YEREVAN -- Armenia's opposition says it will look to impeach Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian over his government's handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute with Azerbaijan.
Deputy parliamentary speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian told reporters on June 16 that he and other opposition politicians need to build public demand for the process, as well as support within the legislature, where the signatures of at least one-third of lawmakers is needed to initiate the process.
"We will start the impeachment process only when we gain proper conditions to assure success," Saghatelian said, adding that although street rallies that were stopped on June 14 did not bring many results, one of their goals was reached and that is "disruption of Pashinian's schedule for new concessions" to Azerbaijan.
Armenian opposition parties represented in the parliament initially launched their campaign to oust Pahsinian on May 1, two weeks after he signaled his readiness to recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and “lower the bar” on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh acceptable to the Armenian side.
They have accused Pashinian of helping Baku regain full control of Nagorno-Karabakh after Armenia lost control over parts of the Azerbaijani breakaway region and seven adjacent districts in a 2020 war that ended with a Moscow-brokered cease-fire monitored by Russian troops.
Opposition supporters have since regularly marched through the city center, choking access to roads, and blocking the entrances to government buildings while repeatedly clashing with riot police. The most serious of those clashes, which broke out on June 3, left dozens of protesters and police officers seriously injured.
But with the numbers short of what was hoped, the opposition announced on June 14 that the daily rallies would be halted in favor of weekly rallies to build larger crowds of protesters.
Pashinian and his political allies have dismissed opposition demands for his resignation, saying the opposition has failed to attract popular support for regime change.
Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been under ethnic Armenian control for nearly three decades, is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Pashinian, who said he had agreed to the 2020 cease-fire to avoid further losses, said he would not sign any peace deal with Azerbaijan without consulting ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.