2024-05-13 22:47:31
Armenian police announced that they had arrested 151 demonstrators who tried to block streets in the capital Yerevan this morning to protest the government’s decision to cede territory to neighboring Azerbaijan as part of peace treaty negotiations, AFP reported.
Police said the demonstrators were arrested for “resisting arrest”. According to the same source, there are currently no blocked streets in Yerevan.
Armenian authorities, seeking a peace deal to finally end decades of territorial disputes and armed conflict with Baku, have approved the return of border villages seized by their army in the 1990s.
This decision, perceived by some as an unnecessary concession, however, led to a march from the affected Tavushka region, which culminated in a demonstration of tens of thousands of people on 9 May. Other rallies were held in Yerevan over the weekend.
Before that, the Armenian government faced weeks of demonstrations, some of which blocked the country’s main north-south thoroughfare linking Armenia with Georgia.
The leader of the movement “Tavush for the sake of the homeland” is the archbishop of the region Bagrat Galstanyan, who calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars for control over the Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The first – in the 1990s, won by Armenia, and the second – in 2020, won by Azerbaijan.
Then, in September 2023, Baku launched a lightning offensive that forced Armenian separatists from Nagorno-Karabakh to capitulate for several days and Azerbaijan took control of the entire enclave, AFP recalls.