Dozens of people detained at anti-government demonstration in Armenia

Police in Armenia have detained at least 180 demonstrators who had blocked the streets of Yerevan to protest against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Dozens of anti-government protesters — including some opposition lawmakers — had gathered in the Armenian capital on Monday.

Protest leader and deputy parliamentary speaker Ishkhan Sagatelyan told reporters that another rally would take place in the square later in the evening.

Anti-government protests demanding that Pashinyan step down reignited in Armenia last month after he expressed the need to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old conflict over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under Armenian control since the early 1990s.

In a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed control over large swaths of land in the region before signing a Russia-brokered truce.

Pashinyan has faced daily backlash in Armenia ever since, as the countries move closer toward a proper peace deal.

On Sunday, demonstrators in the centre of Yerevan set up tents and said they wouldn’t leave the area until Pashinyan and his team stepped down.

A police spokesperson told the Interfax news agency that some demonstrators were detained on Monday on charges of refusing to obey officers’ orders.