Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said in a statement that events in Armenia undermine the statehood of the country, adding that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had led his country into "devastation". He also stressed that the events in Armenia are its domestic affair.
Aliyev also said that if Armenia breaches the accord on Nagorno-Karabakh, it will find itself in an even more difficult situation. The items of the agreement are being fulfilled and must be fulfilled, he added.
Yerevan has been seeing protests regularly since 10 November, when Pashinyan and Aliyev signed an agreement on a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh that was brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The deal ended the armed conflict which had reignited in late September. Under the agreement, Baku regained control of territory that had been occupied by Armenians before the outbreak of hostilities, prompting a public outcry in Armenia.
On Thursday, supporters and opponents of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan staged demonstrations in Yerevan. This followed a series of high-profile military layoffs, including that of army chief of staff Onik Gasparyan and deputy chief Tigran Khachatryan, who mocked the prime minister's controversial comment about the alleged failure of Russian-supplied Iskander missiles during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan earlier on On Thursday. The prime minister declared it an attempted coup and dismissed the Chief of General Staff from his post.
