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    Categories: 2023

Pashinyan leaves government building amid protest

Panorama
Armenia –

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan left the government office amid a protest staged by the parents of soldiers killed in a military barracks fire in January.

They started the protest outside the government building in central Yerevan on Thursday morning, accusing Armenia’s authorities of trying to cover up the soldiers’ deaths. The protesters demanded a meeting with Pashinyan and Defense Minister Suren Papikyan.

Fifteen Armenian servicemen were killed and three others were severely injured following a major fire that broke out in the barracks of an engineer and sapper company in a military unit in Azat, a village in Armenia's eastern Gegharkunik Province, on January 19.

Pashinyan and Papikyan announced shortly after the deadly incident that the fire was sparked by an officer who poured gasoline into a woodstove in violation of the fire safety rules.

The victims’ families distrust the criminal investigation into the incident, claiming their sons were deliberately killed.

Pashinyan has said he will not meet with the soldiers’ parents until the ongoing probe is completed.

“Nikol fled from the other side,” one of the protesting mothers said. “He will have to run away from the Armenian people all his life. The people made a big mistake by electing him.”

Armen Khachatryan, head of the Information and Public Relations Department at the Prime Minister's Office, confirmed to Panorama.am that Pashinyan had left the government building.

"The prime minister is currently in the National Assembly," he said.

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