Anger mounts in Armenia over Karabakh peace deal with Azerbaijan
- Demonstrators storm government buildings after PM agrees to cede swathes of disputed territory to end weeks of intense fighting that left more than 1,400 dead
- More than 400 Russian peacekeepers deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh following Moscow-brokered agreement
Several thousand demonstrators protested on Wednesday in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, as anger mounted over Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decision to cede swathes of disputed territory to Azerbaijan under a controversial peace deal.
Pashinyan announced a Russian-brokered peace agreement with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in the early hours of Tuesday, ending weeks of intense fighting that left more than 1,400 dead and displaced tens of thousands.
The peace accord sparked celebrations in Azerbaijan but fury in Armenia, where demonstrators stormed government buildings and demanded Pashinyan’s resignation earlier this week.
“It’s our history, our culture, our soul that we’re losing. Not to mention the useless sacrifice of thousands of our men, killed or injured,” said Jenny, a student in Yerevan.
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Protesters storm Armenia’s parliament over Azerbaijan peace deal to end Nagorno-Karabakh fighting
More than 400 Russian peacekeepers were deployed on Wednesday to Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan seized by ethnic Armenian separatists in a 1990s war, where fierce clashes had raged for more than six weeks.
