In Stepanakert, a rally was held demanding the resignation of Araik Arutyunyan from the post of Nagorno-Karabakh President. The protesters are unhappy that Arutyunyan has supported Nikol Pashinyan and congratulated the Acting Prime Minister of Armenia on his victory at the parliamentary elections.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the early parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on June 20. According to preliminary data, more than half of the votes, 53.92%, were won by Nikol Pashinyan's "Civil Contract" Party.

The rally demanding Araik Arutyunyan's resignation from the post of Nagorno-Karabakh President was held in the evening on June 21 in Renaissance Square in Stepanakert. It was initiated on the Facebook after the publication of information that during the elections in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh President was at Pashinyan's office in Yerevan and congratulated him on his victory.

"We treat Pashinyan as a traitor, and if Arutyunyan, being President, congratulated Pashinyan, it turns out that he spoke on behalf of the people. But he had no right to speak on behalf of the people. For me personally, he is not a president," David Kagramanyan, one of the initiators and organizers of the rally, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Mr Kagramanyan has noted that not only young people came to the rally, but also many people of the older generation, in total – about 1500 people.

The initiators of the action did not expect that it would gather "so many people," said Tigran Petrosyan, another local activist. According to his estimate, the rally was several thousand people strong.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 21, 2021 at 09:16 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.