Armenia: Ceasefire protests with Azerbaijan – Politics –

The belligerent neighboring states of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire in the disputed Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday night after weeks of heavy fighting. Armenia suffered great territorial losses.

In Yerevan’s Freedom Square, protesters raised signs reading “Nikol Verräter” on Friday. Opposition politician Vardan Voskanyan of the Fatherland Party said that Pashinyan no longer had the right to live in Armenia after the signing of the ceasefire agreement. Several opposition groups had given the head of government until Thursday to resign. The government rejected the ultimatum.

The ceasefire agreement reached under Russian mediation stipulates that both parties to the conflict can maintain the areas in which they currently have control; for Armenia this means great territorial losses. Azerbaijan had captured between 15 and 20 percent of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory in the course of fighting with pro-Armenian troops.

To control the ceasefire, Russia announced the dispatch of around 2,000 soldiers and hundreds of army vehicles to the front. Among other things, they are supposed to secure a corridor connecting the Lachin district in Nagorno-Karabakh with the Armenian national territory.

Nagorno-Karabakh had unilaterally declared its independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union. This was followed by a war with 30,000 dead in the 1990s. The self-proclaimed republic is not yet internationally recognized and is considered part of Azerbaijan under international law. Most of it is inhabited by Armenians. Fighting had broken out again in late September. According to both parties, more than a thousand people have died since then.