Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday raised alarm that a possible “coup” may be looming over his government, as national and international instability spreads from Africa to the Caucasus.
In the last two years, at least 5 governments have been toppled in Africa and several nipped attempts in other countries of the world.
The Armenian PM was responding to escalating tension between his country and her neighbour Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
He said he has heard “Various statements come from different places, up to calls for the staging of a coup in Armenia,” but vowed to crush any “coup attempts” on his government, and uphold “law and order” in the country.
Armenians angrily poured into the streets of Yerevan – the Armenian capital, disrupting traffic flow and demanding Pashinyan order Armenian military involvement against Azerbaijan which seems to be flexing its muscles over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Some protesters labelled Pashinyan a ‘traitor” and openly demanded he be forcefully removed from office.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a region inhabited by ethnic Armenians which seceded from Azerbaijan in the 1990’s as the Soviet Union crumbled. Although Armenia has never officially acknowledged the territory as an independent state or made efforts to integrate it into its jurisdiction, it provides her economic and military support.
The contested region has remained a persistent flashpoint between Armenian and Azerbaijan. The most recent conflict happened in 2020, leading to Azerbaijan reclaiming control over substantial portions of Nagorno-Karabakh. Hostilities ended with a ceasefire brokered by Russia, leaving Putin’s army as peacekeepers in the disputed area.
But recently, Azerbaijan ramped up its military offensive against the small nation in an operation it called “counter-terrorism measures of a local nature” alleging that Armenia had secretly bolstered its military presence in the breakaway region. Armenia denies that and instead counter accused Azerbaijan of “large-scale aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh”.
Russia – caught in the middle – decried that Azerbaijan only gave it a notice just “minutes before military action began,” according a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
If the Armenian military decides to get involved directly, it could well become another full-scale war in the old Soviet bloc and another conflict in the Russian backyard.
The rise of international conflicts and coups has gotten global statemen worried and is a cardinal theme in the deliberations of this year’s 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly ongoing in New York.
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