In Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian is in trouble.
Several thousand demonstrators gathered Saturday, December 5 in the center of Yerevan to demand the resignation of the Armenian Prime Minister, criticized for having accepted the ceasefire consecrating the victory of Azerbaijan after six weeks of war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
More than 10,000 people gathered during the afternoon, according to AFP journalists there, as protesters continued to flow, holding "Nikol the traitor" signs and chanting "Nikol, va -t-en ".
It is the largest opposition rally since the start of the protest against the Prime Minister.
The demonstration took place peacefully.
The procession stopped at the doors of the residences where government figures and the Prime Minister live, before dispersing.
The agreement signed between Baku and Yerevan under Russian patronage on November 9 granted important territorial gains to Azerbaijan and is considered catastrophic by many Armenians, who have since demanded the resignation of Nikol Pachinian.
"Nikol is a political corpse"
In the crowd, flags of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh could be seen on Saturday, while some held up photos of the soldiers who died at the front.
"Nikol is a political corpse. I have no intention of following a corpse to his grave," Mania Khachatrian, 49, told AFP.
"Because of him our homeland, our people have received such wounds that it will take several generations to heal them," she added.
Under the agreement of November 9, Armenia pledged to surrender three districts - Lachin, Kalbajar and Aghdam - which had escaped Azerbaijani control since 1994. These districts were part of a buffer zone around Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region populated mainly by Armenians who seceded from Azerbaijan after a war in the 1990s.
The agreement nevertheless allowed the survival of Nagorno-Karabakh, diminished, and saw the deployment of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers responsible in particular for ensuring the security of the Lachin corridor, which has become the only road linking Nagorny Karabakh to Armenia.
Vladimir Poutine on Wednesday brought his support to Nikol Pachinian, saluting his "courage" in the face of a "very difficult but necessary decision".
In a televised address on Saturday, Nikol Pachinian said he had no intention of resigning, saying the government's priority now was to organize the return of prisoners of war and the bodies of the victims.
On the Armenian side, more than 2,300 soldiers and 50 civilians died in this conflict.
With AFP
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR