A group of protesters tried to force their way into Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s office, on Thursday, engaging in scuffles with the police, amid rising tensions over Yerevan's handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh war.
Scores of demonstrators attempted to enter the building to confront the politician in person as he presided over a cabinet meeting. They were met by a sizable police force and a shouting – and shoving – match ensued, footage from the scene shows.
Mass protests have been rocking the country since Pashinyan's government agreed to a Moscow-brokered armistice with Azerbaijan, last month.
“We want to enter the government building to tell Pashinyan about the situation in the country. We do not want to clash with the police,” a protester told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Armenia has recently endured a wave of mass protests, primarily aimed at the PM. The unrest was triggered by the outcome of the conflict between Azerbaijan and its breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians and backed by Yerevan.
The fighting resulted in an uneasy truce, which saw large parts of the region that had been lost by Azerbaijan back in 1990s returned to Baku’s control, with Russian peacekeepers deployed to observe the agreement. The outcome has been widely perceived by the Armenians as a crushing defeat, with many blaming Pashinyan personally.
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