Opposition in Armenia maintains blockade of parliament

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Hundreds of opposition supporters maintained the blockade of the Armenian parliament for a second straight day Wednesday demanding the resignation of the country’s prime minister, who has maneuvered to appease the top military brass.

Nikol Pashinyan has rejected the opposition’s pressure to step down over a November peace deal that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh by allowing Azerbaijan to reclaim control over the lands that had been held by Armenian forces for decades.

Political tensions spiked last month when the military’s General Staff demanded Pashinyan’s resignation, and he responded by firing the chief of the General Staff, Col. Gen. Onik Gasparyan. Pashinyan on Wednesday named a successor to Gasparyan and met with the top military brass.

Gasparyan denounced his ouster as unconstitutional and reaffirmed the call for the prime minister's resignation.

Another senior officer, Maj. Gen. Grigory Khachaturov, who is the commander of the 3rd Army Corps, backed Gasparyan in a strongly-worded statement Wednesday, saying that “every day and hour Pashinyan remains on the job of prime minister erodes Armenia's security and raises doubts about its future.”

As part of efforts to raise pressure on Pashinyan, opposition supporters surrounded the parliament building on Tuesday. Hundreds of demonstrators maintained the blockade on Wednesday amid a heavy police presence.

They later expanded their action to block a nearby street leading to Pashinyan's residence.

Speaking at the opposition rally, one of the protest leaders, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, accused the government of violating the constitution, charging that it has given people the right to rebel against it.

Pashinyan has sought to defuse the political crisis by...