YEREVAN, November 10. /TASS/. Over 54% of Armenian citizens do not trust the policy of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, while the population is equally skeptical of the activities of President Vahagn Khachaturyan, the parliament and the government, according to a Gallup poll.

The survey was conducted by telephone, with 1,100 people participating. The margin of error amounted to 3%.

"Nikol Pashinyan is fully trusted by 20.4% of respondents, rather trusted - 13.2%, rather distrusted - 18.6%, not trusted at all - 35.5%, 12.3% found it difficult to answer. It turns out that 54.1% of the country's population does not trust him," noted the exclusive representative, sociologist Aram Navasardyan.

The majority of the population also disapproves of the activities of President Vahagn Khachaturyan - 53.7%, parliament - 64.2%, government - 57.7%.

Nevertheless, if the snap parliamentary elections are held next Sunday, 15.6% of respondents said they would vote for Pashinyan's Civil Contract party, while his main opponent - the Armenia Alliance of the second president Robert Kocharyan - would get only 4.7% of the vote. However, according to the poll, 23.5% of the Armenian population will not take part in the elections at all, and 30.1% have not yet decided for whom they will vote.

 

 

People demand PM's resignation

 

Mass protests demanding the resignation of Pashinyan, who came to power amid rallies, took place in Armenia in 2020 after the aggravation around Nagorno-Karabakh. Back then, the opposition called Pashinyan's November 9 joint statement signed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the complete cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh a capitulation. The opposition held him responsible for the republic's internal economic and social problems. Pashinyan then resigned and announced early parliamentary elections in which his Civil Contract party won a majority, allowing him to lead the government again.

This September, a new round of protests began in Yerevan amid the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku announced the beginning of a military operation on September 19. President of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree on the termination of its existence from January 1, 2024 on September 28. The population was ordered to consider the terms of reintegration proposed by Baku and decide on their own whether to stay.

The opposition blamed the country's leadership and Pashinyan for the incident. The head of the Armenian Cabinet, as well as other high-ranking representatives of Armenia have repeatedly stated that they recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.