Armenia PM Nikol Pashinyan denounces 'attempted military coup' after calls for resignation

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan on February 25 warned of an “attempted military coup” after the country’s armed forces said he and his cabinet must resign. While taking to Facebook, Pashinyan asked his supporters to gather in the centre of the Capital Yerevan and said that he considers the statement of the General Staff of the Armed Forces an attempted military coup. Further, the Armenian PM also told the military to "obey" the people and do their job as he addressed the crowd at Yerevan. The army, on the other hand, had said that the Prime Minister was “no longer” able to make reasonable decisions after he sacked a top military commander. 

READ: Armenia: Protesters Demand Prime Minister's Resignation

Pashinyanm who has already survived several attempts in parliament to dismiss him, also said that he had sacked Onik Gasparyan, the armed forces’ Chief of the General Staff. It is worth noting that Gasparyan was sacked after his office released a statement asking the PM and his cabinet to resign on Wednesday. Gasparyan had said that Pashinyan’s government is “not capable” of taking adequate decisions and further denounced attacks by the authorities aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces. 

After Gasparyan, the Armenian PM also fired deputy chief of staff Tigran Khachatryan who had ridiculed Pashinyan’s claims that Russian-supplied missiles had failed to reach targets during last year’s intense battle over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. 

READ: Putin To Host Talks Between Armenia, Azerbaijan To Resolve Regional Conflicts

Protests over Russian-brokered deal

According to BBC, Pashinyan has faced mass protests after losing last year’s conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. During the six-weeks of fighting late last year, Azerbaijan not only had recaptured areas around the enclave but also took the key town of Shusha inside it. The massive anger is against the Russian-brokered deal that ended the war and ceded large territories of the region to Azerbaijan. 

Under the Russian-brokered deal, Azerbaijan keeps the areas it has captured and hundreds of Russian peacekeepers are also deployed in the disputed area. Russia has a military alliance with Armenia and has an army base in the country, but it did not intervene during the conflict. It also has close ties with Azerbaijan and has sold weapons to both countries. 

READ: Protesters Revive Demands For Armenian Government To Resign

READ: Armenian Protesters Demand PM's Resignation