A former justice of Armenia’s Constitutional Court, Kim Balayan, joined a hunger strike that started Monday to demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation after he signed the now-infamous statement, which ended military operations but calls for surrender of territories to Azerbaijan, including Shushi.
Balayan walked up to the government building on Tuesday and joined Armenian Revolutionary Federation members Gegham Manukyan and Garik Avetisyan who declared an indefinite hunger strike on Monday.
“In violation of [Armenia’s] constitutional order, Nikol Pashinyan in fact signed an international agreement, whose processes and procedures were not defined,” Balayan told reporters, adding that the National Assembly must appoint the next prime minister.
“How [a new prime minister] will move forward is completely another matter,” Balayan said.
Balayan said that staging a hunger strike is an extreme step, adding that “I have declared a hunger strike until his [Pashinyan’s] resignation.”
Balayan completed his tenure as a justice of the Constitutional Court in 2018 and retired. His son, Gabriel, was relieved of his position as Armenia’s Deputy Defense Minister on Monday. His other son, Tigran, is Armenia’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, while a third son, Davit is a judge.
Meanwhile, ARF Armenia members visited Manukyan earlier Tuesday as a show of support for their comrade who had been in front of the government building since Monday morning.
Manukyan, who is a member of the ARF Supreme Council of Armenia and the political editor of Yerkir Media television channel has had an active role in organizing the opposition’s protests against Pashinyan.
He was arrested earlier this month on charges of violating Armenia’s martial law, which went into effect when Azerbaijan’s offensive was launched on September 27.
Also on Tuesday, a group of ARF activists gathered in front of the offices of Pashinyan’s Civic Contract party urging them to join the protests and echo their demands for the prime minister’s resignation.
