Hundreds of people have been arrested during protests against the Armenian government. “Azatutyun” |

Police arrested nearly 300 people as Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian and his supporters continued to demonstrate in Yerevan on Monday, demanding the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Protesters were detained after they blocked streets in the city center in the morning to increase pressure on Pashinyan. Similar blockades were reported on highways outside the Armenian capital. Police also used force to clear blockades.

National police chief Aram Hovanisian accused protesters of “behaving like thugs” as he oversaw the crackdown in central Yerevan.

The Armenian Interior Ministry announced in the afternoon that the total number of detained protesters was 284. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said that 278 of them had been released without charge.

The detainees included two opposition lawmakers affiliated with the Revolutionary Union of Armenia (Dashnakchut) party. Videos posted on social media showed SWAT team members beating and verbally abusing one of them, Ashot Simonyan, outside the Dashnakchut headquarters.
In a statement, Dashnakchukjong accused the police of behaving like “street thugs” and called for criminal charges against them. The interior ministry said it had launched an internal investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, Galsteinian again marched through the city center with a hundred supporters, and then announced that they would go to the World War I memorial 50 kilometers west of Yerevan, where they would spend the night and celebrate the 106th anniversary of the founding of the short-lived independent Republic of Armenia the next morning.

Official ceremonies marking Republic Day are traditionally held at the Sadarapat memorial. It was unclear whether Galstanyan planned to prevent Pashinyan and other senior government officials from visiting the site on Tuesday.

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