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Pashinyan’s opponents want him to emerge from what they say is his disastrous handling of the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Opposition protesters blocked the streets of the Armenian capital to mark the start of a protest campaign after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ignored their call to step down following a ceasefire agreement reached with the ‘Azerbaijan.
Chanting “Nikol, traitor” and “Armenia without Nikol”, hundreds of people filled the streets of Yerevan, responding to an opposition call to protest after Pashinyan ignored the Tuesday noon deadline set by the opposition for him to resign.
Pashinyan, who came to power in a peaceful revolution in May 2018, last month agreed to a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia to end a bloody conflict between Azerbaijan and the ethnic forces. Armenian on the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its surroundings.
Pashinyan’s opponents want him to come undone for what they say was his disastrous handling of the six-week conflict that saw Azerbaijan gain ground.
Pashinyan accepted responsibility for the outcome of the conflict, but said he was now responsible for national security and the stabilization of the former Soviet republic of about three million people.
Ishkhan Saghatelyan, an opposition politician for the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party, announced the start of coordinated civil disobedience in a televised speech Tuesday after the deadline expired.
“Nikol, you will go anyway. Go peacefully, ”he said.
“From now until 5:00 pm, Armenian citizens are justified in using their right to peaceful acts of disobedience to express their demand and make it heard,” he said.
The opposition has announced plans to block streets across the country and cripple the national transportation network if necessary.
Armenian spiritual leader Karekin II said in a statement that he had met Pashinyan and urged him to step down.
Pashinyan did not comment publicly on the protests on Tuesday.
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