Police clash with protesters outside Armenian Foreign Ministry

Armenian riot police fiercely clashed with protesters rallying outside the Foreign Ministry building in central Yerevan on Friday and demanding a meeting with Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.

Police officers pushed the demonstrators standing on the stairs to the ground and ripped their clothes off.

“You won’t get away with this, Ararat Mirzoyan, you coward! [Interior Minister] Vahe Ghazaryan, you will answer for everything!” the protest leader, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, announced before the protesters began chanting “Armenian, Armenia, Homeland and God!”

Ahead of the clash, opposition MPs were negotiating with Police Chief Aram Hovhannisyan to be allowed into the Foreign Ministry building to force Ararat Mirzoyan out.

A police statement said later that 26 protesters had been detained.