Nikol Pashinyan Officially Appointed As The Armenia's Head Of Government

Nikol Pashinyan officially appointed as the Armenia's head of government

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian announced on Monday, the day, when the new parliament held its first session, that Nikol Pashinyan was officially appointed as the country's head of government

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2019) Armenian President Armen Sarkissian announced on Monday, the day, when the new parliament held its first session, that Nikol Pashinyan was officially appointed as the country's head of government.

Pashinyan was born on June 1, 1975, in the city of Ijevan in the former Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.

In 1991, he began to study journalism at the Faculty of Philology at the Yerevan State University. In 1995, Pashinyan was expelled from the university. During his studies, he worked as a journalist.

From 1993 to 1994, he was a correspondent at Armenian Dprutyun newspaper, in 1994 - 1997 at the Lragir, Lragir-Or, and Molorak newspapers while in 1995 - 1997, he was an editor of the supplement of the Molorak newspaper.

A year later, he became editor-in-chief of the Oragir newspaper. He stopped working there in 1999.

From 1999 to 2012, he was editor-in-chief of the Haykakan Zhamanak opposition newspaper.

In 2006, Pashinyan was involved in founding the Aylntrank (Alternative) political movement. In 2007, the Alternative along with the Democratic Motherland party and the Conservative Party of Armenia formed the Impeachment alliance, which took part in the parliamentary election that year and lost.

In 2008, Pashinyan became a member of Armenian presidential hopeful Levon Ter-Petrosyan's campaign. The presidential election was won by Serzh Sargsyan.

On February 20, 2008, the Armenian opposition started holding rallies in the capital of Yerevan to protest against the election's results. A few weeks later, on March 1, the protests erupted into clashes between the protesters and law enforcement, killing at least eight and injuring over 200 people. Pashinyan, an active participant of the events, was wanted by the police. In the summer of 2009, he surrendered himself to the authorities.

On January 19, 2010, an Armenian court sentenced Pashinyan to seven years in prison over the organization of mass clashes in Yerevan on March 1, 2008.

On January 10, 2010, while being investigated, Pashinyan took part in the supplementary election to the Armenian parliament, the National Assembly, from the 10th constituency of Yerevan. As many as 5,000 people voted for him, but he ended up losing the election.

In 2012, Pashinyan was elected to represent the Armenian National Congress alliance, established by Ter-Petrosyan.

A year later, Pashinyan became a member of the Civic Contract initiative, which later became a party.

Prior to the 2017 parliamentary election, he organized the Yelk (Way Out) Alliance, which was joined by the Civic Contract, Republic and Bright Armenia parties. Yelk has won nine of the 105 seats in parliament.

In May 2017, Pashinyan ran for mayor in Yerevan but lost the race.

On March 31, 2018, Pashinyan initiated the My Step march in Armenia's second-largest city of Gyumri, where he demanded the authorities not to nominate then outgoing President Sargsyan for the post of prime minister. Over the following weeks, Pashinyan and his supporters visited the cities of Vanadzor, Sevan, Hrazdan, and Abovyan. On April 13, the march reached Yerevan, where the rallies started. On April 17, the protests were fueled by Armenian parliament's election of Sargsyan as prime minister. On April 23, amid massive protests in the country, Sargsyan announced his resignation.

On May 1, Pashinyan became the only candidate for the premiership. However, only 45 lawmakers voted in favor of Pashinyan, failing to secure the necessary majority. In accordance with the national constitution, another election was announced for May 8.

On May 3, 2018, Pashinyan was once again nominated as the prime minister of the country. His candidacy was proposed by more than a third of the parliament.

On May 8, the National Assembly of Armenia elected Pashinyan as the country's prime minister.

He resigned on October 17, 2018, and on October 23, the Yelk Alliance nominated Pashinyan for the position of head of government.

On October 24, the Armenian parliament rejected Pashinyan's candidacy, as not a single member voted for him.

On November 1, 2018, the Armenian parliament rejected his candidacy again at a special meeting. After that, under Armenian law, the National Assembly was automatically dissolved.

Early parliamentary election was held in Armenia on December 9. Pashinyan's My Step Alliance, won the election, securing over 70 percent of the votes and receiving 88 of the parliament's 132 seats.