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Hundreds chanted "Nikol, traitor" and "Armenia without Nikol" in
the streets of Yerevan, answering an opposition call to protest
after a deadline of midday Tuesday set by the opposition for
Pashinyan to quit passed with him still in power.
Pashinyan, who swept to power in a peaceful revolution in May
2018, accepted a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal last month to
end a bloody conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian
forces over the Nagorno-Karabkh enclave and surrounding areas.
Pashinyan's opponents want him out over what they say was his
disastrous handling of the six-week conflict that handed
Azerbaijan territorial gains.
Pashinyan has accepted responsibility for the conflict's
outcome, but said he is now responsible for ensuring national
security and stabilising the ex-Soviet republic of around three
million.
Ishkhan Saghatelyan, an opposition politician for the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation party, announced the start of
coordinated civil disobedience in a televised address on Tuesday
after the deadline passed.
"Nikol, you will go anyway. Leave peacefully," he said.
"...from now until 17:00 Armenia's citizens have the legitimate
right to use their right to peaceful actions of disobedience to
express their demand and to make it heard," he said.
The opposition has said it plans to block streets nationwide and
to paralyse the national transport network if needed.
Armenian spiritual leader Karekin II said in a statement that he
had met Pashinyan and urged him to resign.
Pashinyan did not comment on the protests publicly on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Nvard Hovhannisyan; writing by Tom Balmforth;
editing by William Maclean)
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