PM ACCUSES ARMY OF COUP ATTEMPT

YEREVAN Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, condemned what he called an attempted coup after the army demanded he quit on Thursday, and told a rally of supporters that only the people could decide his future.

The army’s demand plunged the impoverished former Soviet republic into a new political crisis, just months after ethnic Armenian forces lost a war and territory to Azerbaijan.

The 45-year-old prime minister has faced calls to leave his post since November over his handling of the six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the Nagorno-karabakh enclave and surrounding areas in which Azeri forces made territorial gains.

“The ineffective management of the current authorities and the serious mistakes in foreign policy have put the country on the brink of collapse,” the army’s general staff and other senior military officials said.