On 23 April 2018 Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia resigned after eleven days of mass peaceful protests, the climax of the movement known as the Velvet Revolution. Sargsyan had served two terms as president, and after a 2015 constitutional change shifted power from the presidency to the prime minister, his move to become prime minister in April 2018 was widely seen as a maneuver to extend his decade in power past presidential term limits. Opposition member of parliament Nikol Pashinyan led a march and a wave of nonviolent demonstrations under the slogan Reject Serzh, drawing tens of thousands into the streets of Yerevan and beyond, powered heavily by students and young people and deliberately kept peaceful and free of geopolitical alignment.
Parliament elected Sargsyan prime minister on 17 April as protests grew. On 22 April a brief televised meeting between Sargsyan and Pashinyan collapsed, and Pashinyan was detained. He was released on 23 April, and hours later Sargsyan resigned, saying in a statement that Pashinyan was right and he was wrong, and that he was not the solution to the problem.
Pashinyan went on to become prime minister the following month after further protests and a general strike.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who resigned in the face of peaceful mass protests; not physically harmed
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Serzh Sargsyan (prime minister who resigned)
Nikol Pashinyan (protest leader who became prime minister)
Karen Karapetyan (Sargsyan ally who briefly became acting prime minister)
Sources
The 2018 Armenian Revolution was a series of anti-government protests led by Nikol Pashinyan against Serzh Sargsyan's third consecutive term as the most powerful figure in government; Pashinyan declared it a Velvet Revolution, and on 23 April, the same day Pashinyan was released from overnight detention, Sargsyan resigned, saying he was wrong while Pashinyan was right.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, 2018 Armenian Revolutionopen source ↗
After 11 consecutive days of peaceful protests dubbed Reject Serzh, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned on 23 April, and in his resignation message he said he was wrong and Pashinyan was right and that he was not the solution to the problem, elevating Deputy Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan to acting prime minister.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Policy Research Instituteopen source ↗
Massive street protests brought down Armenia's long serving leader Serzh Sargsyan, who had served as president over the past decade, forcing him to resign from his recently assumed post of prime minister in events being called a velvet revolution.
Sargsyan resigned after 10 consecutive days of demonstration, a move dubbed Armenia's peaceful revolution; his shift to become prime minister was seen as an attempt to reinstate himself in power after presidential term limits forced him out of office in March 2018, and his spokesman called the resignation a clear demonstration of democracy in force.
CODING DISCREPANCY FLAGGED: the dataset codes this a military coup, but every source shows it was a PEACEFUL popular uprising, the Velvet Revolution, with no military role; Sargsyan was pressured out by nonviolent mass protests led by Nikol Pashinyan, not by the armed forces. There was notably no high ranking military defection (unlike Egypt, Algeria, or Sudan in this era). Coded fate not physically harmed is verified: Sargsyan resigned unharmed. This is enriched as the dataset lists it while clearly flagging that military coup is a misclassification for what was a velvet revolution. The movement was explicitly modeled on nonviolent action, drawing on tactics associated with Serbia's Otpor.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who resigned in the face of peaceful mass protests; not physically harmed.
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Eurasianet
“Armenia’s leader resigns amid peaceful mass protests: Protestors expressed long-held resentment toward sargsyan, who has led armenia through a period of economic stagnation and high-level corruption.,” Joshua Kucera, April 23, 2018 “Armenia’s ”Velvet Revolution” keeps peace with Russia - for now: Russia Appears To Accept Armenia’s protest leader, but his politics may be at odds with moscow’s interests there.,” Joshua Kucera, April 26, 2018
Asia News Monitor
“Armenia: Armenia’s Prime Minister Sargsyan Resigns Amid Opposition Protests,” April 25, 2018
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →