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Nikol Pashinyan
Photo:
- / AFP
In Armenia, the political crisis surrounding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is coming to a head: leading military representatives are demanding his resignation.
Pashinyan spoke on Facebook on Thursday of the "attempted military coup" and immediately announced the dismissal of the head of the general staff of the armed forces, Onik Gasparjan.
Pashinyan also urged his followers to assemble in the capital, Yerevan, on Republic Square.
The leadership of the Armenian military had previously called for the resignation of Pashinyan and his cabinet.
"The prime minister and the government are no longer in a position to make sensible decisions," said the Armenian agency Armenpress in a statement.
The military representatives also referred to the recent dismissal of the deputy chief of staff by Pashinyan.
Since the end of the fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region more than three months ago, the prime minister has been in a serious crisis because the opposition blames him personally for the defeat against Azerbaijan.
Most recently, tens of thousands of people called for his resignation in new protests, which Pashinyan repeatedly refused.
In the recent war for Nagorno-Karabakh from September 27 to November 9, Azerbaijan reclaimed large parts of the area.
However, predominantly Christian Armenians now live there.
Under international law, the area belongs to the predominantly Islamic Azerbaijan, which it renounced in 1991.
In total, well over 4,700 people died in the fighting.
Armenia invoked Russia as a protecting power.
The Kremlin called for calm in the face of the new developments around Pashinyan and at the same time declared that it was a domestic matter for Armenia that had to be resolved in accordance with the constitution.
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mes / dpa / Reuters
