So, how did the revolution in Armenia take place? How did it succeed? Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan asked these questions in his speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

He presented the entire history of the events that took place in Armenia. “In 2015, at the end of his second term of office as president, then de facto leader of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan initiated constitutional reforms, as a result of which Armenia was supposed to make the transition from the semi-presidential form of governance to a parliamentary system of governance in April 2018.

When he was initiating these constitutional reforms, he publicly pledged that he would no longer have a pretension to become the leader of the Republic of Armenia, in the given case, the Prime Minister as well. However, in 2018, it became clear that he was the ruling majority’s candidate for Prime Minister, and knowing this, on 31 March 2018, my friends and I launched a march from Gyumri (second largest capital of Armenia) to Yerevan, calling on citizens of the Republic of Armenia to prevent Serzh Sargsyan from political trickery.

We walked more than 200 kilometers for 13 days and provided coverage of the whole process live on social media websites. In Yerevan, several schoolboys and schoolgirls joined our movement, and they were joined by their elder siblings, parents and grandparents.

Although Serzh Sargsyan was elected Prime Minister by the parliament on 17 April 2018 and I was in prison again on 22 April, the next day, under the people’s pressure, Serzh Sargsyan was compelled to release me and my friends and resign. Fifteen days later, on 8 May 2018, the same parliament elected me Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia because this was the demand of all Armenians.

This is how our revolution took place, and we refer to it as a Revolution of Love and Solidarity because it was initially hinged on the logic of a non-violent struggle.

Open hands in the air was the symbol of our revolution, and this was marked by the statement that we made several times, stating that even if the police and former government officials use violence against us, we will not respond to that violence with violence.

And love and the idea of a non-violent struggle truly outscored the oligarchic and corrupt system that had been the system of rule in Armenia for many years. They won without any violence, without any victims, without any weapons. The victory was scored with open hands raised in the air,” Pashinyan said.