Three thousand people protest in Armenia to denounce Pashinyan's concession of land to Azerbaijan

About three thousand people participated in a demonstration on Thursday against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the capital, Yerevan, where they denounced his return of lands to neighboring Azerbaijan.

The protests in the Caucasus nation erupted last month after the government agreed to return lands it had controlled since the 1990s to Baku.

Pashinyan remains firm in his position despite being challenged for the prime minister's position by the well-known Armenian cleric Bagrat Galstanyan.

Around three thousand protesters gathered on Thursday in Republic Square in Yerevan in front of the government headquarters, where Pashinyan was chairing a weekly cabinet meeting, according to an AFP correspondent on the scene.

The protesters, who blocked traffic in the area with their cars, briefly clashed with riot police.

Galstanyan told the crowd, "We came here to tell this man [Pashinyan] that he has nothing to do with this country."

Galstanyan had sought to oust Pashinyan and temporarily resigned from his religious post on Monday to run for prime minister.

However, the law does not allow him to assume the government position because he holds dual citizenship, Armenian and Canadian, while opposition parties do not hold enough seats to initiate impeachment procedures.

The protests focused on Armenia's decision to return lands to Azerbaijan.

Last week, Armenia officially returned four border villages that it had seized decades ago to Azerbaijani control. Pashinyan defended the decision as a significant step towards reaching a comprehensive peace agreement with Baku.

AFP