Armenian economy minister resigns as government in flux

SMA News – MOSCOW

Armenian Economy Minister Tigran Khachatryan has tendered his resignation, his spokeswoman said on Tuesday, following criticism of the government over a ceasefire that secured advances for Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh after six weeks of fighting.

The announcement, made on Facebook by Khachatryan’s spokeswoman Anna Ohanyan, follows the appointment of a new defence minister and minister of foreign affairs last week.

The government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been under pressure from protesters demanding that he quit over the ceasefire that ended the heaviest fighting in decades in Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave that is inside Azerbaijan but mainly populated by ethnic Armenians.

Under the Russia-brokered deal, Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leaders are handing over swathes of territory they had controlled for decades but had been internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan, who has rejected calls to resign, last week unveiled a six-month action plan that he said was designed to ensure Armenia’s stability.