President Serzh Sargsyan does not plan to retire from active politics or abandon strong influence on government policy after serving out his second and final term in 2018, Levon Sargsyan, one of the President's two brothers, told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
The RFE/RL's Armenian service quotes Levon Sargsyan as saying, "I think that he will engage in partisan work." "If he is the leader of the [ruling Republican] party, he will work for the party and will certainly stay in politics."
When asked whether this means the president intends to remain one of the country's major decision- makers, Sargsyan said: "If the Republican Party retains a serious role in the country, he will certainly have [such a role] through the party."
"As far as I know, he has repeatedly stated that he will not occupy any post [after 2018,]" Levon Sargsyan said. When asked whether the president could backtrack on his pledges, he said: "I don't think so." But then he was quick to add: "I don't know, I can't tell because decisions change in accordance with circumstances. If circumstances change, so do decisions."
Armenia's recently amended constitution envisages the country's transition by 2018 to the parliamentary system of governance, meaning that the next president of the republic will have largely ceremonial powers. As he pressed ahead with his controversial constitutional changes in 2014 and 2015, Serzh Sargsyan said that he will not become prime minister or parliament speaker if he succeeds in turning Armenia into a parliamentary republic. However, the president pointedly declined to reaffirm that pledge on the eve of the December 6 referendum on his constitutional package. "We'll talk about that after the 2017 parliamentary elections," he said.