Nov 11, 2020.
On 11 November, representatives of 17 opposition parties in Armenia reiterated their call for the country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to step down, blaming him for what they deemed heavy concessions Armenians had to accept as part of the deal.
Speakers at the rally, attended by thousands in Liberty
Square, were addressing the crowd while they chanted “Nikol is a traitor” amid
police attempts to stop the gathering. Scuffles broke about between
demonstrators and the police. The organisers of the rally had been warned
that it was illegal under the current martial law that was introduced at the
start of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh in late September.
One of the leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun) Ishkhan Saghatelyan described Pashinyan as the one responsible
for the war. “It was due to Pashinyan’s inconsistent policies. He had spoiled
our relations with our strategic allies, with the Russian Federation, with
Tehran, isolated us from the entire world because of his lies and his being
distrusted. And throughout the war he showed inaction and treachery. Beginning
from this moment there is no government in the Republic of Armenia,”
Saghatelyan stated.
“A year ago, I called Nikol to stop, I told him, Nikol stop,
you are destroying our country, he did not listen to me. Today again I say,
Nikol stop, don’t sell our homeland. We have gathered here not to change the
power but to save our country, Artsakh and identity. The Armenian people will
not surrender, the Armenian nation is a winning nation, and it will win. The
agency networks that were trying to spoil our national identity during the past
2,5 years today eliminated thousands of young people in Nagorno-Karabakh. We
have no right to leave now, we will take this fight till the end. This end is
very close,“ stated Armenia’s
former chief of the National Security Service (NSS) and leader of the Hayrenik
(Fatherland) political party Artur Vanetsyan.
The leader of the Bright Armenia opposition Party Edmon
Marukyan stated that
his party launched a petition to convene a special session of the National
Assembly where politicians would discuss the current situation and the ways to
get out of it, as well as the lawfulness of the statement signed between
Pashinyan, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Russia’s President Vladimir
Putin (Caucasus Watch reported).
The opposition parties also announced the establishment of a
“national salvation committee” amid reports that the NSS has been summoning
their leaders, including Vanetsyan and the country’s former President and
Republican Party (HHK) leader Serzh Sargsyan and Prosperous Armenia leader
Gagik Tsarukyan.
Meanwhile, Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian has been
holding consultations with
representatives of different political parties since yesterday in a bid to
defuse current political tensions in the country. In particular, Sarkissian met
with senior members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF,
Dashnaktsutyun) Armen Rustamyan and Artsvik Minasyan. Sarkissian also met with
the members of the executive body of the HHK Vahram Baghdasaryan and Eduard
Sharmazanov, and the head of the HHK youth organization Hayk Mamijanyan.
The President also stated that had learned about the
agreement on ending the Nagorno-Karabakh war and its conditions from the media.
He emphasized the importance of “maintaining the country’s stability, public
solidarity and unity.”
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