Large-scale protests demanding the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan continue for a second day following a weekend demonstration.
After a rally of thousands on Sunday and an overnight vigil in pouring rain, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Armenian parliament building in Yerevan on Monday.
The demonstrations organised in opposition to the decision to hand over four abandoned border villages to Baku to settle long-standing territorial disputes between the Caucasian neighbours. The territory, which Armenia has controlled since the 1990s, reclaimed last week.
The protests against Pashinyan, who has also led Armenia to cool relations with Russia, are led by Bagrat Galstanyan, an archbishop who at the weekend called for a “new dialogue” with Moscow.
Confrontation over Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan reclaimed last year from Armenians who controlled the enclave for three decades. Opponents call the return of the territory a betrayal. Many believe it was Pashinyan’s short-sighted policies that led to the liquidation of Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing hundreds of thousands of Armenians to leave the territory. Pashinyan said it was a necessary step to avoid a new war.
Yerevan accused Baku of ethnic cleansing, which Pashinyan himself acknowledged. “The withdrawal of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of Azerbaijan’s policy of ethnic cleansing continues. Analysis shows that in the coming days there will be no more Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh. This is a real act of ethnic cleansing and depatriation, which we have been warning the international community about for a long time,” the Armenian Prime Minister said during a government session on September 28.
Aram Sargsyan, chairman of the Democratic Party of Armenia, is sure that the government is trying to find excuses for its failures with anti-Russian slogans:
“At first they tried to blame everything on the old authorities. But how many years can they do that? So they had to find a new narrative, which was Russophobia. They said that Russia was to blame for all the troubles. And when Russia was ready to lend a helping hand during the war in Karabakh, Yerevan itself rejected it.”
Start of four-day rally
On Sunday, Galstanyan, who has said he hopes to change the prime minister, announced the start of four days of rallies for his resignation. Galstanyan, who has called on parliament to hold an impeachment vote on Tuesday, said:
“For four days, we will stay in the streets and squares, and with our determination and will, we will achieve victory.”
Thousands of people gathered outside government headquarters on Sunday and then marched to parliament. If the impeachment vote is successful, an interim government will need to form and early parliamentary elections will need to take place.
Galstanyan temporarily stepped away from his religious duties to run for prime minister. However, under Armenian law, he is not eligible to hold the post because he holds a Canadian passport.
Earlier, Galstanyan demanded that the republic’s parliament convene an extraordinary session to consider the resignation of the country’s current Pashinyan-led government. According to him, Armenian citizens should hold continuous actions since Monday.
The protesters promise to keep coming to mass rallies in an attempt to preserve Armenia’s sovereignty and the safety of its citizens.
