In Syunik Region, protest action leads to clashes with police

The police are trying to unblock the motorway in the Syunik Region of Armenia, which was blocked by local residents on the eve of the arrival of the Armenian Prime Minister. Nikol Pashinyan himself, who has already left for the Syunik Region, voiced his willingness for dialogue with the protesters.

Since this morning, residents of Syunik Region have blocked the motorway to prevent the arrival of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Goris Mayor Arush Arushanyan, who called on city residents to take part in the protest action, was detained by the police, the Vice-Mayor of Goris reported.

The police are trying to unblock the motorway to the Syunik Region, and clashes regularly occur between the policemen and the protesters, the "Sputnik Armenia" reports.

The edition made public an 18-second video showing a crowd of protesters. The policemen lined up in a tight chain are trying to push them aside the motorway.

Nikol Pashinyan has already left for the Syunik Region. The Prime Minister has addressed the residents of the Syunik Region live on Facebook and emphasized again that he intends to "talk openly" to them, the "News.am" reports.

It should be reminded that the protests in the Syunik Region began on December 17, when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Armenia decided to liberate the heights near the city of Kapan. Gevorg Parsyan, Mayor of Kapan, explains that if the heights are not liberated the Azerbaijani forces will stay only a kilometre from the city, and the road from Kapan to four villages – Khdrants, Kapan, Yegvard, and Uzhanis – will be on the territory controlled by Azerbaijan.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 21, 2020 at 09:55 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.