Political turmoil in Armenia
| Armenia, which lost a humiliating and bloody war with its neighbor Azerbaijan last fall, slipped into a political crisis on Thursday after what its prime minister called an “attempted military coup.” |
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| The fracas began recently, when a political opponent accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of having failed to deploy missiles that might have prevented Armenia’s loss of territory. The prime minister insisted that he had ordered the missiles’ use but that they had malfunctioned, shifting blame to the military. |
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| Mr. Pashinyan fired a military official who contradicted him. On Thursday, the general staff of the military called for him to resign. Mr. Pashinyan warned of a coup, but later softened his language. |
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Steps toward stability: By early Thursday evening, the generals had issued a new statement, saying that the previous one had not been made in alignment with any opposition party.
26-II-21, nytimes
