Armenian president resigns

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian announced his resignation on Sunday, saying that he believes the country's constitution does not give him sufficient power to solve domestic and foreign policy problems.

Sarkissian, who had been president since 2018, attributed his resignation to "a paradoxical situation when the President has to be a guarantor of statehood without actually having any real tool".

"I have been thinking for a long time, I have decided to resign from the post of the President of the Republic after working actively for about four years," said Sarkissian in a statement published on the president's official website.

"It is not an emotion-driven decision and it has certain logic. The country's president has no instruments to influence important issues either in the domestic or foreign policy," he said.

The country, in Sarkissian's words, is living "in a strange reality when the head of state cannot influence matters linked with war and peace", and cannot veto laws he considers as inexpedient for the nation and the state.

"The question may arise as to why the President failed to influence the political events that led us to the current national crisis. The reason is obvious again－the lack of appropriate tools …－the Constitution. The roots of some of our potential problems are hidden in the current Basic Law," he said.

Early departure

Armenia's president is elected by the National Assembly for a term of seven years, and the National Assembly accepts his resignation correspondingly. Under the country's constitution, the National Assembly organizes early presidential elections not earlier than 25 days and not later than 35 days after the presidential office is vacated.

The president is the head of state and is in charge of supervising the observation of the constitution, appointing regular and early elections to the National Assembly, and accepting the resignation of the government.

According to the law, the parliament speaker will be acting president until the new head of state is elected.

Sarkissian was Armenia's ambassador to Belgium, the Vatican, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. He also headed the country's mission to the European Union. He was Armenia's prime minister from November 1996 to March 1997.

Xinhua contributed to this story.