Armenian political crisis

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a phone talk with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on July 11, the first of this kind of conversation after several years as the two neighbors aim to end decades-old hostilities.

Armenian President Armen Sarkisian has that he was resigning his largely ceremonial position, citing the inability of his office to influence policy during times of national crisis.

The announcement comes on the back of a period instability in the small and economically struggling ex-Soviet Caucasus nation in the wake of a war with its long-standing rival Azerbaijan.

The party of Armenia's acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan won the early parliamentary polls with 53.92% of the votes, according to preliminary results on June 21.

Unofficial results announced by the Central Electoral Commission of Armenia showed that Pashinyan's Civil Contract Party came first in the election held on June 20.