Sargsyan may stay in power by becoming Armenia's premier: paper

PanARMENIAN.Net - The current president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, may retain his power by becoming the prime minister of the country, Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta says in an article.

Sargsyan whose term expires in April 2018, on Tuesday, January 16 provided his opinion about the criteria that his successor should correspond to.

According to analyst Vigen Hakobyan, the internal political situation in Armenia shows that the country won’t be overwhelmed by crises like those in Moldova, or confrontation, similar to that of Georgia.

Political scientist, researcher at the Center for Regional Studies of Armenia’s Public Administration Academy Johnny Melikyan does not rule out that the impossibility to run for president for a third term and Sargsyan's desire to remain in power, presumably as prime minister, could have facilitated the implementation of constitutional changes.

And if so, Melikyan says, taking into account the distribution of power in the National Assembly, nothing will prevent the incumbent president from changing one office with another, remaining at the help of the country.

“What concerns Karabakh, it should be noted that a number of observers link the transition to the parliamentary model with the forthcoming concessions in the framework of the settlement of the conflict,” the expert was quoted as saying.