Pashinyan declares victory in Armenia’s parliamentary elections

SANAA, Jun. 21 (YPA) – The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, declared victory in the early legislative elections that took place in the country, on Sunday.
“The Armenian people have given our party the mandate to rule the country,” Pashinyan said in a speech posted on his Facebook page.
Opinion polls put the two parties very close in the snap elections called by the government to end a political crisis that erupted after ethnic Armenians lost a six-week war against Azerbaijan last year and ceded land in and around Nagorno-Karabakh province.
Pashinyan has been under pressure ever since, with street protests continuing to demand him to step down from responsibility for the peace deal that ended the war.
Under the deal, brokered by Russia, Azerbaijan regained control of territory lost in a war in the early 1990s.