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The National Security Agency said on Saturday that Armenia had foiled an assassination attempt against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the seizure of power by a group of former officials.
Pashinyan was under pressure as thousands of protesters continued to demonstrate since last Tuesday, demanding his resignation due to the signing of a ceasefire agreement that guaranteed Azerbaijan to preserve the advances in the field that it achieved in the Nagorno Karabakh region after battles. six weeks.
The National Security Agency said its former boss, Artur Vanitsyan, former head of the Republican Party’s parliamentary bloc, Fahram Baghdasaryan, and former fighter Ashot Minasaryan had been arrested.
“The suspects were intent on illegally usurping power by assassinating the prime minister, and potential candidates were already being considered in his place,” the agency said in a statement.
Pashinyan said he had no choice but to sign the ceasefire agreement to avoid further losses on the ground.
He added that he was personally responsible for those setbacks, but declined calls for him to resign.
The agreement ended military operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but is inhabited by Armenians.
Under the agreement, 2,000 Russian soldiers will be deployed to keep peace in the region.
Since the early 1990s, Armenians have militarily controlled all land in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and large areas of surrounding Azerbaijani land. The Armenians have now lost much of the territory of the region itself, as well as the lands that surround it.
