Nikol Pashinyan booed by residents of Meghri
Residents of the southern Armenian town of Meghri in the Syunik region greeted today the visiting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with whistles and insults.
YEREVAN, April 21. /ARKA/. Residents of the southern Armenian town of Meghri in the Syunik region greeted today the visiting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with whistles and insults.
Pashinyan made a surprise visit to Syunik on April 20, having visited several villages, and later that day he also visited the provincial capital Kapan, where he spent the night. On Wednesday morning, he headed for Meghri.
In Meghri, Pashinyan was booed by the locals who shouted insults, including “Nikol the traitor,” “Nikol the Turk,” “The capitulator”.
Accompanied by shouts “Traitor, you sold Artsakh, and now you have come to sell Syunik”, “Syunik is our land”, “Syunik is our homeland, we will not give it up”, Pashinyan walked through the crowd flanked by his bodyguards as police officers were trying to push back the crowd.
Pashinyan addressed the audience through the loudspeaker “We are to blame, you are right, I ask for your forgiveness,” the prime minister said. As Pashinyan moved along the street, there were small clashes between the protesters and the police.
The residents of Meghri tried not to let Pashinyan go to the central square of the town. According to the protesters, Pashinyan came to Syunik in order to inspect the territory on the spot and make a decision either to create a corridor for Azerbaijan or to surrender Syunik to Azerbaijan.
Last December, residents of Syunik did not allow Pashinyan to enter the region, blocking the highway near Goris.
In a televised interview on April 20 Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev threatened to take Armenia's southern region of Zangezur (Syunik) by force, “whether Armenia wants it or not.”
“The creation of the Zangezur corridor fully meets our national, historical and future interests. We will be implementing the Zangezur Corridor, whether Armenia wants it or not. If Armenia wants to, we will solve this issue more easily, if it does not, we will solve it by force,” Aliyev said.
In retaliation Armenian foreign ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan said Armenia will take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“We are in permanent contacts with our strategic ally and with all of our partners who are interested in peace in the South Caucasus,” she stressed. -0-