Protests in Armenia (2018) | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date | 1 October 2018 - 2 October 2018 | ||
Location | Armenia : Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, Abovyan, Sevan, Gavar, Artashat, Armavir, Ashtarak, Vagharshapat, Kapan, Stepanavan, Spitak, Dilijan Armenian diaspora : Los Angeles, Glendale, California, [1] Moscow, [2] Marseille, [3] Toronto, Montreal, Sochi, Vancouver, [4] Athens, London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Sao Paulo [5] | ||
Methods | Demonstrations, sit-ins, student protest, civil disobedience, online activism, boycotts of business, general strike | ||
Parties | |||
| |||
Lead figures | |||
Number | |||
| |||
Casualties and losses | |||
|
On 2 October 2018, protest demonstrations demanding the dissolution of the National Assembly of Armenia were held in the capital city of Yerevan and at other locations in Armenia. [12] The protests were a response to a vote by the National Assembly to block Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan from disbanding the legislature and holding an election. [13] In the evening, the prime minister's supporters gathered at Marshal Baghramyan Avenue, Baghramyan and Karen Demirchyan streets and blockaded the National Assembly building. [14] After endorsement by Pashinyan, protest rallies were also launched at Vanadzor [12] and Gyumri. [15]
A draft law, Amending the National Assembly Rules of Procedure, drawn up jointly by RPA faction members Arpine Hovhannisyan, Vahram Baghdasaryan and Andranik Harutyunyan, was submitted for consideration by the National Assembly on 2 October 2018. [16] That evening, the National Assembly convened an extraordinary session and adopted the draft law, according to which a National Assembly session would be considered interrupted if external forces prevented the session from taking place.
At the rally to demand the dissolution of the assembly, Nikol Pashinyan signed a decree dismissing ministers representing the Prosperous Armenia and ARF-D parties from their posts. By mutual consent, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan of the RPA decided to continue to remain in office. [17] Nikol Pashinyan also announced that the leaders of the two parties would be dismissed from their posts at the next session of government. [18] [19] At the same time, ARF Dashnaktsutyun announced the withdrawal of its ministers from the government. [20] Nikol Pashinyan stated that once the dismissal of PAP and ARF-D members had come into force, he would resign from his post. [21]
The Republican Party of Armenia is a national-conservative political party in Armenia led by the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan.
Jirair Simoni Sefilian is a Lebanese-born Armenian military commander and political activist. During the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, he commanded the Shushi special military battalion, playing a significant role during the Battle of Shusha. From 1997 to 1998 Sefilian was a Brigade Commander in the Artsakh Defence Army.
Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan is an Armenian politician serving as the prime minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own newspaper in 1998, which was shut down a year later for libel. He was sentenced for one year for defamation against then Minister of National Security Serzh Sargsyan. He edited the newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak from 1999 to 2012. A supporter of Armenia's first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, he was highly critical of second president Robert Kocharyan, Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan, and their allies. Pashinyan was also critical of Armenia's close relations with Russia, and promoted establishing closer relations with Turkey instead. He led a minor opposition party in the 2007 parliamentary election, garnering 1.3% of the vote.
The Armenian National Congress is an Armenian political party led by former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and was formed in 2008. Its direct predecessor was the Pan-Armenian National Movement. It is often abbreviated as ՀԱԿ or HAK, in keeping with its Armenian spelling, but it is occasionally referred to as the ANC in English, including on its official website.
Karen Vilhelmi Karapetyan is an Armenian politician who was Prime Minister of Armenia from September 2016 until April 2018. He was previously Mayor of Yerevan, the capital, from 2010 to 2011. He was appointed prime minister by President Serzh Sargsyan on 13 September 2016 and held office until 9 April 2018. Karapetyan served as first deputy prime minister from 17 April to 23 April 2018, when he was appointed acting prime minister following the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. He held this position until the election of Nikol Pashinyan as prime minister on 8 May 2018.
Parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 6 May 2012. President Serzh Sargsyan's ruling Republican Party gained more majority of the parliament seats. Armenia's wealthiest man Gagik Tsarukyan's Prosperous Armenia came second with about one fourth of the seats, while ANC, ARF, Rule of Law and Heritage won less than 10 percent each.
Various political and civil groups staged anti-government protests in Armenia in 2013. The first series of protests were held following the 2013 presidential election and were led by the former presidential candidate Raffi Hovannisian. Hovannisian, who, according to official results, lost to incumbent Serzh Sargsyan, denounced the results claiming they were rigged. Starting on 19 February, Hovannisian and his supporters held mass rallies in Yerevan's Freedom Square and other cities. On 10 March, Hovannisian started a hunger strike, calling elected President Sargsyan to resign before 9 April, the inauguration day. Hovannisian called "for the solution of this unprecedented pan-national fundamental issue before April 9." During an interview on 18 March 2013, Sargsyan said he would not visit Hovannisian and described his claims as "arrogant phrases seasoned with obscenities". Sargsyan was inaugurated on 9 April 2013, while Hovannisian and thousands of people gathered in the streets of Yerevan to protest it, clashing with the police forces blocking the way to the Presidential Palace. Hovannisian's movement was dubbed "Barevolution", a portmanteau of barev and revolution, referring to Raffi Hovannisian's habit of walking up to people and greeting them during the election campaign.
Hovik Argami Abrahamyan, also known by the nickname Muk, is an Armenian politician, former member of the ruling Republican Party, he was the prime minister of Armenia from 13 April 2014 to 8 September 2016. Previously he was the president of the National Assembly of Armenia.
Lieutenant General Manvel Sektori Grigoryan was an Armenian military leader and a member of the National Assembly of Armenia.
The following lists events that occurred in 2018 in Armenia.
The 2018 Armenian Revolution, most commonly known in Armenia as #MerzhirSerzhin, was a series of anti-government protests in Armenia from April to May 2018 staged by various political and civil groups led by a member of the Armenian parliament — Nikol Pashinyan. Protests and marches took place initially in response to Serzh Sargsyan's third consecutive term as the most powerful figure in the government of Armenia, later broadening against the ruling Republican Party, who were in power since 1999. Pashinyan declared it a Velvet Revolution.
Ararat Samveli Mirzoyan is an Armenian politician currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. Before this, he served as President of the National Assembly of Armenia from January 2019 to August 2021.
Tigran Avinyan is an Armenian politician and businessman currently serving as the Mayor of Yerevan. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia from 2018 to 2021 in Nikol Pashinyan's government. He is a founding member of the ruling Civil Contract Party. He was the Civil Contract Party's mayoral candidate for the Yerevan City Council election which took place on 17 September 2023. Avinyan was elected as Mayor of Yerevan on 10 October 2023.
The My Step Alliance was a political alliance in Armenia formed by the Civil Contract party, the Mission Party and various independent representatives of civil society. It was formed in August 2018, before the 2018 Yerevan City Council election. The leader of the alliance was the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. Despite its dissolution as a national party in May 2021, the My Step Alliance operated in the Yerevan City Council until the end of its mandate in September 2023.
Artur Gagiki Vanetsyan is an Armenian politician who served as the director of the National Security Service of Armenia (2018–2019), president of Football Federation of Armenia (2018–2019), and is the founder and chairman of the center-right Homeland Party.
The 2020−2021 Armenian protests were a series of protests that began following the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement on 10 November 2020. After Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he signed an agreement to cede Armenian-occupied territories in Azerbaijan and put an end to six weeks of hostilities over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, thousands of people took to the streets, and hundreds stormed the Parliament building in the capital Yerevan. Protests continued throughout November, with demonstrations in Yerevan and other cities demanding the resignation of Nikol Pashinyan.
The 2021 Armenian political crisis was an alleged military coup attempt by the Armed Forces of Armenia led by the Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan against the government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Pashinyan accused Gasparyan and 40 other high-ranking military officers of attempting a coup after they published a statement calling for Pashinyan's resignation on 25 February 2021.
The Reformist Party is an Armenian political party. It was founded in July 2016 by Vahan Babayan.
Armenia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have maintained a formal relationship since 1992, when Armenia joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. Armenia officially established bilateral relations with NATO in 1994 when it became a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme. In 2002, Armenia became an Associate Member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Karen Vachagani Sargsyan is an Armenian sociologist and had previously served as the president of the Armenian Euro-Atlantic Integration Centre.
He claimed that protesters had removed a photo of Serzh Sargsyan hanging in the Armenian Consulate in Marseille and publicly burnt it.
Samvel Aleksanyan, a local oligarch close to Serzh Sargsyan, is personally fighting demonstrators in Malatia district. In a video published on Facebook, Aleksanyan is seen kicking a protester who is then forcibly put into a car.