Thousands of protesters have gathered in the Armenian capital to denounce the government’s perceived failure to support Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, after the breakaway region was forced into surrender by Azerbaijan, Al Jazeera reported.
The protesters gathered on Wednesday at Republic Square, in the heart of Yerevan, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who presided over the defeat to Azerbaijan in a 2020 war and.
Opposition politicians gave speeches from a stage denouncing Pashinyan, who took power in a 2018 revolution during which he addressed rallies on the same square, while some protesters threw bottles and stones at his office and scuffled with police.
Lawmaker Ishkhan Saghatelyan called on parliamentary opposition forces to launch an impeachment procedure against the prime minister.
Azerbaijan on Wednesday announced it had halted its offensive, which it described as a “counter-terrorism operation”, after Armenian separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to a ceasefire whose terms signalled the area would return to Baku’s control.
It said that it wanted a “smooth reintegration process” for Karabakh’s Armenians and rejected accusations that it wanted to “ethnically cleanse” the region.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
