Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has warned of an attempted military coup after the country's armed forces said he and his cabinet must resign, as was reported by BBC.
Mr Pashinyan has faced protests after losing last year's bloody conflict with Azerbaijan over a disputed region. On Thursday, February 26, he posted a video on Facebook where he considered a statement by the military earlier on Thursday an "attempted military coup". The military's top brass was angered by the PM's sacking of a commander. The army "must obey the people and elected authorities," he told thousands of supporters in the capital Yerevan. His opponents held a rival rally.
He urged his backers to gather on Republic Square in the heart of Yerevan and was seen shortly afterwards surrounded by thousands of supporters on the streets of the city. This is the first time since the end of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh that Nikol Pashynian called on his supporters to come out.
While the prime-minister's supporters were gathering, the opposition assembled a rival rally nearby - in the Freedom square. The opposition's plan was to later head to the parliament building, where some of the factions were attempting to start an emergency session to approve a call for an early general election.
The General Staff of Armenia's military issued its statement soon after Mr Pashinyan had dismissed armed forces deputy chief Tiran Khacharyan. Mr Khacharyan had ridiculed Mr Pashinyan's claims that Russia-supplied Iskander missiles failed to hit targets during the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In its statement, the military's top brass said "the prime minister and the government are no longer able to make reasonable decisions", according to the Armenpress. The statement accused Mr Pashinyan's government of making "serious mistakes in foreign policy" that resulted in the Armenian state being on the verge of destruction. Soon after the statement was issued, Mr Pashinyan also sacked armed forces chief Onik Gasparyan.