Polarized by war, Armenia votes Sunday in an early election
|
|
Polarized by war, Armenia votes Sunday in an early election
Armenia's leader is facing a tough challenge at the polls after a humiliating defeat for Armenian forces in last year's fighting with Azerbaijan over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the early election for Sunday, seeking to assuage public anger over สล็อต the peace deal he signed in November that triggered months of protests demanding his resignation.
The Moscow-brokered agreement ended six weeks of fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, but saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century.
The deal was celebrated as a major triumph in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, but thousands of Armenians took to the streets in Yerevan and denounced it as a betrayal of their national interests.
“This is very much a referendum or an election defined by security — or more correctly, insecurity — given the unexpected and very much unprecedented loss in the war for Nagorno-Karabakh,” Richard Giragosian, director of the Yerevan-based Regional Studies Center, told The Associated Press. “The attack by Azerbaijan, with Turkish military support, has redefined the political landscape in Armenia.”
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the government in Yerevan since a separatist war between the two Caucasus Mountains neighbors ended in 1994, leaving the region and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.
Hostilities flared in late September 2020, and the Azerbaijani military pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh and nearby areas in six weeks of fighting involving heavy artillery and drones that killed more than 6,000 people.
Pashinyan, who came to power after leading large street protests in 2018 that ousted his predecessor, has defended the deal as a painful but necessary move that prevented Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region. |
|
|
|
|
|
