Leader alleges coup attempt amid political upheaval
YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia’s prime minister accused top military officers on Thursday of attempting a coup after they demanded he step down, adding fuel to months of protests calling for his resignation following the country’s defeat in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the NagornoKarabakh region.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has faced opposition calls to step down ever since he signed a Nov. 10 peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter of a century.
The opposition protests gathered pace this week, and the feud with his top military commanders has weakened Pashinyan’s position, raising concerns about stability in the strategic South Caucasus region, where shipments of Azerbaijan’s Caspian crude oil pass through on their way to Western markets.
The immediate trigger for the latest tensions was Pashinyan’s decision earlier this week to oust the first deputy chief of the military’s General Staff that includes the armed forces’ top officers.
In response, the General Staff called for Pashinyan’s resignation, but he doubled down and ordered that the chief of the General Staff be dismissed.
After denouncing the military’s statement as a “coup attempt,” Pashinyan led his supporters at a rally in the capital, and he addressed them in a dramatic speech in which he said he had considered — but rejected — calls to resign.
“I became the prime minister not on my own will, but because people decided so,” he shouted to the crowd of more than 20,000 people in Republic Square. “Let people demand my resignation or shoot me in the square.”
In nearby Freedom Square, over 20,000 opposition supporters held a parallel rally, and some vowed to stay there until Pashinyan stepped down. Demonstrators paralyzed traffic all around Yerevan, chanting “Nikol, you traitor!” and “Nikol, resign!”
The crisis has its roots in Armenia’s humiliating defeat in heavy fighting with Azerbaijan over NagornoKarabakh that erupted in late September and lasted 44 days. A Russiabrokered agreement ended the conflict in which the Azerbaijani army routed Armenian forces — but only after more than 6,000 people died on both sides.