Armenia's Velvet Revolution — Key Events — Caucasus

What happened

Mass protests led by Nikol Pashinyan force Serzh Sargsyan's resignation weeks after he moved from president to prime minister; Pashinyan is elected premier in May. The change is domestic — anti-corruption, anti-incumbency — not geopolitical, but it ends the rule of the Karabakh-war military elite.

Moscow distrusted the street-born government from the start, and the removal of the Karabakh old guard changed Yerevan's relationship to the conflict itself — a leadership with no personal stake in the 1994 victory would eventually be the one to negotiate after its loss.

Confidence: High

WhenApr – May 2018

WhereYerevan

KindPolitical · Leadership change

ArenaArmenia–Azerbaijan / Karabakh legacy

Confidence: High Sources: Established historical record Methodology Corrections

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Connected records

1 record that this event names, or that name it — every one an explicit reference in a published record, nothing inferred from subject matter.

Actors1

Actor records this event names.

Armenia

Where this fits

This is one entry in the Caucasus timeline. The full Key Events surface carries every dated turning point with its filters and its essential subset, and this event in place shows what came before and after it. How Vigil grades, dates and sources its claims is set out in the methodology.