Demonstrators collect close to Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s residence to demand his resignation over land switch to neighbouring Azerbaijan, in Yerevan on Might 26, 2024. Agence France-Presse
YEREVAN — Hundreds of Armenians staged an anti-government protest on Sunday, demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation over territorial concessions to arch foe neighbor Azerbaijan.
Protests erupted within the Caucasus nation final month after the federal government agreed at hand over to Baku territory it had managed because the Nineteen Nineties.
The ceded space is strategically essential for landlocked Armenia as a result of it controls sections of a significant freeway to Georgia.
READ: Hundreds flee into Armenia after Azerbaijan retakes enclave
Armenian residents of close by settlements say the transfer cuts them off from the remainder of the nation and accuse Pashinyan of freely giving territory with out getting something in return.
On Friday, in a key step towards normalizing ties between the rivals — who fought two wars over then-disputed Nagorno Karabakh area — Yerevan returned to Azerbaijan 4 border villages it seized a long time in the past.
An AFP reporter mentioned a number of thousand folks flooded Yerevan’s central Republic Sq. in a recent protest spearheaded by charismatic archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a church chief from the Tavush area, the place villages had been handed over to Azerbaijan.
READ: Greater than half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenians have left
“Our folks need to change the bitter actuality which was imposed on us,” Galstanyan instructed the gang, including that fixing the unstable border with Azerbaijan “should solely be carried out after a peace treaty is signed” with Baku.
One of many demonstrators, 67-year-old Artur Sargsyan, mentioned: “We demand a direct resignation of Nikol (Pashinyan).”
“I had fought in two wars with Azerbaijan and won’t let him give away our lands.”
‘For the sake of change’
Pashinyan defended the territorial concessions as geared toward securing peace with Baku. However they sparked weeks of protests and demonstrators blocked main roads in an try to pressure him to vary course.
In a televised assertion on Friday night, he mentioned resolving border disputes with Azerbaijan “is a sole assure for the very existence of the Armenian republic inside its internationally acknowledged and bonafide frontier.”
Galstanyan is looking for to launch an impeachment course of in opposition to Pashinyan, a former journalist who was propelled to energy within the wake of peaceable road protests he led in 2018.
The archbishop mentioned on Sunday that he would surrender his clerical workplace to run for prime ministerial submit, and known as for snap parliamentary elections.
“My religious service is above all doable posts, however I’m able to sacrifice it for the sake of change on this nation,” he instructed the cheering crowd.
He then known as on protesters to march towards Pashinyan’s residence.
Opposition events would require the help of a minimum of one unbiased or ruling social gathering MP to launch the impeachment course of and success would then hinge on a minimum of 18 lawmakers from Pashinyan’s personal social gathering voting to unseat the chief.
Final 12 months, Azerbaijan recaptured Karabakh in a lightning offensive in opposition to Armenian separatists who had held sway over the mountainous enclave for 3 a long time.
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The area’s total Armenian inhabitants — greater than 100,000 folks — fled to Armenia within the aftermath.
