Azatutyun.am. Police in Yerevan arrested on Friday morning at least 84 more people participating in protests demanding that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian resign because of his failure to defend Nagorno-Karabakh against Azerbaijani attacks.
Most of them were detained while blocking streets in the city center as part of a campaign of “civil disobedience” announced by Armenian opposition groups late on Thursday. The detainees included Andranik Tevanian, one of the protest leaders, and former President Robert Kocharian’s son Levon. The latter was reportedly seriously injured by police officers and taken to hospital. Tevanian was released a few hours later.
The police already made hundreds of arrests while clashing with angry protesters outside the main government building at Yerevan’s Republic Square on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Opposition leaders and some media outlets accused them of using disproportionate force to try to help Pashinian cling to power.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee said on Friday that 28 jailed protesters could be charged with participating in “mass disturbances” and risk major prison sentences.
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Despite the mass arrests, thousands of people, among them refugees from Karabakh, were again gathering in Republic Square and chanting anti-Pashinian slogans in the afternoon. An opposition grouping that launched the campaign was due to hold another rally there in the evening.
There were multiple news reports of students of various universities heeding opposition appeals to boycott classes and join the protests. The scale of the boycott was not immediately clear.
Opposition leaders say that Pashinian emboldened Azerbaijan to tighten its blockade of Karabakh and launch this week’s military offensive with his decision to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over the Armenian-populated region.
The embattled prime minister insisted on Tuesday that he “did not give anyone a mandate to carry out ethnic cleansing in Karabakh.” He also claimed that “external and internal forces” are trying to “draw Armenia into the military escalation” in Karabakh and calling for a “coup d’état” in the country.
