May 17, 2022 - 14:01 AMT
Police detain 414 people in anti-Pashinyan demonstrations in Yerevan

Police in Yerevan detained 414 people on Tuesday, May 17, who took part in opposition-led demonstrations demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, the Armenian service of RFE/RL reports.

The chairman of the National Assembly State and Legal Affairs Committee, Vladimir Vardanyan, said earlier in the day that they treat the absence of the opposition lawmakers with understanding, but if any employee of any institution dails to show up for work for a long time "without good reasons", they should be held responsible.

In recent weeks, protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have taken to the streets to block major roads in the capital Yerevan and call on the population to commit acts of civil disobedience. Pashinian has come under fire after he and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed to start drafting a bilateral peace treaty to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and set up a joint commission on demarcating the borders.