Opposition launches impeachment inquiry into Armenian PM

WORLD  10 May 2024 - 10:12

Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the Armenian capital on May 9, as opposition leaders called for the prime minister to be removed from office over plans he says will bring peace with Azerbaijan.

Dressed in white robes and speaking from a stage on Yerevan’s central Republic Square, prominent Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan issued an ultimatum to PM Nikol Pashinyan, giving him an hour to resign. After the deadline expired it was extended by 15 minutes, which also passed without a public response from the prime minister, TASS reports.

“As he has not reacted, he has shown he despises and rejects those who elected him,” Galstanyan told the crowd. “We will force him to do it.”

Republic Square is crowded, with Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a leader of the Bagrat movement, among the protesters. Police officers and special equipment are deployed next to the square.

Earlier, Armenia’s National Security Service cautioned against unlawful actions of the protesters during the rally scheduled for Thursday, promising that "any unlawful action jeopardizing the constitutional order will be neutralized with the use of all instruments stipulated by law."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has not yet responded to the demand to step down within an hour that Archbishop Bagrat, leader of the opposition movement ‘Tavush for the Homeland,’ announced at a mass rally on Republic Square in downtown Yerevan.

The rally was broadcast live by local news websites.

"Well, there have been no statements [from Pashinyan]. In 20 minutes, I will say what we should do," Archbishop Bagrat said.

Neither the government’s press office nor Pashinyan himself have somehow responded to the opposition’s demands yet.

On April 19, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that the Armenian and Azerbaijani commissions that deal with the delimitation of the border between the countries had reached a tentative agreement for certain sections of the border between eight villages in order to bring these sections "in line with the legally justified inter-republican border that existed in the Soviet Union at the time of its breakup." Since April 20, protesters in Armenia blocked traffic on highways leading to Georgia and Iran, demanding that the process of delimitation and handover of border territories to Azerbaijan be halted. On May 4, they left the Tavush region heading to Yerevan.

Caliber.Az