring state.

“I have thought about it a lot and after four years of intense work I have made the decision to leave the post of head of state,” said Sarkisian, who was named president by the Parliament in 2018.

EFE mv-aj/ta-bp

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