Armenian President Armen Sarkisian said on Saturday he had refused to sign the Prime Minister’s order to dismiss the Army’s Chief of Staff, deepening a national political crisis.

The ex-Soviet nation has faced turmoil since Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a Moscow-brokered peace accord in November, sealing a humiliating defeat to Azerbaijan after six weeks of fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Divisions widened on Thursday when Mr. Pashinyan defied a call by the military to resign, accused the Army of an attempted coup, and ordered the Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan to be fired.

On Saturday, Armenian President Sarkisian said that he would not back the sacking. “The president of the republic, within the framework of his constitutional powers, returned the draft decree with objections,” the presidency said. It added that the political crisis “cannot be resolved through frequent personnel changes”.