YEREVAN, Armenia: Anti-government demonstrators took to the streets of Yerevan on Friday for a third day to protest the government’s handling of the crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
On Wednesday, Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh decided to lay down their arms and dismantle their military forces in the wake of a swift offensive by Baku.
This development ignited widespread anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan, with opposition parties accusing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of making excessive concessions to Baku and calling for his resignation.
Opposition leaders have now disclosed their intention to initiate Pashinyan’s impeachment proceedings in parliament.
On Friday morning, small groups of protesters took to the streets in various parts of the Armenian capital, pledging to disrupt the scheduled cabinet meeting of Prime Minister Pashinyan later in the day.
Among the protesters, opposition politician Andranik Tevanyan, one of the organizers of the protests, was apprehended by the police.
On both Wednesday and Thursday, dozens of protesters were arrested outside Pashinyan’s offices during violent clashes in which demonstrators hurled bottles and stones in an attempt to breach the building. Riot police resorted to using stun grenades and issued warnings of resorting to “special measures” if the confrontations persisted.
Pashinyan, addressing the nation in a televised statement on Thursday evening, affirmed that his government would take decisive actions, in accordance with the law, against those participating in the riots. He urged the public to maintain composure and not to transgress the boundaries of the law during these emotional and trying times.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a region with an Armenian majority population and a source of longstanding conflict, had been under the control of Armenian separatists since the 1990s, following a war between arch-rivals in the Caucasus. However, in 2020, Baku launched a six-week military campaign to regain control, resulting in a Russian-brokered ceasefire that compelled Armenia to cede significant territories it had held for three decades.
This deal was perceived as a national humiliation in Armenia, with opposition parties attributing it to Pashinyan’s mismanagement of the war.
Subsequently, on Tuesday, Azerbaijan initiated a military operation to reclaim the remaining mountainous territory, with Armenia opting not to intervene militarily. The following day, separatist authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh consented to cease hostilities and disband their army.
