YEREVAN, December 22. /TASS/. The Armenian opposition has launched a protest rally Tuesday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and has now set up several tents on Republic Square located in front of the government building, intending to stay there overnight, representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) political party Ishkhan Saghatelyan told reporters.
"We have already put up tents and will stay as long as we need, particularly overnight. Pashinyan needs to go," he said.
Saghatelyan underlined that the opposition is calling on the parliamentary majority, the My Step Alliance, to meet before 18:00 to discuss possible ways out of this situation.
On Monday, the Homeland Salvation Movement announced that mass strikes and civil disobedience rallies will be organized Tuesday. The Armenian opposition believes that the trilateral statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire signed by Pashinyan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on November 9 essentially came to be an act of capitulation. Opponents of the incumbent Armenian leader also pin responsibility on him for economic and social problems of the country.
Amid the turbulent developments in the country, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian called for snap parliamentary elections and for a transfer of power to the government of national accord ahead of the vote. Pashinyan himself says he won’t step down because any government change should be carried out through elections. At the same time, a few of his supporters have already conceded that snap elections are possible.