Serzh Sargsyan had no discussion on declaring state of emergency with any foreign leader in April – head of former president’s office reacts to Reuters article

Third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has not discussed the possibility of declaring a state of emergency with any foreign leader in April when he was Prime Minister, head of the former president’s office Nairi Petrossian said on Facebook in response to a Reuters article suggesting that Mr. Sargsyan mulled implementing state of emergency in phone discussions with Russian officials and his team members one day before resigning.

“In my capacity of the Head of the Office of the Third President of the Republic of Armenia I would like to inform Margarita Antidze [Reuters article author] that in the course of the events that unfolded in April 2018 in Armenia Serzh Sargsyan had not discussed the possibility of implementing a state of emergency with any foreign leader,” Mr. Petrossian said.

Reuters published an article citing an anonymous “diplomatic source” claiming that Serzh Sargsyan had contacts with Russian officials and his team members on the possibility of implementing a state of emergency one day before resigning as Prime Minister.