On Sunday 22 April, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) called for calm and dialogue in Armenia. Following demonstrations over the past few days calling for his resignation, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan finally stepped down on Monday 23 April.
According to the EEAS, all parties involved should show restraint. "An inclusive dialogue, as President Armen Sarkissian has called for, aimed at an immediate and peaceful resolution of the current situation is essential", the EEAS states in a press release, saying it is "disappointing and worrying" that the "short" meeting organised earlier in the day on 22 April between Sargsyan and opposition MP and leader of the demonstrations Nikol Pashinyan – which lasted less than two minutes according to media on the ground – "did not prevent further escalation". A few hours after the meeting, Pashinyan and hundreds of protesters were arrested, following around a hundred arrests the previous day.
The EEAS spokesperson called for the immediate release of all the people who have been arrested for demonstrating peacefully. "The European Union expects the Armenian authorities to apply the law in a fair and proportionate manner, in accordance with Armenia’s international obligations", the spokesperson said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)