Armenia left confused after Azerbaijan’s Karabakh operation

While tension on the Azerbaijan-Armenia line, where fear of a new war dominates lately, has increased with the anti-terrorist operation launched yesterday by Baku in Karabakh, internal tension is also increasing in Yerevan.

The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan stated that military measures in Karabakh continue successfully and that the armed elements of the Armenian army have been neutralized. Baku also reiterated its call for Armenian forces to lay down their arms and withdraw from Azerbaijani territory.

As tension continued, anti-government protests also broke out in Armenia. Hundreds of people gathered in the capital Yerevan and called for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign, saying the measures taken by the Karabakh government were insufficient.

The opposition, which called on citizens to take to the streets, accused Pashinyan’s government of weakness on the Karabakh issue.

Pashinyan, in his television statement, argued that there were calls for a coup to overthrow the government and said: “We must not allow some forces to deal a blow to the Armenian state.”

Pashinyan’s government had previously faced criticism and mass protests for making too many concessions due to conflicts with Azerbaijan.

Within the framework of the ceasefire agreement between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia after the second Karabakh war in 2020, it was decided to open a new corridor connecting Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan. However, disagreement has recently been growing between Baku and Yerevan over the highway that Azerbaijan describes as the “Zengezur Corridor” and which aims to connect the country with the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan and Turkey.

There has been no progress in recent peace talks.

CALL FROM USA AND RUSSIA

Meanwhile, the United States called on Azerbaijan to stop the operation in Karabakh, while Russia wanted to return to the ceasefire.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Pashinyan. In response to this call from the United States, Aliyev stated that the operation will continue until the Armenian forces lay down their arms.