The Armenian opposition called on Wednesday December 16 to start a general strike from December 22 to force Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian to resign after the defeat in Nagorno Karabakh.
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"
Tuesday, from noon, we must start a national strike
," said one of the leaders of the Armenian opposition party Dashnaktsoutioun, Ichkhan Saghatelian, during an opposition parade that brought together thousands of people in Yerevan, the capital.
“The
whole country must be paralyzed for this scarecrow to leave his post,
” he said, referring to the Prime Minister, also calling for the launch of acts of “
civil disobedience
” across the country.
The pressure has been mounting on Pashinian, 45, who came to business thanks to a peaceful revolution in 2018, since the Armenian forces were defeated by the Azerbaijani army in Nagorno Karabakh.
Earlier this month, 17 opposition parties had already given the prime minister until December 8 to leave power, an ultimatum rejected by Nikol Pachinian.
A humiliating agreement for Armenia was signed under the aegis of Moscow on November 9, granting important territorial gains to Azerbaijan, even if Nagorny Karabakh, an Armenian-majority enclave disputed for decades, survives diminished.
Several thousand people have been killed in this conflict on both sides.
The announcement of the deal angered Armenia and demonstrators briefly took over and ransacked the seat of government and parliament.
The authorities had also reported the existence of a plot to assassinate Pachinian.
The opposition has since organized almost daily protests denouncing Pachinian as a "
traitor
" and calling for his resignation.