ARF Armenia chair Ishkhan Saghatelyan, an MP from the opposition Hayastan faction, took to Facebook on Friday to condemn the detention of his fellow MP Mher Sahakyan following a conflict with Vladimir Vardanyan, a senior MP from the ruling Civil Contract party.

A scuffle erupted between the lawmakers at a closed meeting of the parliament’s Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs on Friday morning. Sahakyan was detained shortly after the incident.

Saghatelyan blamed his pro-government colleague for the conflict and accused the police of using excessive force to detain the opposition MP. He denounced the incident as a “provocation” by the ruling faction MPs.

“The provocation by the Civil Contract faction MPs is aimed at diverting the people’s attention from the Azerbaijani advance into Armenian territory,” the deputy stated.