Armenian police detained dozens for blocking Yerevan streets in protests against government’s land concession to Azerbaijan on Monday, May 13, Le Monde reports on May 13th.
Armenia has consented to relinquish territory held since the 1990s and initiated border delineation efforts, aiming to attain a long-sought peace agreement with Baku and prevent further conflict.
The territorial concessions have triggered weeks of protests, with demonstrators blocking key roads in an effort to compel Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to alter course.
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Protest leader, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, has called on opponents of the agreement to flood the streets of Yerevan on Monday to further demonstrate their opposition. The interior ministry reported that as of Monday, 151 individuals had been detained, but protesters had not succeeded in closing off any streets in Yerevan. An Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist observed that hundreds of people had joined the demonstration.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics in the South Caucasus, have been engaged in a standoff over disputed territory, primarily Nagorno-Karabakh, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Le Monde, AFP