A President Redesigned His Own Country's Government, Promised He Wasn't Doing It for Himself — Then Took the New Job Three Years Later
Armenia — Constitution Profile
| 📅 First Constitution | July 5, 1995 |
| 🏛️ Government | Parliamentary Republic (since 2015) |
| 🌍 Capital | Yerevan |
| 📄 Major Transitions | Presidential (1995) → Semi-Presidential (2005) → Parliamentary (2015) |
| ✏️ Drafted By (2015) | A nine-member commission reporting directly to the sitting president |
| 👤 Nicknamed | "A suit tailored to fit the man" |
There's a particular kind of political maneuver that almost never works out exactly as planned, and Armenia's constitutional history offers one of the cleaner examples of it. A sitting president rewrites the rulebook, swears up and down that the changes have nothing to do with extending his own time in power, and then — once his old job runs out of road — simply walks into the new, more powerful position the rewritten rulebook just happened to create.
Three Versions of the Same Country in Twenty Years
Most nations settle on a basic structure of government early and spend decades arguing over details. Armenia spent two decades changing the structure itself, twice. Armenia adopted its first Constitution in 1995, establishing a presidential system. Reforms in 2005 introduced a semi-presidential model, while the 2015 Constitution completed the transition to a parliamentary system, significantly reshaping the country's political structure.
Three distinct systems of government, all under the same constitutional lineage, all within twenty years. Most countries treat that kind of structural overhaul as a once-in-a-generation event. Armenia treated it as a recurring item on the national agenda.
The Commission That Answered to One Man
When the 2015 overhaul began, it wasn't built by an independent body insulated from the president whose powers it was about to redefine. Former President Serzh Sargsyan moved the nation from a semi-presidential system of government to a parliamentary model through a constitutional referendum in 2015. Those changes were drafted by a presidential commission: nine members that reported directly to him.
What that commission produced wasn't subtle in what it would mean for the man who'd assembled it. They ended up proposing a package that would allow him to shake off term limits while still retaining full control of the levers of government. Sargsian had already served the maximum two terms a president was allowed. The new system being drafted just happened to move the real power into a different office entirely — one with no such limit yet attached.
The Opposition MP Who Called It a Tailored Suit
Not everyone in Armenian politics needed to wait and see how this would play out. One critic, watching from the opposition benches, named exactly what he believed was happening before it had even finished happening. Nikol Pashinyan, then an opposition MP, criticized that Constitution as "a suit tailored to fit the man," referring to Serzh Sargsyan.
It wasn't an isolated jab. Pashinyan, who led the protests against Sargsian, had been a vocal critic of the 2015 constitutional changes while serving as an opposition member of Parliament. He consistently argued that the reforms were primarily designed to extend Sargsian's political dominance by creating what he termed a "super-prime-ministerial" institutional arrangement that concentrated excessive power in that office. The criticism on its own wasn't unusual — opposition politicians accuse ruling parties of self-dealing constantly. What makes this case unusual is what happened to the critic himself a few years later.
The Promise, and Then the Move That Broke It
Sargsian didn't simply let the suspicion hang in the air unanswered. He addressed it directly, repeatedly, in public. During that reform, then-President Serzh Sargsian repeatedly assured the public that the constitutional changes were not intended to keep him in power.
Three years later, those assurances collided with reality. However, in 2018, Sargsian was elected Prime Minister by the Parliament, breaking his earlier promises. The presidency he'd been term-limited out of had become ceremonial under his own reform. The prime ministership — now the most powerful office in the country, thanks to that same reform — had no such limit, and he simply moved into it.
A Velvet Revolution Named for How Quiet It Was
What followed wasn't a quiet transition of power. This perceived breach of trust — combined with public fatigue over ongoing political manipulation — triggered widespread unrest that became known, fittingly, as the Velvet Revolution. Under mounting public pressure, Sargsian ultimately stepped down, demonstrating how constitutional choices can affect political stability and trigger significant social movements.
The man who replaced him was the same opposition MP who had warned, years earlier, exactly what the 2015 reform was for. A broad-based peaceful movement, the Velvet Revolution, led to a change in Armenia's political leadership in May 2018. This was confirmed by a snap parliamentary election in December 2018, the organisation and conduct of which were commended by international observers. Pashinyan, the loudest critic of the "tailored suit," now had to decide whether to wear it himself.
The Critic Who Inherited the Very Office He'd Warned About
Here's where Armenia's story takes its most ironic turn. Pashinyan didn't rush to dismantle the powerful prime ministership he'd spent years criticizing. When elected as Prime Minister in 2018, following the Velvet Revolution, Pashinyan initially maintained his critical stance toward the constitutional framework and expressed intentions to establish a more balanced system. However, during the parliamentary election campaign later that year, when asked about the absence of constitutional reform in his party's platform, Pashinyan argued that the constitution had only been in effect for seven months and needed time for proper implementation before any substantial change could be considered.
Seven months became years. The man who'd called the system a suit tailored to fit Sargsian was, by every measure, now wearing it himself.
A War, a Storming of Parliament, and Three Judges Forced Out
Armenia's constitutional order has been tested by more than internal political maneuvering. Armenia then became involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh military conflict from September to November 2020, and its parliament and government buildings were subsequently stormed by demonstrators. This attempted overthrow of the constitutional order came after the announcement of the signing of the Trilateral Statement by the Prime Minister of Armenia, the President of the Russian Federation and the President of Azerbaijan on the night of 9 November 2020.
The fallout reached directly into the judiciary. The conflict finally ended in September 2020 when three Constitutional Court judges were replaced. The amendments had an immediate impact: three justices were forced to retire, and the court's chairman lost his leadership role, though he remained a sitting judge. A government that had come to power criticizing constitutional manipulation found itself, a few years later, using a referendum to remove the very court meant to check its own power.
The Constitution Is Now Being Rewritten Again — This Time Under Pressure From Outside
Armenia's constitutional story has not settled into anything resembling stability, and its newest chapter is being shaped by a neighbor rather than internal politics alone. Following the 2018 revolution, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pledged constitutional amendments, calling the system "super-prime-ministerial." However, the issue was later deprioritized amid shifting political developments, before re-emerging in the context of the Armenia–Azerbaijan peace process.
The demand is now coming directly from Baku. President Ilham Aliyev argues that Armenia must remove references in the Constitution's preamble that, in his view, imply territorial claims over Nagorno-Karabakh and support unification narratives. Official Baku insists that constitutional change is a precondition for a peace treaty. A country that has rewritten its system of government twice for its own internal reasons is now being asked to rewrite its founding text a third time as the price of peace with its neighbor.
Constitution at a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| First Constitution Adopted | July 5, 1995 (presidential system) |
| First Amendment | 2005 (semi-presidential model) |
| 2015 Referendum | Shifted to parliamentary system |
| 2015 Reform Drafted By | 9-member commission under President Sargsian |
| Sargsian Becomes PM | 2018, after presidency term-limited out |
| Velvet Revolution | April–May 2018 |
| Pashinyan Elected PM | 2018 (confirmed by snap election, December 2018) |
| 2020 Referendum (Constitutional Court) | April 5, 2020 — removed 7 of 9 judges |
| Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict / Parliament Stormed | September–November 2020 |
| New Constitutional Draft (Pending) | 2025–2026, tied to Armenia–Azerbaijan peace process |
📥 Read the Constitution of Armenia
Read the complete, official English text of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia:
👉 Read the Constitution of Armenia — Official Text
A president who redesigned the government, promised it wasn't for himself, then took the newly powerful job three years later. The man who called it out ended up keeping the same arrangement once he was the one running it. What part of Armenia's constitutional story surprised you most? Tell us in the comments below.
This article reflects an editorial reading of publicly available constitutional text and reporting, intended for general understanding rather than legal interpretation. Readers are encouraged to consult the original constitutional text linked above to form their own view.
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