YEREVAN (Reuters) – Police in Armenia detained three opposition leaders and nearly 200 protesters on Sunday, drawing a rebuke from the European Union after demonstrators demanded newly appointed Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan quit.
Protesters accuse Sarksyan, 63, of clinging to power after parliament made him prime minister this month following a stint of 10 years as president. In the biggest political crisis in a decade, tens of thousands of his opponents have marched through the capital Yerevan, blocking streets and staging sit-ins.
The protests, though peaceful so far, threaten to destabilize a key Russian ally in a volatile region riven by a long low level conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and would, if successful, be a rare example of people power delivering reform in the former Soviet Union.
Critics accuse Sarksyan of ruling the South Caucasus nation of around 3 million people for too long, of being too close to Russia which has military bases inside Armenia, and of doing too little to root out corruption.
Sarksyan says his country needs him and that his party enjoys large-scale popular support.
Under a revised constitution approved in a 2015 referendum, most state powers shifted to the prime minister while the presidency has become a largely ceremonial post.
Police said in a statement that opposition politician Nikol Pashinyan and two other lawmakers had been “forcibly removed” from a protest. A Reuters reporter witnessed the “red berets”, as Armenian special police forces are known, grab one lawmaker by his hands and feet and carry him behind the police cordon.
The public prosecution service confirmed that three opposition leaders had been detained on suspicion of organizing an illegal protest.
Almost 200 people have been taken to police stations by law enforcement officers, the Interfax news agency cited police representatives as saying. Seven people had been taken to hospital, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
According to the law, the detainees must either be released within 72 hours, or a criminal case can be opened against them.
Opposition leader Pashinyan had earlier held talks with Sarksyan, who walked out of the meeting within minutes after accusing his opponents of trying to “blackmail” the authorities.
“This is not talks, not a dialogue, it’s just an ultimatum, blackmail of the state, of the legitimate authorities,” Sarksyan had said.