Armenian Leaders Face Crunch Talks After Protests

The organiser of anti-government protests in Armenia says he will hold talks with Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan early on Sunday.

Nikol Pashinyan has been leading calls for Mr Sargsyan to resign over a constitutional change that opponents say is an attempt to retain power.

The change transferred significant power to the prime minister, a role Mr Sargsyan only took on last week.

He stepped down as president after reaching his two-term limit.

Mr Pashinyan says he is only prepared to discuss the details of the prime minister’s resignation and the logistics of transferring power.

On Saturday, he told thousands of protesters gathered on Republic Square in the capital Yerevan that Mr Sargsyan did not understand the “new reality” in Armenia.

But Mr Sargsyan has called for dialogue to avoid what he termed “irreversible consequences”.

Riot police have been facing off with crowds of demonstrators for days and scuffles have broken out, with a number of arrests.

Many Armenians want to see genuine change in their country but they feel that they are being deprived of that opportunity because the leadership remains the same, the BBC’s Rayhan Demytrie reports.

Mr Pashinyan’s announcement that he will hold talks with the prime minister followed a dramatic intervention from the country’s new president.

Armen Sargsyan – who is not related to Serzh Sargsyan – walked through crowds of protesters to shake hands with Mr Pashinyan and reportedly to propose formal talks.

They talked for about 10 minutes, reporters say, with Mr Sargsyan suggesting they move to a hotel to hold proper negotiations.

Mr Pashinyan declined the offer of immediate talks but asked for a guarantee that force would not be used against the demonstrators.

Escorted by his bodyguards, the president then walked back to his car and left as the crowd chanted “Take a step – overthrow Serzh”.

Why is there such anger at Serzh Sargsyan?

Mr Pashinyan recently described the action he leads as a “velvet revolution”, referring to the peaceful protests in 1989 that ended communist rule in Czechoslovakia (which later split into two states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia).

The veteran opposition activist, who was jailed over his part in violent protests against Mr Sargsyan in 2008, called on supporters to “paralyse the entire state system” because “power should pass to the people”.

Source: BBC