Wednesday, Pashinian Meets Armenian Army Top Brass Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with the Armenian military's top brass, . Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met with the Armenian military’s top brass on Wednesday two weeks after it accused him of misrule and demanded his resignation. The meeting came just hours after Pashinian completed the sacking of Colonel-General Onik Gasparian, the chief of the army’s General Staff. Gasparian condemned his removal as “unconstitutional” and said he will challenge it in court. The army top brass issued, meanwhile, a separate statement that voiced support for the general and reiterated its demands for the prime minister’s resignation. In his opening remarks at the meeting, Pashinian made no explicit mention of those demands rejected by him as a coup attempt. He indicated that he has no plans to fire other top military commanders. “I believe that together we will manage to overcome this crisis and our state and armed forces will emerge stronger from this crisis,” Pashinian said. “I want to ask everyone present here to continue their military service as generals, officers of the armed forces and as pillars of the structure serving as the guarantor of Armenia’s security and territorial integrity,” he said. “I trust in you and believe that you have served the country in good faith. I want to repeat that your services are worthy of highest marks and that this evaluation cannot vanish under any circumstances.” Pashinian went on to promise to have a “more detailed conversation” with the generals after President Armen Sarkissian approves his pick for the new chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian. “In this situation, unity is the most important thing needed by Armenia and its people,” added the embattled premier. Pashinian’s office did not divulge other details of the meeting held amid continuing opposition demonstrations in Yerevan aimed at forcing him to resign over his handling of last year’s war with Azerbaijan. The Homeland Salvation Movement, an opposition alliance staging the protests, has hailed the military’s February 25 statement demanding Pashinian’s resignation. Sarkissian Offers To Host Talks Between Government, Opposition • Artak Khulian Armenia -- Riot police are seen outside the Armenian parliament building in Yerevan during opposition protests, . President Armen Sarkissian offered on Wednesday to host talks between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and opposition leaders aimed at ending the political crisis in Armenia. Sarkissian said that the continuing crisis triggered by the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh is fraught with “unpredictable and irreversible consequences” for the country and requires an urgent solution. In a statement, Sarkissian invited Pashinian, representatives of the three political forces represented in the Armenian parliament as well as the leaders of the opposition Homeland Salvation Movement to meet at the presidential palace in Yerevan for that purpose on Saturday. They should try to find “mutually acceptable ways of overcoming the crisis, he said. “I reaffirm my belief that negotiations and dialogue are the only way to settle differences,” added the president. The offer came one day after Sarkissian paved the way for the sacking of Onik Gasparian, Armenia’s top army general who has demanded, along with 40 other high-ranking officers, Pashinian’s resignation. The president pointedly declined to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the legality on Pashinian’s decision to fire Gasparian. The Homeland Salvation Movement reacted furiously to Sarkissian’s stance, accusing him of acting on the embattled prime minister’s orders. One of the leaders of the opposition alliance, Vazgen Manukian, branded the president a “rich tourist” who does not care about Armenia’s future. Another opposition leader, Ishkhan Saghatelian, scoffed at Sarkissian’s offer of crisis talks. “They [Sarkissian and Pashinian] did their dirty deed and are now asking for some meetings?” he told reporters. Saghatelian said that the alliance uniting more than a dozen opposition parties should only discuss a “roadmap for Pashinian’s resignation.” The alliance has been trying to unseat Pashinian with street protests launched after the Armenian side’s defeat in the war with Azerbaijan stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10. Its supporters continued to blockade the parliament building in Yerevan on Wednesday. They again marched through the city center to reiterate the opposition demands for Pashinian’s resignation. Sarkissian too urged Pashinian to resign and hand over power to an interim government late last year. The premier has rejected such calls. Armenian Schools To Stay Open Despite COVID-19 Resurgence • Narine Ghalechian Armenia - Children play basketball at a school in the town of Gavar, March 9, 2021. Armenia’s government has no plans to again shut down schools despite a renewed increase in coronavirus cases in the country, a senior official said on Wednesday. The Armenian Ministry of Health reported in the morning that 340 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, significantly up from the daily number of new cases officially confirmed in early and mid-February. The ministry also recorded five more fatalities caused by the disease, bringing to 3,237 the official death toll in the county of about 3 million. The figure does not include the deaths of 834 other people infected with the coronavirus. According to the ministry, they were primarily caused by other diseases. Romela Abovian, a senior official from the ministry’s National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the daily number of COVID-19 infections has nearly doubled in the last two weeks. Abovian warned that more than 3,000 new cases will be registered in the next few days unless “appropriate measures” are taken to make Armenians again wear masks in public, observe social distancing and stick to other safety rules set by the government. “If things continue like this we could be faced with a serious problem,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Health Minister Anahit Avanesian likewise expressed concern last week about the resurgence of the respiratory disease. She said health authorities have to set up more hospital beds for COVID-19 patients. According to Abovian, over 90 percent of about 1,000 such beds currently available at hospitals across the country are already occupied by patients. More than 550 of them are in a severe or critical condition, added the official. Deputy Education Minister Zhanna Andreasian said, meanwhile, that government officials have already discussed implications of the worsening epidemiological situation for Armenian schools. “We had a discussion in the government with our colleagues from the Ministry of Health,” said Andreasian. “The issue of switching all schools back to online classes was not discussed. There is no such decision.” “We just need to again strictly follow the existing simple rules: wear masks, frequently wash hands,” she said. Andreasian also stressed the need to comply with the Ministry of Health’s safety protocols for schools introduced last year. The government most recently shut down the schools on October 15 following a surge in coronavirus cases. It reopened all of them by December 7. Armenian Military Stands By Fired Commander ARMENIA -- Armenian Chief of General Staff Onik Gasparian The Armenian military reaffirmed its calls for the government’s resignation on Wednesday as the chief of its General Staff, Colonel-General Onik Gasparian, pledged to challenge in court Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s decision to sack him. Gasparian indicated at the same time that he will step aside and not hold on to his post until a court ruling on his “unconstitutional” dismissal. Pashinian petitioned President Armen Sarkissian to relieve Gasparian of his duties on February 25 immediately after Armenia’s top general and 40 other high-ranking officers issued a joint statement demanding the government’s resignation. He rejected the demand as a coup attempt. Sarkissian refused to sign a relevant decree on February 27, saying that it appears to be unconstitutional and would deepen the “unprecedented” political crisis in the country. Pashinian resent his motion to Sarkissian in another attempt to get him to fire Gasparian. The president again refused to sign the decree drafted by the prime minister’s office. But he decided not to ask the Constitutional Court to invalidate it, effectively paving the way for Gasparian’s removal. Citing Sarkissian’s failure to appeal to the court, the Armenian government stated on Wednesday morning that Gasparian has automatically ceased to be the chief of the General Staff. The defiant general issued a statement early in the afternoon describing the government statement and “the entire process of my dismissal” as unconstitutional. He said it shows that only Pashinian’s resignation and the holding of snap parliamentary elections can end the political crisis in the country. Gasparian made clear that he will not continue to perform his duties and has instead asked the Administrative Court to reinstate him as army chief. “I will continue my service to the homeland and the Armenian people in another capacity,” he said. Gasparian went on to urge Armenian military personnel to “continue your selfless and patriotic service.” In a separate statement released shortly afterwards, the military’s top brass reaffirmed support for Gasparian and said it stands by its earlier “evaluations of the existing situation in the country.” “There is only one solution to the situation and it is mentioned in [Gasparian’s] appeal,” read the statement. Meanwhile, Pashinian moved to replace Gasparian by another general, Artak Davtian. President Sarkissian did not immediately sign a relevant decree requested by the prime minister. Davtian already served as chief of the General Staff from May 2018 to June 2020. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.