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Armen Vardani Sarkissian (; born 23 June 1952) is an Armenians politician, physicist, investor, businessman, and computer scientist who was the 4th president of Armenia from 2018 to 2022. He also was Prime Minister of Armenia from 1996 to 1997. He was the first president of post-Soviet Armenia born in the former Armenian SSR.
Sarkissian has been one of the longest serving ambassadors of any country to the United Kingdom, a role to which he was first appointed in 1992-1996, before returning in 1998 and 2013. He was also Armenia's maiden ambassador to the Vatican, the European Union, NATO, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, and served as "Senior Ambassador" to Europe.
Sarkissian served as the first chairman of the Global Council on Energy Security at the World Economic Forum, with which he has had a long association. He authored numerous scientific articles and was a speaker and commentator on international affairs. His op-eds and essays have appeared in publications such as the Times, the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, Time magazine, Newsweek, Hollywood Reporter and the Wall Street Journal.
In October 2022, Sarkissian announced that he was working on a new book titled The Small States Club: How Small Smart States can Save the World, to be published by Hurst Publishers. In January 2023, The Small States Club was listed alongside forthcoming books by Martin Wolf and Peter Frankopan as one of the "15 books to look forward to in 2023" by the Diplomatic Courier.
In 1988, he established and subsequently became the Head of the Department of Computer Modeling of Complex Systems at Yerevan State University.
Sarkissian was one of the co-creators of the 1991 Tetris spinoff game Wordtris. Later packaged with Tetris as Tetris Gold, it was for a period the most popular videogame in the world by sales. In an article in The Hollywood Reporter in March 2023, Sarkissian detailed the "tense and dramatic events" surrounding the creation of Wordtris and its sale to Spectrum Holobyte. In April, he appeared on a podcast alongside Henk Rogers, the co-founder of The Tetris Company, and Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of the game, of whom he had last seen in the Soviet Union.
In 1996, Sarkissian was elected Prime Minister of Armenia. In his short tenure, he initiated significant economic and political changes, including the abolition of the Ministry of Information, which paved the way for press freedom for the first time since Armenia's independence in 1992. He also presided over a restructuring of Armenia's energy sector, which had suffered serious setbacks during the war with Azerbaijan, and oversaw reforms in the government and civil service. Sarkissian resigned in 1997 after being diagnosed with cancer [1] and was succeeded by Robert Kocharyan.
Following his recovery, Sarkissian was appointed as Special Advisor to the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and as a Governor of EBRD from 1998 to 2000. Sarkissian also built a lucrative private career as a consultant and business adviser to some of the world's biggest multinationals. [2]
Sarkissian was also one of the directors of Eurasia House International, a Vice Chairman of the EastWest Institute in New York, and the Founding Director of the Eurasia Centre at Cambridge University's Judge Business School (2001-2011). Sarkissian has held various honorary and executive positions, including as a Member of Dean's Advisory Board at Harvard Kennedy School, Dean's Advisory Board at Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago, Member of the Board of Trustees of the International School in Dilijan, Member of the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative, Member of International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), Member of the Global Leadership Foundation and Member of the International Economic Alliance and Global Leadership Foundation. Sarkissian's focus in these roles has often involved supporting democratic leadership, preventing and resolving conflict through mediation, and prompting good governance in the form of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the rule of law.
Sarkissian was a trustee of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the largest Armenian charity worldwide. He was an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the School of Mathematical Sciences at Queen Mary University of London.
Sarkissian was elected president by a majority of the National Assembly on 2 March 2018, winning 90 votes in a 105-member House.
Armen Sarkissian is credited with playing a pivotal role in finding a peaceful solution, threatening to resign if there was any use of violence. He attained international attention when he walked into the crowds without security escort and interacted with the protesters. [3] An extensive profile of Sarkissian in the British magazine Spectator later observer that, "The Velvet Revolution was not preordained to be peaceful. It was Sarkissian's intervention that kept the peace."
Serzh Sargysyan resigned six days after taking the office. Karapetyan was subsequently appointed to serve as acting prime minister. On 8 May 2018, Nikol Pashinyan was elected prime minister by the National Assembly in a 59–42 vote.
Sarkissian visited Tbilisi on 26 May 2018 in his first official foreign visit to participate in the centennial celebrations of the founding of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. During his visit, he held talks with his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Margvelashvili as well as held meetings with Bidzina Ivanishvili and Sauli Niinistö.
In June 2018, Sarkissian proposed changes to the constitution to balance the President's power with the Prime Minister's power. On the eve of the centennial anniversary of the end to First World War, Sarkissian told the Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen in an interview said that he would say the following to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in regards to the Armenian genocide:[4]
While visiting the city of Almaty in May 2019, he said that his country could become an "international financial center" and can become a "cooperation bridge between Eurasia and EU". He said his remarks at the 15th annual Eurasian Media Forum, of which he was a co-founder.
In 2018, Sarkissian founded the Armenian chapter of the international Summit of Minds in the spa town of Dilijan. The annual summits drew various heads of state, industrialists, bankers, investors and thinkers to Armenia.
During the 44-day-war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Sarkissian was described by foreign observers of Armenia as the country's strongest diplomatic asset. But due to the limits placed on his office by the Constitution, he was not allowed to play a role in the management of the war or the subsequent diplomatic negotiations. [5] This was seen as a major factor in his subsequent decision to step down. [6]
In October 2021, Sarkissian made a historic visit to Saudi Arabia, becoming the first Armenian official to visit the kingdom. Since Armenia and Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations, the visit was groundbreaking. Sarkissian was said to have used his personal relationships to make it happen. He was received by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. [7]
Sarkissian was a constant subject of often lurid conspiracy theories in some sections of the Armenian press, which routinely accused him of being a British spy, adducing as evidence for the allegations his friendships with British politicians and the then-Prince of Wales (now Charles III, who visited Armenia as a private guest of Sarkissian's in 2013. [8]
Sarkissian had long expressed frustration with the constraints on the presidency and the government's refusal to honour its pledge to reform the Constitution. He had hinted to the British magazine The Spectator that he would resign if the Constitution remained unchanged, saying "I did not accept this job to feel honoured. I accepted it to serve Armenia. And I will not stay in it a second longer if it means impeding Armenia's progress." [9]
In January 2022, Sarkissian resigned as President, issuing a strongly-worded statement in which he called attention to Armenia's "paradoxical situation, where the President performs the functions of the guarantor of statehood having no real tools" and described the country as a "parliamentary republic in shape, but not in content". Sarkissian said Armenians were being forced to live:
Two days after Sarkissian's resignation, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project alleged that Sarkissian possessed a St. Kitts and Nevis passport. Under Armenian law, the president is not allowed to hold dual citizenship. Sarkissian denied that his decision was connected with the OCCRP report, which was published after he had left office. He explained that he had made a historic investment of $500,000 in a luxury hotel in St. Kitts and Nevis, which has conferred citizenship on foreign investors under a "citizenship-by-investment" programme since 1984. [10] Sarkissian clarified that he had renounced his right to citizenship under the programme.
Sarkissian had long been the target of frenzied speculation and allegations, including the claim that he had not disclosed his private wealth and that he was actively engaged as director in an overseas company while serving as President. Following a lengthy investigation that lasted more than a year after Sarkissian's resignation, the Corruption Prevention Commission of Armenia found the allegations to be baseless. It also noted that Sarkissian had in fact made a full disclosure of all his private income. [11]
In the early stages of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Sarkissian gave numerous interviews to international news organizations during which he appealed for action against the Government of Turkey and the actions of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, telling CNBC's Hadley Gamble to "Imagine Caucasus becoming another Syria?" In another interview to the German Bild tabloid, he compared the situation in Stepanakert to German towns during World War II.
After the ceasefire agreement was signed in early November, Sarkissian held a meeting with Karekin II, where they both made a call to declare 22 November as the Day of Remembrance of the Heroes who fell for the Defense of the Motherland in the Artsakh Liberation War.
On 10 November, as Armenia was gripped by protests against the prime minister, Sarkissian publicly called for Pashinyan's resignation. On 16 November, in an address to the nation, he concluded that snap parliamentary elections were essential in light of the protests, proposing the creation of an interim "National Accord Government" to oversee the process of stabilising the country and holding fresh elections. In early 2021, he called for the creation of a "Fourth Republic".
| He awarded Sarkissian with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic |
In January 2021, Sarkissian tested positive for the COVID-19 while on a visit to London. He was shifted to a hospital and returned to Armenia following his recovery.
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