“I consider the general staff statement a coup attempt. I invite all our supporters to Republic Square. I will address the country live soon,” Pashinyan said on Facebook on Thursday, according to state news agency Armenpress. .
Onik Gasparyan, the army’s chief of staff, issued a statement earlier in the day criticizing Pashinyan’s decision to fire Tiran Khacharyan, the army’s first deputy general of the army.
Gasparyan called for Pashinyan to resign, saying the prime minister’s cabinet should resign.
“The prime minister and the government are no longer able to make reasonable decisions,” the military said in a statement.
“The Armenian army has long been patient with the ‘attacks’ by the incumbent government to slander the armed forces, but everything has its limits,” the statement said, according to Armenpress.
The declaration was signed by Gasparyan, his delegates and top military commanders who make up the general staff of the Armenian army.
State media reported that the general staff said that the government’s “inefficient” administration and “serious mistakes in foreign policy” had led the country to the brink.
“The army has always been with the people, just as the people have been with the army,” the statement added.
The crisis follows months of criticism of Pashinyan over his handling of Armenia’s war with Azerbaijan last year in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In November 2020, Pashinyan announced that he had signed an “unspeakably painful agreement” with Russia and Azerbaijan to end the war, hours after Azerbaijan claimed to have conquered the strategic city of Shusha in the region.
Anti-Pashinyan protests began after he signed the agreement. The protesters at one point entered the parliament building and assaulted the president of the National Assembly, but tensions eased during the months that followed.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a telephone conversation with journalists on Thursday that Russia was following developments with concern, but that the matter was an internal matter for the Armenian government.