Why Armen Sarkissian Celebrated New Year in London and Underwent Surgery There: Presidential Clarification

On January 5, it was announced from the presidential office that the President of the Republic of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian, celebrated the New Year in London with his family and grandchildren during his vacation.

On January 3, President Sarkissian underwent foot surgery in London, which was successful. However, he also showed symptoms of a new type of coronavirus, and his test yielded a positive result.

Analitik.am submitted an inquiry to the presidential office to clarify why the president chose to celebrate the New Year in London rather than Armenia, considering what a difficult year 2020 was for the homeland. Given that the coronavirus situation has been particularly severe in Great Britain during this time, we also asked how it was that this circumstance did not deter the president from the idea of traveling to London.

The third question concerned the president's surgery, specifically why he underwent foot surgery in Great Britain instead of Armenia. We present the full response from the presidential office regarding the inquiry: “The President's visit to London was not for the purpose of celebrating the New Year there but was exclusively due to health issues. About a year ago, the necessity arose for President Sarkissian to undergo foot surgery in London, and the appropriate medical intervention was performed. According to the recommendations of the doctors who performed the surgery, another procedure should have been conducted in the recovery phase, which was carried out recently by the same doctors. As for the issue of contracting the coronavirus, no one, irrespective of their location, is immune to this disease.”