[12][13] He is not related to the former Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan, who served under him, nor to his successor as President Armen Sarkissian.

Full provisional results showed him winning about 53% of the vote, a first round majority, well ahead of second place candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

Referring to the "painful events" that followed the election, he "urge[d] everybody to look forward, together, to seek and find the way for reconciliation, development, and future of Armenia.

"[3] He appointed Tigran Sargsyan, who had been the Chairman of the Central Bank and is not a member of a political party, as Prime Minister.

[21] According to the Freedom House report "In 2011, the government took concrete steps to fulfill longstanding and often repeated promises to confront corruption.

E-government services reduced opportunities for bribery, while new regulations and stricter enforcement led to higher numbers of corruption lawsuits and fines against senior officials and large companies.

[24] Civil society also grew considerably during Sargsyan's presidency, with the number of non-governmental organizations growing at a higher rate and with civic activists succeeding in raising public awareness and holding important campaigns in the sphere of human rights, environmental protection and social justice.

[30] In September 2013 and under Sargsyan's direction, Armenia announced its intentions of joining the Eurasian Economic Union with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.

[33] The Eurasian Economic Union has an integrated single market of 176 million people and a gross domestic product of over 4 trillion U.S. dollars (PPP).

[34] The EEU introduces the free movement of goods, capital, services and people and provides for common transport, agriculture and energy policies, with provisions for a single currency and greater integration in the future.

He also mentioned how Azerbaijan's military buildup along with increasing war rhetoric and threats risked causing renewed problems in the South Caucasus.

[citation needed] The most vivid expression of anti-Armenian policies of Azerbaijan was the hero's welcome given to the convicted ax murderer Ramil Safarov who had brutally killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan during the NATO's Partnership for Peace program in Budapest in 2004.

The fact that after his extradition to Azerbaijan in 2012 Safarov was pardoned by president Aliyev, promoted to the rank of major, given an apartment with over eight years of back pay and was made a national hero,[45] hampers the negotiation process and proves, in Sargsyan's words, that "the Azeri propaganda brings up an entire generation in the atmosphere of xenophobia and intolerance.

"[51] In this regard, Sargsyan declared that in the case of military aggression from Azerbaijan "Armenia will have no other choice but to recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic de jure and to employ all its capabilities to ensure the security of the people of Artsakh.

"[52] Sargsyan met with Ilham Aliyev again in Russian-mediated talks in Kazan in June 2011, where the two sides reportedly came close to an agreement.

[54] In his electoral program of 2013, Sargsyan promised to increase the security guarantees of Nagorno-Karabakh and its people given Azerbaijan's policy of Armenophobia.

[55] He also highlighted the importance of strengthening the defensive system of Armenia "as a factor restraining the Azerbaijani aggression and ensuring stability in the South Caucasus".

[57][58][59] In order to stop this purported cession of territory, a group of armed men calling themselves "Daredevils of Sasun" seized a police headquarters in Yerevan in July 2016 and took hostages, demanding Sargsyan's resignation.

[62] Abdullah Gül attended the game in Armenia while Serzh Sargsyan made a reciprocal visit to Turkey to watch the second match.

[63] On 10 October 2009 the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey signed protocols on establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries without any preconditions.

[68] One of them stated that the implementation of the protocols did not imply Armenia's official recognition of the existing Turkish-Armenian border established by the Treaty of Kars.

By doing so, the Constitutional Court rejected one of the main premises of the protocols, i.e. "the mutual recognition of the existing border between the two countries as defined by relevant treaties of international law".

Sargsyan explained the suspension of the reconciliation process by the Armenian side in the following way: For a whole year, Turkey's senior officials have not spared public statements in the language of preconditions.

[41] President Sargsyan supported Armenia's efforts to ink an Association Agreement with the EU, which contains a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, for several years.

Even though such a reversal was made, President Sargsyan's administration was determined to further EU inspired reforms in law and governance, and this led to Armenia signing the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with the European Union on 24 November 2017.

[81] The National Security Service of Armenia called the takeover (which resulted in the deaths of three policemen) a terrorist attack, but a growing number of Armenians disagreed with that assessment.

[4] On 22 April, Sargsyan held a three-minute televised meeting with opposition MP and leader of the protests Nikol Pashinyan.

[82] Armenia's National Assembly, still controlled by Sargsyan's Republican Party, elected Nikol Pashinyan Prime Minister on 8 May 2018.

[93] Sargsyan has two younger brothers: Alexander (Sashik), a businessman and former member of Armenia's parliament, and Levon, a diplomat and professor at Yerevan State University.