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YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Hundreds massed Thursday in Armenia’s capital to protest the phrases of a cease-fire settlement that gave territorial concessions to Azerbaijan within the long-running battle over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The rally marked the third straight day of demonstrations triggered by the truce to halt greater than six weeks of lethal combating between the 2 ex-Soviet nations. Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan however has been below management of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist struggle there resulted in 1994.
The Moscow-brokered settlement requires Armenia to show over management of some areas its holds outdoors Nagorno-Karabakh’s borders to Azerbaijan.
It prompted celebrations in Baku, however angered Armenians, and plenty of took to the streets quickly after it was introduced early Tuesday. Protesters stormed authorities buildings and demanded that the pact be invalidated.
At a big rally Wednesday, Armenian opposition events and their supporters demanded that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian resign, calling the settlement he signed “treacherous” and “humiliating.”
Late within the night, lawmakers known as an emergency session of parliament to think about Pashinian’s dismissal however didn’t have a quorum to observe by with it. Pashinian’s faction holds 88 of 132 seats in parliament, and its members didn’t present up.
Armenian authorities stated Thursday they detained 10 opposition politicians on prices of fomenting mass unrest. Naira Zograbyan, a member of the Affluent Armenia opposition occasion, stated at Thursday’s rally that these detained have been political prisoners and expressed concern about additional crackdowns on the opposition.
Crowds of individuals marched by the middle of Yerevan and denounced Pashinian, chanting “Nikol, go away!” and “Nikol the traitor!” Over 60 folks have been detained, Russia’s state information company RIA Novosti reported.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a battle over Nagorno-Karabakh for many years. Heavy combating that flared up on Sept. 27 marked the most important escalation in over a quarter-century, killing lots of and probably hundreds of individuals.
A number of cease-fires previously six weeks did not halt the violence, however the present settlement gave the impression to be holding, with neither aspect reporting any extra combating because it got here into drive.
The truce got here days after Azerbaijan pushed deeper into Nagorno-Karabakh and took management of town of Shushi, strategically positioned on heights overlooking the regional capital of Stepanakert.
Whereas Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev known as the settlement a “wonderful victory,” Pashinian insisted in a collection of video statements that he had no different selection. On Thursday, he stated he signed the pact after the navy reported that “the struggle urgently must be stopped,” and the separatist chief of Nagorno-Karabakh informed him that “we may lose Stepanakert in a matter of hours.”
Below the settlement, Russia started to deploy peacekeepers to the area — a complete of 1,960 of them are to maneuver in below a five-year mandate.
Turkey, which threw its weight behind Azerbaijan within the battle and sought to play a extra outstanding position within the peace course of, might be concerned in monitoring the cease-fire.
Russian and Turkish protection ministers signed a memorandum Wednesday to create a joint monitoring middle in Azerbaijan — a transfer introduced earlier this week by Aliyev.
On the identical time Russian officers underscored that Ankara’s involvement might be restricted to the work of the middle on Azerbaijani soil, and Turkish peacekeepers is not going to go to Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The middle will function remotely, utilizing technical technique of management, together with drones, to find out the state of affairs on the bottom in Karabakh and decide which aspect is observing and which is violating the cease-fire,” Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov stated.
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Related Press author Daria Litvinova in Moscow contributed.
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