YEREVAN, Armenia – Armenia’s prime minister spoke on Thursday about an attempted military coup after the army’s chief of staff demanded his resignation after months of protests caused by the country’s defeat in Nagorno – Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.
The General Staff issued a statement calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, which was signed by the top military officers. The move was prompted by Pashinyan’s decision earlier this week to fire the first Deputy Chief of Staff.
Pashinyan described the statement by the military as a ‘military coup attempt’ and ordered the dismissal of the chief of staff. He urged the army to just listen to his orders and appealed to his supporters to come to the streets to support him.
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Meanwhile, crowds of opposition protesters took to the streets of the Armenian capital, shouting “Nikol, you traitor!” and “Nikol, thank you!”
Opponents of the opposition blocked the streets around Yerevan and paralyzed traffic around the capital.
The rapid development came after Armenia saw an increase in protests this week and demanded that Pashinyan resign.
Demonstrations calling for Pashinyan’s resignation began immediately after he signed the November 10 peace agreement that would allow Azerbaijan to regain control of large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas. The Russian mediation agreement put an end to 44 days of heavy fighting in which the Azerbaijani army led Armenian troops.
Pashinyan defended the peace agreement as a painful but necessary step to prevent Azerbaijan from crossing the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies in Azerbaijan but has been under the control of Armenian ethnic forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war ended there in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and the surrounding area in Armenian hands.
Heavy fighting that broke out in late September was the biggest increase in the decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, killing more than 6,000 people on both sides.
Despite the raging public outrage over the military defeat, Pashinyan maneuvered to supplement his rule and the protests died down amid the winter cold. But the opposition protests resumed with new force this week, and the rift between Pashinyan and the top military commanders weakened his position.
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Pashinyan fired the Deputy Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Tiran Khachatryan, earlier this week after he exploded the prime minister’s claim that only 10% of the Iskander missiles supplied by Russia, which Armenia uses in the conflict.
The General Staff responded on Thursday with a statement in which Pashinyan resigned and warned the government to try to use force against the opposition protesters. Immediately after the statement, Pashinyan called the chief of staff, Col. Genl. Onik Gasparyan, fired.