Morning Star, UK
Dec 6 2020
Armenian opposition calls on Pashinyan to quit over Azerbaijan ceasefire deal
Opposition demonstrators hold posters of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan painted in red to represent the blood of those killed during the conflict
ARMENIAN opposition parties have promised “civil disobedience across the country” if Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan isn’t gone by noon on Tuesday.
More than 20,000 protesters rallied in Yerevan yesterday chanting “Nikol, you traitor” and “Nikol out” in protest against a ceasefire deal struck with Azerbaijan that cedes territory in the self-declared Republic of Artsakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan.
Former National Security Service chief Artur Vanetsyan, who heads the Homeland party, said: “The seat of the prime minister of Armenia is currently being occupied by a political corpse.” Priests of the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the world’s oldest, joined the march, saying the ceded territory includes holy sites.
Mr Pashinyan himself took power after leading mass protests against the previous Serzh Sargsyan administration in 2018, but the ceasefire deal is seen in Armenia as a defeat that sells out the country’s interests.
Azerbaijan launched a military assault on the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, governed by the Republic of Artsakh since a border war in 1994, on September 27 with apparent assistance from its ally Turkey, including by deployment of thousands of jihadists relocated from the Syrian conflict.
Hundreds were killed and tens of thousands have now been displaced, with streams of refugees fleeing territory handed to Azerbaijan in a November 10 deal brokered by Russia. Azerbaijan has declared the war a victory and made November 8, the last day of fighting, a national holiday named Victory Day.