Sargsyan Armen Vardanovich

Sargsyan Armen Vardanovich

Biography

1992-1996

1992-1993 - Ambassador of Armenia to Great Britain.

1993-1994 - Senior Ambassador of Armenia to Europe and the European Union.

1995-1996 - Ambassador of Armenia to the Kingdom of Belgium, head of the European Catholic Community of Armenia, Ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican, Ambassador of Armenia to Luxembourg.

1996-2013

1996-1997 - Prime Minister of Armenia.

1998-2000 - Special and Authorized Ambassador of Armenia to Great Britain.

2000-2013 - Senior Adviser at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Chairman of the Global Energy Security Council of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Chairman of the British-Armenian Multi-Party Parliamentary Group, Chief Adviser to British Petrolium, etc.

Sargsyan is criticized for promoting in 2012 Turkey's role in resolving the Karabakh conflict and including the Turks in the work of the OSCE Minsk Group. He denied Russia's role in resolving the conflict.

2013 (several months) - Member of the Board of Directors of Lydian International, which is developing the Amulsar mine.

Since 2013 - Member of the Board of Trustees of the Dilijan International School.

Sargsyan is credited with the role of the main mediator between Nikol Pashinyan and the authorities during the Velvet Revolution in Armenia in 2018.

2018: Armenian President under Prime Minister Pashinyan

March 2, 2018 was elected President of the Republic of Armenia.

On April 9, 2018, Armen Sargsyan took office as President of Armenia.

2022: Resignation as Armenian President and Caribbean Citizenship Information

British citizenship scandal. Sargsyan assured that he allegedly had it only in the past.

On January 23, 2022, Armen Sargsyan announced his resignation from the post of President of Armenia, which he held for almost four years. He explained his resignation by the extremely meager powers of the head of state.

We have a paradoxical situation when the president has to be the guarantor of statehood, in fact, without any real tools. We live in a unique reality - a reality in which the president cannot influence issues of war or peace. Cannot veto laws that he considers impractical for the state and the people. When the president's capabilities are perceived by various political groups not as an advantage for the state, but as a threat when the president cannot use most of his potential to solve systemic domestic and foreign policy problems, said Armen Sargsyan (quoted by Kommersant).

Political analyst Beniamin Matevosyan believes that Sargsyan's resignation is a flight from responsibility. According to him, he resigned from his post, not wanting to sign agreements in the field of relations between Armenia and Turkey and Azerbaijan.

According to the Constitution of Armenia, the president is elected by the National Assembly - the parliament for a term of seven years.^[1]

Later in January, it became known that the reason for the resignation could be the second passport of the leader of Armenia.

According to an investigation by Hetq journalists, Armen Sargsyan was forced to leave the presidency on January 23, 2022, as he did not renounce his Caribbean passport in 2018.

The presence of a Caribbean passport has now attracted media attention, although everyone knew about Sargsyan's British citizenship even before he was elected president in 2018.

The passport of St. Kitts and Nevis, according to the politician, means nothing to him and his citizenship was obtained by chance as a result of real estate investments, and since 2013, at his request, it has been frozen.

In 2017, as Sarkissian was preparing to become president, he discovered that his Caribbean passport had not been revoked. 

According to the Constitution of Armenia, Sargsyan did not have the right to become president with reserve citizenship in his pocket.

Later, Sargsyan got into the investigation about Credit Suisse Bank - he evaded declaring income, including while working as ambassador to Britain and lobbying Lydian.

Notes