YEREVAN — Sarkisian signed the relevant decree after the ruling Civil Contract party nominated Pashinian to the post as lawmakers started the inaugural session.
Pashinian has 15 days to win approval for a cabinet from parliament.
His Civil Contract party holds 71 of the legislature’s 101 seats since snap elections in June prompted by a crisis following a truce in intense fighting with neighboring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh and nearby districts.
The 44-day eruption of a decades-long unresolved war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Azerbaijani territory concluded with a Moscow-brokered truce in November that cemented Azerbaijani control over regions that had been controlled by ethnic Armenians for almost 30 years.
Street protests broke out in which Pashinian’s opponents blamed him for the loss of control over the territories to the bigger and better-equipped Azerbaijani military.
Pashinian and his supporters have said former leaders of the country, including ex-Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, were also responsible for the war’s outcome.
