Armenian President says participants in political consultations want Pashinyan to resign
Nov 17, 2020
Yerevan [Armenia], November 17 (ANI/Sputnik): Armenian President Armen Sarkissian said that most of the participants of the political consultations he has held following the signing of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace agreement by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agree that the latter should resign.
"The vast majority of the participants in the meetings were unanimous in the opinion that the resignation or termination of the powers of the Prime Minister and early parliamentary elections are necessary," Sarkissian said in an address, the text of which was published on the president's website on Monday.
According to Sarkissian, a national unity government should rule the country until early parliamentary elections are held.
Pashinyan said on Monday that he had no plans to resign despite a growing chorus of calls for him to step down after signing the ceasefire agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh.
Over a dozen opposition parties rallied in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, on Monday calling for the prime minister to vacate his post after ceding large swathes of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan in a peace agreement last week.
The ceasefire deal was brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin and was signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Pashinyan after weeks of hostilities in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Per the agreement, Azerbaijan would retain control of the territories it captured during the conflict, while Russia would deploy peacekeepers along the line of contact of the warring parties and in the Lachin Corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.
Under the deal, Armenia also agreed to hand over all the Azeri-majority buffer territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh which have been under its de facto control since 1994 - something that has prompted growing calls among the population for a change of leadership in Armenia. (ANI/Sputnik)
