Anger mounts in Armenia over Karabakh peace deal

YEREVAN: Several thousand demonstrators on Wednesday protested in the Armenian capital as anger mounted over Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decision to cede swathes of disputed territory to Azerbaijan under a controversial peace deal.

Pashinyan announced a Russian-brokered peace agreement with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh in the early hours of Tuesday, ending weeks of intense fighting that left more than 1,400 dead and displaced tens of thousands.

The peace accord sparked celebrations in Azerbaijan but fury in Armenia, where demonstrators stormed government buildings and demanded Pashinyan’s resignation earlier this week. More than 400 Russian peacekeepers deployed on Wednesday to Nagorno-Karabakh where fierce clashes had raged for more than six weeks between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan’s forces.

In the Armenian capital Yerevan, police hauled off demonstrators from a gathering of several thousand protesters who were shouting anti-Pashinyan slogans and calling the prime minister a "traitor" in front of government headquarters.

"You will not be able to stop the whole country," a member of the Prosperous Armenia party, Arman Abovyan, shouted through a megaphone to protesters who had rallied despite a ban on public gatherings while martial law was in place.