Pressure mounts on Armenia’s government over Nagorno-Karabakh deal

Armenian president Armen Sarkissian has joined opposition calls for the country's government to step down after it agreed to cede swathes of the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region to Azerbaijan to end six weeks of bloody fighting.

Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan says the peace deal saved thousands of Armenian soldiers from death or capture, but it has sparked a political crisis and demonstrations as critics accuse his government of "treachery" and "surrender".

Opposition parties sought an emergency session of parliament on Tuesday evening to vote on ending martial law, which was introduced when fierce clashes erupted in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in late September; that would lift a ban on protests and allow deputies to table a no-confidence motion against the cabinet.

Mr Pashinyan's allies have a majority in parliament, but several government officials – including foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan – have resigned or been sacked in recent days and a number of deputies have left the ruling bloc in protest at the agreement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on November 9th.

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In an address to the nation on Monday evening, Mr Sarkissian said he had held talks with a wide range of Armenian political figures and “the vast majority ... agreed on one thing: the resignation of the prime minister in accordance with the constitution or his removal from his post, and early parliamentary elections”.

“Considering the current situation and the need to overcome it with dignity, and listening to public demands, it is obvious that to protect the country from upheaval, early parliamentary elections are ultimately inevitable,” he added.

Elections timetable

Mr Sarkissian urged the government to present a “road map” laying out a timetable for the snap elections, and to allow a “highly qualified government of national unity” to lead Armenia until the vote was held.

Mr Pashinyan has refused to step down, however, while accusing his political enemies of exploiting the crisis for their own ends and blaming his predecessors for rampant corruption that made the military too weak to defend Nagorno-Karabakh.

Several opposition figures, including a former head of Armenia’s national security service, were arrested at the weekend for allegedly plotting a coup and the assassination of Mr Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018 on the back of peaceful anti-corruption protests.

The prime minister was also accused of stoking tension with a social media post in which he said he looked forward to the return of soldiers from the front, “to finally solve the problems of those who are whining under the walls”. The former journalist denied he was threatening to use military forces against protesters.

Russia is deploying almost 2,000 troops to keep the peace and oversee the return of much of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan, more than 25 years after the region’s ethnic Armenian majority seized control in a war that claimed 30,000 lives.