2 Mar in 23:16
Washington Post
On Feb. 25, Armenia’s top military leadership called on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign. This threat came in the form of a letter signed by “several dozen” army officers, who cited “attacks” on the armed forces by the government. On Monday, pro-Pashinyan supporters demonstrated in one part of the capital while protesters demanding his resignation rallied at a separate site, Washington Post writes.
It’s not clear what the next moves might be — and whether the army will attempt to forcibly remove the civilian government. But military coups are extremely rare in the countries that once made up the Soviet Union, so analysts are keeping a close eye on the situation and the potential effect on regional politics. Scholars have long noted that the USSR left a number of poor legacies for democracy — but overly interventionist militaries was not one of them. The Soviet Union itself was remarkably invulnerable to coups, and Soviet clients in Eurasia and elsewhere were highly coup resistant.