Serzh Sargsyan is officially the President of Armenia and with his wife, Rita, bid farewell from the Presidential Mansion to outgoing First Couple, Robert and Bella Kocharyan.

As rain began soon after the 2 p.m. inauguration, Mother Nature’s mood matched that of people in the capital, Yerevan, as civilians were denied to be within a wide several-block perimeter manned by somber police, guarding the Opera House grounds and much of city center.

An ArmeniaNow photographer tried to shoot a street photograph from two blocks away, and was stopped by police who threatened to take her camera. Residents who had left the area before ceremonies began were not allowed to return even to their own homes until after a military “parade” attended only by the new president had completed in the confined yard of the Opera House.

A small group of photojournalists were allowed credentials to the inauguration. Upon arriving at the Opera House, however, the press pack was sequestered in a room where they – like everyone else in Armenia – could only watch on TV.

As the inauguration ceremony was going on, a crowd began to gather at the Miasnikyan Monument, site of March 1 clashes with law enforcement. Riot police are again on the scene there, blocking access to gatherers, some of whom are commemorating “Forty Days” since eight people died near there.