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The primary objective of the protest campaign launched by the Armenian opposition is to ensure the security of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Artur Vanetsyan, who leads the opposition With Honor parliamentary faction and the Homeland Party, said on Tuesday.

Vanetsyan, a former chief of the National Security Service (NSS), started an open-ended sit-in in Yerevan’s Liberty Square on Sunday evening. He and other activists remained camped out there on Monday and Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in the square, the opposition MP underscored that removing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his team is not their sole focus, adding it is just necessary for them to achieve their main goal.

“Our key objective is to ensure the security of the homeland. I am not calling for their ouster for me to come to power. We just seek a secure country, a status for Artsakh, we seek to prevent the handover of the part of Artsakh remaining under Armenian control [to Azerbaijan] as well as the statements that Artsakh can be a part of Azerbaijan,” Vanetsyan said, stressing it is possible to achieve only after the removal of the current Armenian authorities.

Vanetsyan says there will be protests in various parts of Armenia in the near future.