Nikol Pashinyan, the Armenian opposition leader who helped force Armenia prime minister Serzh Sarksyan to resign on Monday, had called on his supporters to stage a rally Wednesday.
Pashinyan has said he is ready to be the country’s next premier and would keep up pressure on the ruling elite until it agreed to real change.
In a Monday statement, Sargsyan said that he was wrong to cling to power after serving for 10 years as president, adding that he resigned to help end a political dispute that widened after parliament elected him as prime minister last Tuesday, Reuters reported.
“I leave the post of this country's prime minister,” said the statement, adding, “The movement on the streets is against my office. I will fulfill your claim.”
The protests escalated last Tuesday when some 40,000 people took to the streets to condemn parliament’s election of Sargsyan as prime minister. The new premier was supposed to rule Armenia with extended powers given to him under the 2015 amendments to the constitution.