Demonstrators led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan scuffled with riot police in Yerevan on Friday as they continued to campaign for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation.
One day after trying to surround the seat of Pashinian’s government, the protesters marched to the nearby building of the Armenian Foreign Ministry to demand a meeting with Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
Galstanyan said Mirzoyan or other senior ministry officials must explain what he described as their failure to respond to “humiliating” anti-Armenian statements made by Azerbaijan’s leaders.
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The top diplomats refused to receive Galstanyan and opposition lawmakers accompanying him, leading the protest leader to demand that the police officers let him enter the building to “yet the answers.”
“Either they will come out or we will go in,” he told hundreds of supporters blocking the main entrance to the building guarded by a comparable number of police officers.
After repeatedly threatening to use force during a four-hour standoff with the protesters, security forces tried to push the crowd back from the entrance. The protesters, including Galstanyan, resisted, jostling with the policemen.
The Armenian Interior Ministry said afterwards that at least 29 people were detained as a result. They reportedly included two deacons of the Armenian Apostolic Church. One of them was seriously injured, according to Galstanyan.
Aram Hovannisian, the chief of the national police who personally led the security forces at the scene, accused the outspoken archbishop of provoking the clash.
Galstanyan, who claimed to have been kicked by one of the officers, blamed the police as well as Mirzoyan for the violence.
“Let the police know that they can’t intimidate us. This is just a prelude,” he said before leading the crowd back to the city’s St. Anne Church, the starting point of his daily protests aimed at forcing Pashinian to step down.
The 53-year-old cleric backed by the Armenian opposition began his rallies in Yerevan on May 9 after leading protests in the northern Tavush province against Pashinian’s decision to cede several border areas to Azerbaijan. Pashinian has said that the territorial concessions are necessary for preventing Azerbaijani military aggression against Armenia. His detractors say he is creating additional security risks for the country and encouraging Baku to demand more territory.
