YEREVAN, February 27. /TASS/. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian held a meeting with a group of independent members of parliament to focus on the domestic political situation and on potential solutions, the presidential press service said on Saturday.

"The sides exchanged views on the crisis on the country, on the ways to resolve it and to ease tensions. The parliamentarians briefed the president about their approaches to and views on the current situation," the statement says.

Earlier, the Armenian president held meetings with heads of the parliamentary factions and with members of the opposition Homeland Salvation Movement, which supporters had blocked traffic on streets outside the parliament in Yerevan, demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation.

On February 25, mass rallies of Pashinyan’s supporters and critics began in Armenia after the General Staff of the Armed Forces had called for the resignation of prime minister and his cabinet. The statement was signed by Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan, his deputies and other top brass. Pashinyan slammed the move as a military coup attempt and announced his decision to dismiss the chief of the General Staff. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, who, under the Constitution, is in charge of appointing and dismissing the chiefs of the General Staff at the prime minister’s initiative, has not signed that order yet.