Yerevan, Armenia — Thousands of Armenians took to the streets in the capital Yerevan on Sunday in a fresh protest against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s concessions to arch foe neighbor Azerbaijan.
The protests began in April, when the Caucasus nation’s government agreed to hand back to Baku territory it had controlled since the 1990s.
Pashinyan has not changed his position, despite public opposition from influential archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan.
On Sunday, several thousand anti-government protesters gathered in Yerevan’s central Republic Square, outside government headquarters, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Ahead of the rally, Galstanyan announced the protest movement had reached “a decisive stage”, vowing to “remove Pashinyan from power.”
“We must act, we must increase pressure on Pashinyan,” said one of the demonstrators, 20-year-old student Shushan Sargsyan.
“The very existence of our country is at stake,” said David Ohanyan, 36.
“Armenians must all realize this and take to the streets.”
Galstanyan has called for Pashinyan to be impeached and has temporarily stepped down from his religious post to run for prime minister.
However he is not eligible to hold the office under Armenian law because he has dual citizenship with Canada, and opposition parties do not have enough seats in parliament to launch impeachment procedures.
Last week, Armenia officially returned control over four border villages that it had seized decades earlier to Azerbaijan, a decision Pashinyan has defended as a step to securing peace with Baku.
The Caucasus rivals have fought two wars for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan recaptured last year from Armenian separatists who held sway over much of the mountainous enclave for three decades.
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