Yerevan, ARMENIA –
Thousands of protesters gathered in Armenia’s capital Yerevan on Thursday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over his government’s decision to hand over control of border villages to Armenia’s former rival Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Armenia said in April it would return the villages to Azerbaijan. That decision came after Azerbaijan launched a lightning military campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian-majority region within Azerbaijan, in September. That prompted tens of thousands of people to flock to Armenia, sparking demonstrations in which protesters called for the prime minister’s ouster.
Protesters led by a senior Armenian church cleric walked a distance of about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from villages near the border with Azerbaijan to Yerevan, where they gathered Thursday in Republic Square.
Videos shared on social media showed thousands of people waving Armenian flags. A senior Armenian cleric said a prayer and told protesters that he had given Pashinyan one hour to resign, blaming him for the loss of Armenian territory.
Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan told protesters they should “engage in peaceful acts of disobedience” if Pashinyan did not listen to their demands.
Pashinyan visited Moscow on Wednesday and held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid rising tensions between the estranged allies. The meeting took place a day after Putin began his fifth term in office at a glittering Kremlin inauguration that the Armenian leader did not attend.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was quoted Thursday by Russia’s state news agency Tass as saying that the two leaders had agreed on the withdrawal of Russian forces from some Armenian regions.
In brief remarks at the start of the talks, Putin said bilateral trade was growing but acknowledged “some problems related to security in the region.”
Pashinyan, who last visited Moscow in December, said that “certain issues have accumulated since then.”
Armenia’s ties with Russia, a long-time patron and ally, have become increasingly strained after Azerbaijan launched its military campaign in September to recapture the Karabakh region, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatist rule there. .
Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh after the previous round of hostilities in 2020 of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s attack. Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops had no mandate to intervene.
The Kremlin, in turn, has bristled at Pashinyan’s efforts to deepen ties with the West and distance his country from Moscow-dominated economic and security alliances.
While Pashinyan was visiting Moscow, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry announced that the country will stop paying dues to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-dominated security pact. Armenia previously suspended its participation in the group as Pashinyan sought to strengthen ties with the European Union and NATO.
Russia was also upset by Armenia’s decision to join the International Criminal Court, which last year indicted Putin for alleged war crimes related to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Moscow, busy with the Ukrainian conflict dragging on into a third year, has publicly expressed concern about Yerevan’s turn westward but has sought to downplay the differences.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov admitted Tuesday that “there are certain problems in our bilateral relations,” but added that “there is political will to continue dialogue.”