>> a newly declassified u.s. report says saudi arabia's crown prince approved a plan to capture or kill saudi journalist

jamal khashoggi. saudi arabia has rejected the report. the u.s. state department has imposed a travel ban six southeast involved in or threatening dissidents. >> we have in place a new policy that applies not just to saudi arabia but beyond, and gives us the kind of ability to deter the kinds of egregious actions that were taken against him and against other dissidents, opponents, and others speaking out, and that, i hope, will be in some small measure and

important legacy. >> karen's government is strongly condemning american airstrikes in syria, describing them as illegal aggression. the united states launched air raids targeting facilities used by iranian-backed facilities in response to a recent attack against american personnel in iraq. five people have been killed and more than 175 injured during protests in a southern iraqi city. clashes between security forces and demonstrators on friday cap a week of violent protests in the city. myanmar's ambassador to the united nations has appealed to the united nations general assembly to do everything it can to reject the military coup. his surprise statement drew applause from the 193-nation global body. protests against the coup february 1 continue to spread nationwide. more than 300 schoolgirls have been kidnapping in northwest nigeria. they arrived at night shooting

sporadically at this school complex and took the girls into the bush. those stories coming up next on "inside story." >> armenia's prime minister warns of a coup as calls grow for his resignation. will he be able to survive? and what does the challenge by the army mean for the country? this is "inside story." >> hello and welcome to the show. armenia's prime minister has faced months of protests and several attempts in parliament to dismiss him. despite growing -- despite growing discontent with his handling of the war over nagorno-karabakh, he insists the populace is still behind him.

his opponents held a rival valley and set up camp outside parliament to pressure him to quit the job. armenia's traditional ally russia says it is alarmed by the events. it has been joined by the u.s. in calling for restraint in the country. >> on thursday, he was able to get large numbers of his supporters to the center of the capital with a life facebook message, calling on them to show that he was still in charge of armenia and that he has the populist support of the armenian people. because his authority is now in question. we have had the genals, many of them signing a letter calling for him and his government to resign. we have the armenian church supporting his resignation. the question now is if the president of armenia, whose

powers are emitted, if he is also going to weigh in and if he can critically undermine the prime minister's authority. he now has to decide if he will accept the letter calling for the dismissal of the head of the armed forces, which the prime minister wants, having said that their call for him to resign amounted to an attempted military coup. three days from thursday tohad decide on going ahead with the request. this raises serious questions about the prime minister's future. he could either cling onto power, or he could try to agree to snap elections, which also will be tricky for him because in order to do that, he has to resign, and then the parliament would have to support new elections.

the opposition is not calling for immediate elections. they want an interim government that would take charge with elections much further down the line. still, everything at the moment hanks in the balance for the prime minister. >> we now took -- when now take a look at the armenian prime minister's rise to power. >> late last year as a conflict with azerbaijan raged, or not smith sat down with the armenian prime minister. in the interview, he asked him this question -- do you worry for your own popularity, that if you mishandle this conflict, it does not go your way, then you yourself are going to suffer in your position as prime minister? >> well, you see, i reached the position of prime minister not to defend my popularity, but to

serve the national interests of my country and my people and to defend the dreams of my people and my country. along this path, i'm absolutely not interested in my person. >> that's just as well. armenia lost the war, and his popularity diminished. though it was just two years ago, these scenes of huge crowds with the prime minister basking in adulation, are from a different age. a protest organization was launched at the end of 2019. in his t-shirt and cap, he came across as an everyman in opposition of armenia's ruling elite. the so-called velvet revolution

forced the previous prime minister from power, but after two elections, he was replaced, but governing armenia is not easy. besides its entrenched mystic problems, he was also taking on armenia's fraud regional relationships. stalled peace talks with azerbaijan over nagorno-karabakh collapsed. armed and assisted by turkey, azerbaijan went on a devastating offensive. to stave off a complete route, he accepted a humiliating russian-brokered cease-fire giving up swathes of formerly armenian-controlled territory. it cost him huge lyrical capital and opened a rift between his government and the military. >> this is the end of the velvet revolution. he made it clear in his speech -- he said this is the end of velvet. what that means and what comes after is anyone's guess.

there is a lot of instability in the country after the war that ended in november 2020. the opposition has been calling for his resignation. >> not long ago, he was the figurehead for a more democratic and equitable armenia. now his political future hanks in the balance. >> let's bring our guests in. we have a member parliament, and an independent analyst on conflict resolution, former advisor to the prime minister, and the president of the international center for human development and ad hoc advisor to the president of armenia. thank you -- all of you -- for joining us. can the prime minister survive this challenge? >> i believe some people call

this a political crisis. in my opinion, the nature of this crisis is also about state institutions and our democratic way of governing coming under question. those forces who are challenging the stat quo and illegitimately elected government are [indiscernible] >> i'm referring to that and also what the prime minister himself is warning about, that there is a plan for a coup, he says. can he survive? >> the announcement you are referring to was made this

morning because there was a statement coming from a number of officials who called for the resignation of the prime minister. particularly armenia has a very big band on military personnel in leadership. therefore, i think that and i hope that this announcement will not follow with any significant development. >> we understand you are an ad hoc advisor to the president. the president has been meeting with military leaders. what do you think his message is

going to be? will he be reflecting that sort of message? explained to us that perspective that there announcement or a call for resignation -- i mean, this is a threat not only to the prime minister buto the civilian institutions of democracy. >> first of all, let me go ahead with the point that i don't think civilian institutions of democracy are under threat with such a statement because civilian institutions of democracy in northern countries are done in the parliament, and when the parliament is not developing political concessions, developing negotiations, there is no other place to speak. people are speaking in every way possible. that is why i think what is

going on in the process know which is run by the presidential administration is negotiation with all the players. today, he has been meeting -- >> hang on, should the army be the one expressing that message? >> the army has kept silence for the last four months. >> should they keep silent and leave that for the politicians to work out? >> sorry, point is whatever is happening is happening to army. they have warned it is not possible by this way of governing to keep the security of the country. so who should raise this issue? that is why they raised that issue, and now it is an issue of politicians trying to deal with those, finding a possibility to come to a peaceful resolution of

the situation and go and do it in a very proper way because if the democratic institutions of the country were properly worked after november 9, i believe we would not have such a statement. >> how realistic is the warning of a coup? as the country really facing a coup? >> thank you. thank you for inviting this great panel. thank you for bringing us armenians together in this english language program. it's a very good question. i don't think very large parts of the public are very much convinced that this was actually a coup. i personally believe that the statement -- i mean, again, the communication continues to be one of the largest problems, and i think that there is a political crisis as much as a lot of my friends in the ruling party may not recognize it or may think otherwise, which is

perfectly fine, but a debate and an understanding is needed, clearly. i don't know how realistic is this coup, especially considering or taking into account the realities that we are living in in the post carbolic war -- the post kara bakh war situation in the country. i don't think we would have gotten to this stage. in the signing, wrong moves were taken in the country, and i think another way of handling this issue could be already there if there were quicker movements. resignations could have helped. keeping the same party, but changing some of the top leadership could be a solution which did not happen before this. how realistic is this coup? i'm not sure about it. is there a junta in the country?

i don't think so. however, one thing is very clear, that armenia has never faced a situation like this. we have no history of coups in the last 30 years, and this is the first time we are hearing of this. everything that relates to make who has not been published yet, and i hope the situation and the government will clearly explain to the public what, who, and when. was there any group within the military, within the security administration that was trying to take over power by force? was there a threat that any generals could come together and decide to make arrests? these are issues and questions out there, and i have not heard much response. i hope the president will address this. >> what do you make of the suggestions and the sentiment you sometimes hear from armenians that the country does not have a history of cruise --

history of coups, and this might be more a smokescreen by the prime minister to stay in power and ignore the calls for his resignation? >> two facts to be established first because the assessment that there was no military involvement, i do not believe that comment. i remember how, for example, the army was dislocated into the capital of armenia, and this -- to disperse the demonstrators, and human lives were lost. [crosstalk]

>> go-ahead for a quick second. >> i did not mean to interrupt. i just wanted to make it clear. i did not say we did not have any military involvement in politics. what i said is we do not have a coup history. >> all ride, continue your thought. >> in the sense that i'm a yes, generals take over government, that is true, and it is important that he upheld that tradition. again, i want to emphasize that this is not about the particular names. it is about state institutions that should remain the rights and responsibilities -- >> allow me to jump in. if the prime minister wants to preserve state institutions, why not at the very least if he does not want to resign, why not have called a snap election?

it was clear there was a question mark over his popularity after the war. >> thank you for this very important question because it should be verified that back in december, it was announced by the prime minister that as a representative of the ruling party, he opens up presentations on the part of organizers of snap elections. during the preceding two months, there were processions. parliament drew parties and extra parliamentary parties, but it is important to recognize that the parties then call for his resignation that are united and organized, those are the

parties that rejected this opportunity. moreover, they not only spoke against the snap elections, but also, they are demanding against the prime minister and appointment of their own candidate, which is not supported in parliament. it is clear that even if you recognize this as a political crisis, the way forward should be democratic. organizational snap elections is something that was also mentioned yesterday by the prime minister that we just need to sit down in a civilized way, have a dialogue, and this dialogue is open to any party, understanding the timeline -- [crosstalk] >> all right, let's give a chance for comment.

>> it seems like this is the classical way of showing how democracy works in armenia. instead of respecting each other time, having a proper dialogue, we occupy the whole time of the others and transmit no information. in a parliamentary democracy, we are asked many times if the prime and -- when the prime minister is resigning if you're going for election. second, as i remember, a lot of the leaders of the ruling party says that we have a strong team, and once back in 2018, november, it shows the shortest mechanism of go to the election. then simply do it. not wait or blame others. they are promises to your voters. >> let me present as well for

you and ask how would you respond to the suggestion that the reason that the opposition wants the prime minister to resign and want to come together and figure out the next leader is because they know they don't -- the political alternatives to the prime minister nope they do not have enough popularity -- the prime minister's popularity, so the narrative goes, may have sunk, but the alternative know they are even less popular. >> it is popularity over the karabakh issue. the issue is not on that side.

if the ruling party will manage by itself some proper resolution , we would have a process, but now we need to understand that it is now an emotional period of time and hate speech has not been since 2000 -- since 2019, but it has been permanent the last two years in armenia. i do not see that going for election even now is the right position. i can see we are facing many crisises in armenia. we need to overcome the crisis and after that be ready to make a proper election. this issue should be decided by political parties, consensus negotiated, and joined together in unified decision.

parliament should become the place for that discussion. >> we just got a few minutes left. we discussed where this is political opportunism on the part of the prime minister, on the part of his opponents. i want to shift the discussion and ask how much political opportunism is going on regionally and internationally when it comes to the alliance with russia, in particular? do you think russia sees an opportunity for a weekend prime minister who, when he first came to power, came to power on the back of the velvet revolution that was unseating people who were seen as closer to the

russian alliance? >> i know we are short of time, and i will get to the question right away. i just want to make a comment. i fully agree on the democratic path of solving the issue and solving it in a civilized manner. again, just to reiterate, calling for a coup is a very serious attention drawer, and what i was trying to say was we wanted more information about who was trying to do this, when, and at what time. but in 2008, when the ruling regime, that is actually the opposition, used a military coup to stop us, yourself and myself in the streets -- fully agree. moreover, in 2018, just hours before the resignation, peacekeepers came out and were protesting in military uniform, which we were trying to prevent because we did not want that to become tradition -- >> we are running out of time. >> very quick. it is becoming a textbook example that in the former

soviet space, any country or nation that aspires to democracy is being punished. it's very unfortunate and sad and extremely deeply traumatizing reality we are dealing with. >> because we got a minute left, i want to quickly get the reaction of the other two guests if i can. do you agree with that analysis just articulated there? very quickly, in 20 seconds? >> i was unable to hear. >> that any country associated with the former soviet union that aspires to democracy is punished. >> this is a completely internal matter. i do hope, and i think it is very important to state that military officials remain in their position and retain their

rights and response abilities. >> we got 20 seconds left. sorry, trying to be as fair as possible. >> first of all, we do not have a coup here. it is a different issue. he is referring to the issue of the original politics, it has been turkey and azerbaijan. the issue between armenians and turks is -- >> we are going a little off-topic now. we do not have anyone representing that side. let's leave that for another discussion and ask other people to join in on that. i'm afraid we are out of time. i apologize. going to have to thank our guests. thank you, too, for watching.

you can see the show again any time visiting our website. for further discussion, head on over to our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. from me and the whole team for now, it is goodbye.

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