Armenian leader says he faces ‘coup attempt’ amid anger over ‘painful’ deal to end war with Azerbaijan

The Prime Minister of Armenia said on Thursday that his army had carried out a coup attempt against him, as a ceasefire he concluded to end a bloody war with neighboring Azerbaijan returned just months ago to pursue him. General Staff of the Armenian Army demanded that Pashinyan resign after months of protests over the alleged nation defeat in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

The General Staff issued a statement calling on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign. It was signed by top military officers.

Pashinyan called the army demand an “attempted military coup” and ordered the Chief of the General Staff to shoot it.

Armenian President Armen Sarkisian, whose role is low in power and symbolic, released a statement later on Thursday calling on “state organs, law enforcement agencies, political forces, all citizens” to exercise restraint.

“Every thoughtless word or act increases tensions and deepens the crisis,” he said. “I reaffirm the role of the Presidency as an organ of equilibrium and take urgent steps to relieve tensions and find ways to resolve the situation peacefully,” Sarkisian said without further explaining.

Protests that have waned since last fall’s brief war with Azerbaijan escalated this week following Pashinyan’s order to fire the first deputy chief of general staff. There are more and more calls for him to resign.

The root of the problem

Protests against Pashinyan began in November after he signed a Russia-brokered ceasefire pact with Azerbaijan that ceded the territory occupied by Armenian forces. The deal ended a six-week war over the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh area in which thousands died, but even Pashinyan himself admitted it was at least a partial defeat.

The two nations have contested ownership of the mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucuses region for decades. It is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but is autonomously ruled by and populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

An earlier ceasefire, reached after a bloody war for the region in the 1990s, was first broken in late September 2020, leading to the worst clashes in decades. The violence has left thousands dead on both sides and displaced more than 100,000 people from their homes.

The new ceasefire was ratified as part of the deal signed in November by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and published by the Kremlin. The agreement gave Azerbaijan control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh that were seized by Armenian forces during the autumn fighting. Armenian troops had to withdraw from several adjacent areas, but they retained control of the rest of the region.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev referred to the ceasefire agreement as a “capitulation” of Armenia and praised the deal and the success of his army.

“These days are the happiest for our people.” he wrote on Twitter.

In a Facebook post entitled ‘my sin’, Pashinyan called his decision to sign the agreement ‘incredibly painful’.

“I made that decision as a result of an in-depth analysis of the military situation and the assessment of people who know the situation best,” Pashinyan’s statement said. “Partly from the belief that this is the best possible solution for the current situation.”