Thousands of protesters have gathered in the Armenian capital amid anger over Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s decision to sign an agreement with Azerbaijan to end more than six weeks of fighting over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Defying martial law that bans street rallies, the demonstrators filled Yerevan’s central Liberty Square on November 11, calling Pashinian a “traitor” and calling for his resignation.
Some scuffles took place as police tried to prevent the gathering. Several participants, including Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), were detained.
Ahead of the demonstration, the government warned the opposition against attempting a ‘coup’ as tensions grew in the Caucasus nation after Pashinian signed a Russian-brokered agreement to end the fighting between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.
While the announcement of the cease-fire deal early on November 10 triggered celebrations in Azerbaijan, it sparked angry protests in the Armenian capital with demonstrators storming government buildings and parliament.
Representatives of 17 opposition parties called for Pashinian to step down, blaming him for what they described as heavy concessions Armenians had to accept as part of the deal.
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Addressing the Yerevan rally, Ishkhan Saghatelian, a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun), charged that ‘the war was brought to us’ by Pashinian and ‘his inconsistent policies.’
‘Throughout the war he showed inaction and treachery,” Saghatelian added.
Armenian police on November 11 warned that holding rallies continues to be banned in the country, which has been under martial law since the latest fighting broke out in the enclave on September 27.
Speaking on state television, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian did not rule out that the current government could resign, but warned against any “coup” attempt.
“I want to assure all of the political forces that are trying to catch fish in murky waters in conditions of martial law that there will be no tolerance in this matter,” the deputy prime minister said.
He said that the time for looking for those responsible in a domestic political process will still come.
“If necessary, this government will go, a new government will be elected, but our team and I personally cannot allow any coup attempts,” Avinian said.
President Armen Sarkisian has launched “consultations” with representatives of several political parties in a bid to defuse tensions and maintain national “unity,” his office said.
Under the Russian-brokered truce deal, which includes the deployment of Russian peacekeeping troops to Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan will keep territory in the region and surrounding areas captured during the recent fighting.
It also calls for Armenian forces to hand over some areas it held outside the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh.
More than 400 Russian troops, eight helicopters, and other military equipment have been deployed to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in the past day as part of a renewable five-year peacekeeping mission, according to the Russian military.
Units of the Russian contingent “have taken control of the Lachin Corridor” linking Nagorno-Karabakh’s main city, Stepanakert, to Armenia, and deployed “provisional observation outposts,’ Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Department, told a press briefing.
Nearly 2,000 Russian troops will eventually be active in the region with 90 armored personnel carriers as part of the peacekeeping mission.
The truce came after Azerbaijani forces made major battlefield gains, including reports they were approaching Stepanakert after taking the nearby strategic town of Shushi, known as Susa in Azeri.
Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but the ethnic Armenians who make up most of the population reject Azerbaijani rule. They have been governing their own affairs, with support from Armenia, since Azerbaijan’s troops and ethnic Azeri civilians were pushed out of the region in a war that ended in a cease-fire in 1994.
Efforts to resolve the conflict by the OSCE Minsk Group — cochaired by Russia, France, and the United States — have not brought any results since 1992 and three previous cease-fires signed since fighting broke out again in late September have failed to hold.
Source: UZBEKISTAN NEWS
