Armenia, on edge after war, holds vote to end crisis

A woman wearing a face mask walks past campaign banners of acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan as Armenians vote on June 20, in snap parliamentary elections called by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to end a political crisis

Armenians vote Sunday in snap parliamentary elections called by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to end a political crisis ignited by his country's humiliating military defeat to Azerbaijan last year. Pashinyan, a former newspaper editor, swept to power in 2018, spearheading peaceful protests against corrupt elites who ruled after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But many Armenians are now disappointed by his failure to deliver reforms and his handling of the six-week conflict with Azerbaijan that claimed around 6,000 lives last year. Pashinyan, 46, has defied calls to resign since he ended the war for control of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in November by signing an unpopular agreement that ceded to Azerbaijan swathes of Armenian-held land.