YEREVAN, Armenia – The Prime Minister of Armenia spoke of an attempted military coup on Thursday, after the military staff demanded that he step down after months of protests over the country’s defeat in the Nagorno conflict – Karabakh with Azerbaijan.
The General Staff issued a statement calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, which was signed by senior military officials. The change was triggered by Pashinyan’s decision earlier this week to remove the first deputy chief of staff.
Pashinyan described the military’s statement as an “attempted military coup” and ordered the chief of the general staff to resign. He urged the military to just listen to his orders and called on his supporters to come out on the streets to support him.
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Meanwhile, crowds of opposition protesters stormed the streets of the Armenian capital, shouting “Nikol, your traitor!” and “Nikol, resign!”
Opposition supporters blocked the streets around Yerevan, paralyzing traffic across the capital.
The accelerated developments came after Armenia saw an increase in demonstrations this week demanding that Pashinyan resign.
The protests calling for Pashinyan’s resignation began immediately after he signed the peace agreement on November 10, which saw Azerbaijan take back control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding area. The Russian-brokered deal ended 44 days of fierce fighting in which the Azerbaijani army defeated Armenian forces.
Pashinyan defended the peace agreement as a painful but necessary measure to prevent Azerbaijan from invading the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan, but has been under the control of Armenian ethnic forces supported by Armenia since a separatist war ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and the surrounding substantial territory in Armenian hands.
The intense fighting that broke out in late September marked the biggest escalation of the decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, killing more than 6,000 people on both sides.
Despite fervent public anger over the military defeat, Pashinyan maneuvered to strengthen his government and the protests died in the cold of winter. But opposition demonstrations resumed with fresh vigor this week, and the feud between Pashinyan and top military commanders has weakened his position.
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Pashinyan dismissed Deputy Chief of Staff General, Lieutenant General Tiran Khachatryan, earlier this week after ridiculing the Prime Minister’s claim that only 10% of Russia’s Iskander missiles that Armenia used in the conflict exploded on impact .
The General Staff responded on Thursday with a statement demanding Pashinyan’s resignation and warned the government against trying to use force against opposition protesters. Immediately after the declaration, Pashinyan dismissed the chief of staff, Colonel Onik Gasparyan.