Armenia said on Monday that police had detained hundreds of demonstrators demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over territorial concessions made to Azerbaijan.
Pashinyan’s position remains unshaken, despite the challenge mounted by charismatic archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who is trying to launch an impeachment process against him.
Pashinyan, a former journalist and opposition lawmaker, came to power in a peaceful revolution after leading street protests in 2018.
On Monday, hundreds of protestors took to the streets across Armenia, trying to block roads in what Galstanyan called a “nationwide campaign of disobedience.”
The interior ministry said that by 09:00 GMT, “a total of 273 citizens were detained for disobeying the lawful demands of police.”
Firm Grip on Power
Last week, Yerevan returned control over four border villages it had seized decades ago to Azerbaijan, a key step toward normalizing ties between the two countries.
On Sunday, several thousand people flooded Yerevan’s central Republic Square in a fresh protest spearheaded by Galstanyan.
The archbishop hails from the Tavush region, where the four villages handed over to Azerbaijan are located.
Galstanyan said that he would renounce his clerical office to run for prime minister and called for snap parliamentary elections.
Under Armenian law, he is not eligible to hold that office because he has dual citizenship – Armenian and Canadian.
Despite Yerevan’s military defeat to Azerbaijan in 2020 and the loss of Karabakh last year, Pashinyan’s grip on power remains firm.
His governing coalition holds a comfortable majority in parliament, and opposition parties are largely unpopular within society at large.
They would require the support of at least one independent or ruling party MP to launch the impeachment process, and its success would then require at least 18 lawmakers from Pashinyan’s own party voting to unseat him.
Mariam Harutyunyan, with AFP
