Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan Resigns To Clear Way For Early General Elections

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has stepped down ahead of country’s early general election. Pashinyan had been under pressure to resign since ethnic Armenians lost territory in fighting in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave within Azerbaijan. After Pashinyan announced his resignation, all members of his cabinet handed in their own resignations, as required by Armenian law. Pashinyan said he would continue to fulfil his duties as head of the interim government before the vote, and that he would stand as a candidate for prime minister. The move comes a day after Joe Biden became the first US president to recognise the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, in a landmark move that drew praise from Pashinyan and condemnation from Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan.