TASS, Russia

Dec 1 2020

 

 

 

 

WorldDecember 01, 19:03

 

They earlier blocked Yerevan’s central avenue

 

YEREVAN, December 1. /TASS/. The opposition activists who blocked Yerevan’s central avenue on Tuesday evening are heading for the Armenian government’s building on Republic Square, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, a TASS correspondent reported from the scene.

 

"Nikol, the traitor, Nikol, go away!" the activists are chanting, singing patriotic songs.

 

As representative of the youth wing of the Dashnaktsutyun party Christine Vardanyan told journalists, the police had detained hundreds of activists. "There are hundreds of our detained friends at the police station of Nork [a Yerevan neighborhood] alone," she said.

 

The government building has now been sealed off by special police forces but the law enforcers are not detaining the remaining participants in the protest rally.

 

The Armenian opposition demands Pashinyan’s resignation. The opposition politicians think that the November 9 joint statement he signed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh is essentially a capitulation. They also hold the prime minister responsible for internal economic and social problems of the republic.

 

Pashinyan stated that after Shusha fell the fight became senseless for the Armenian side because from that moment on Yerevan wouldn't have been able to reach a breakthrough in military action. Armenian President Armen Sarkisyan called for conducting early parliamentary elections, transferring power to the government of national accord until then.