The Armenian police made at least 96 arrests late on Wednesday as they broke up a demonstration held in Yerevan by a pro-Western political group demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation.
Hundreds of members and supporters of the National Democratic Alliance (AZhB) peacefully marched through the city center when they were unexpectedly confronted by riot police units. Scores of them were detained on the spot before they could even approach any government building in the Armenian capital.
Armenia’s Interior Ministry accused them of ignoring “legitimate” police orders. It did not explain why the police used force in the first place.
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A ministry spokesman put the total number of arrests at 96. The figure is unusually big for a single rally held in the country.
An AZhB activist, Hermine Mkrtchian, claimed that many of the detained protesters were beaten up in police custody. Law-enforcement authorities did not immediately comment on the claim.
Earlier on Wednesday, several dozen AZhB supporters jeered Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s wife, Anna Hakobian, after spotting her at Yerevan’s Tsitsernakabert memorial during an annual remembrance of victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide. They chanted “Genocidal Nikol!” “Nikol traitor!” and other hostile slogans as Hakobian and one of her daughters laid flowers by the memorial’s eternal fire.
