YEREVAN, December 28. /TASS/. The Armenian police have started detaining protesters who gathered near the parliament building in central Yerevan, TASS reports.
Currently, the Armenian parliament is holding an urgent session. A clash broke out between the protesters demanding that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resign, and one of the ruling party lawmakers.
Armenia has been rocked by protests for more than a month now. The Armenian opposition believes that the trilateral statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire signed by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on November 9 essentially came to be an act of capitulation. Opponents of the incumbent Armenian leader also pin responsibility on him for economic and social problems of the country.
Amid the turbulent developments in the country, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian called for snap parliamentary elections and for a transfer of power to the government of national accord ahead of the vote. Pashinyan himself says he won’t step down because any government change should be carried out through elections. At the same time, a few of his supporters have already conceded that snap elections are possible.
