In the capital of Armenia, thousands of people demonstrated on Wednesday, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan due to his handling of the protracted conflict with Azerbaijan.
Pashinyan’s stand stayed solid in the face of a weeks-long surge of protests spearheaded by the charismatic Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan in the spring.
The rally was held days after Galstanyan vowed to renew street protests, which he promised would “guarantee” Pashinyan’s departure.
The cleric has accused Pashinyan of making unnecessary territorial concessions to Baku. “Our struggle will continue as long as evil remains in power in Armenia,” he told the crowd.
“I call on all political forces to join us, as new disasters, and new losses lie ahead.”
Protesters then marched toward the offices of Armenia’s public broadcaster, to demand live airtime.
Armenia’s interior ministry said in a statement it would use force against protesters should they attempt to break into the broadcaster’s offices.
“It’s not easy getting rid of Pashinyan’s government, but we can’t give up hope,” said one demonstrator, 64-year-old Sveta Sargsyan. “We need a government that will defend every centimetre of Armenian soil.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars — in 2020 and the 1990s — over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Baku recaptured last year from Armenian separatists who had controlled it for three decades.
Nearly all its ethnic Armenians — more than 100,000 people — fled Karabakh in the aftermath and in May Pashinyan returned to Azerbaijan control over four border villages that it had seized decades earlier.
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