Sharjah 24 – AFP: Thousands of opposition supporters rallied Sunday in the Armenian capital Yerevan to warn the government against concessions to arch-foe Azerbaijan over the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Opposition parties have accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of plans to give away all of Karabakh to Azerbaijan after he told lawmakers last month that the "international community calls on Armenia to scale down demands on Karabakh."
On Sunday, several thousand opposition supporters gathered in the capital's central Square of France, blocking traffic throughout central Yerevan.
Protesters shouted demands for Pashinyan to resign, with many holding placards that read "Karabakh".
Parliament Vice Speaker and opposition leader Ishkhan Sagatelyan said: "Any political status of Karabakh within Azerbaijan is unacceptable to us."
"Pashinyan had betrayed people's trust and must go," he told journalists at the rally, adding that the protest movement "will lead to the overthrow of the government in the nearest future".
Addressing the crowd, he announced "a large scale campaign of civil disobedience to begin on Monday".
"I call on everyone to begin strikes. I call on students not to attend classes. Traffic will be fully blocked in central Yerevan."
On Saturday, Armenia's National Security Service warned of "a real threat of mass unrest in the country."
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