Armenia's Albin Kurti becomes prime minister: All my life as an opposition on the streets, in protests, and in prison

Exactly a month ago, Nikol Pashinyan was walking from village to village along Armenia in a protest against taking power by local Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan.

On Tuesday, Pasinyan, a fiery speaker who has spent the last ten years on the street making politics, was elected prime minister of the country in parliament.

It was an unusual rise in power in the post-Soviet republic of 3 million people. Before April, the ruling party seemed invincible, with Sargsyan again being deployed as prime minister after being president for ten years, writes Periscope.

Pashinyuani and his activists had gathered tens of thousands to protest in the street that had paralyzed Armenia's capital, Yerevan.

Sargsyan had resigned on April 23rd. Pashinyani, who was convicted and later released from prison during the protests, called for early elections so that the new prime minister of the people “could be elected.

Supporters say he, a former newspaper editor who was also imprisoned in the 2008 opposition campaigns, is among the greatest peaceful revolutionaries in history. “You can compare it to large figures like Gandhi or Nelson Mandela,” said Edward Agayayan.

It's been a very dangerous journey for Pashinyan. He was expelled from the university in 1995 for his political activity, and later in 2000, when he was a newspaper editor, he had also faced charges of slander. His car was blown up in a 2004 attempted assassination, and in 2008 he spent months hiding because he was accused of inciting political protests that had left 10 people dead. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison but was released on an amnesty basis.

In 2016 he became a member of the opposition party coalition by entering parliament.

The main question is whether Nicole Pashiyani revolutionary can become Nikol Pasinian prime minister,” said Emil Danielyan, a journalist and political analyst in Yerevan.

Last month during his meeting with Prime Minister Sargasyan, Pashiyani had told the first one that he had come only to discuss his resignation “. Sargsyan had called his request “a political blackmail” and had left that discussion, Periscope follows.

In recent months he has disputed Armenia's relations with Russia something that has caused developments in Armenia to be forwarded globally.

In an interview with the Guardian during the protests, Pashiyani had said dark political forces were trying to disrupt Armenia's peaceful revolution.

There's a certain populism in Pasinian he had engaged a camouflage shirt for some of his speeches, but when he negotiated with other parties he dressed up as usual. He's not populist. He is popular,” said Ararat Mirzoyan, a supporter of him who had been arrested along with the new Armenian prime minister. /Periscopi