Armenian police detain over 190 protesters in Yerevan

Armenian police detained 196 protesters who were blocking streets in Yerevan as part of civil disobedience actions on Monday morning.

Special police forces used brute force to detain opposition Hayastan faction MP Ashot Simonyan during demonstrations. Simonyan, chair of the ARF Armenia Supreme Body, was rounded up outside the building of his party. Famous Armenian singer Arsen Grigoryan (also known as Mro) sustained a leg injury while being detained. The singer was detained while blocking the Mashtots Avenue as part of peaceful acts of civil disobedience.

The demonstrations, which are headed by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, oppose the Armenian government’s unilateral land surrender to Azerbaijan and seek Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s removal from power.