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    Emil Lazarian
  • 4 years ago
    • Categories: 2021

Armenia Premier Confirms He Will Step Down to Allow Election

US News

Armenia's embattled prime minister has confirmed that he will step down from the post in April in order to allow for an early parliamentary election.

By Associated Press, Wire Service Content , at 9:39 a.m.

YEREVAN, ARMENIA (AP) — Armenia’s embattled prime minister on Sunday confirmed that he will step down from the post in April in order to allow for an early parliamentary election.

Nikol Pashinyan has faced weeks of protests calling for his ouster in the wake of Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war with Azerbaijan.
In a move to defuse the political crisis, Pashinyan two weeks ago announced that an early election would be held on June 20. Under Armenian law, such elections can be held after a premier resigns and the parliament fails twice to choose a new one.

"I will resign in April — not to leave power, but to hold early parliamentary elections. I will continue to act as prime minister” as head of the Cabinet, Pashinyan said Sunday in a meeting with residents of the village of Aragats. He didn't give a specific date for stepping down.

Armenia has been gripped by political tensions after suffering a humiliating defeat last year in an armed conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory within Azerbaijan that Armenia-backed separatists controlled for more than 25 years.

Pashinyan signed a peace deal in November that ceded parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and large swaths of adjacent Armenian-controlled territory. He defends the move as the only way to have prevented Azerbaijan from taking the entire region.

Pashinyan has retained significant public backing despite the defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh, with thousands rallying in his support to counter the opposition-led pressure for his resignation.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS