YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — About two dozen opposition political parties are planning to hold a rally in Yerevan on November 11, one day after demanding that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resign.
The move comes after protests triggered by Pashinyan’s announcement earlier on Tuesday, November 10, that he had signed a Russian-brokered agreement with Azerbaijan to end the war over Nagorno-Karabakh to avoid even greater defeats and losses in the battlefield.
Unhappy with the situation, several thousand angry protesters gathered in the Armenian capital in the early hours of the morning, with mobs storming the government headquarters and parliament, ransacking offices and smashing windows in an outburst of anger.
Parliament Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan was injured in a mob attack and hospitalized, drawing a sharp rebuke from the government. He was taken to a hospital and underwent surgery. He is expected to make a full recovery. Two persons have been arrested in connection with the attack.
Still on November 9, 17 opposition parties issued a joint statement calling for Pashinyan’s resignation amid a series of military defeats suffered by Armenia-backed ethnic Armenian forces fighting against Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Among the parties that signed the statement were also the largest parliamentary opposition party, Prosperous Armenia (BHK), led by tycoon Gagik Tsarukian, the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia of ex-President Serzh Sarkisian, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun), and the Hayrenik (Homeland) party led by former director of the National Security Service Artur Vanetsian, who was relieved of his duties in 2019 over differences with Pashinyan.
