A crowd of people gathered in the center of Yerevan on the Republic Square, where the government building is located. The protesters are waving flags. The government building itself was taken under protection by the police, but there are no clashes with the demonstrators. Law enforcers with machine guns are sitting in the lobby of the government building.
Armenian police said amid the ongoing protests that they do not take sides and do not meddle in political affairs.
Earlier in the day, the rally participants blocked all the streets leading through the Republic Square. The police took control of all the government buildings in her area.
3 Kamaz tracks full of people joined protest action against ruling party of Armenia in #Yerevan Republic Square #YerevanProtests pic.twitter.com/W2M6f5fKcw
— Gegham Vardanyan (@reporterarm) April 25, 2018
The leader of the protest action in Yerevan, opposition parliamentarian Nikol Pashinyan went from the Republic Square to the office of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia accompanied by a group of protesters. The police dragged additional forces, including armored personnel carriers, to the party's office.
This was the scene on Tigran Mets Ave. earlier today. #Armenia #YerevanProtests #RejectSerzh #RejectHHK #Yerevan pic.twitter.com/NXNwdYV5G7
— CivilNet.AM (@CivilNetTV) April 25, 2018
— Inna Amirkhanyan (@InnaAmirkhanyan) April 25, 2018
Pashinyan intended to demand from acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan to return to negotiations on the terms of opposition, which included the appointment of an interim government headed by a "people's candidate," not from among the members of the Republican Party, and early parliamentary elections.
Karapetyan was supposed to hold talks with Pashinyan on Wednesday, but on Tuesday, the acting prime minister said the meeting had been canceled over new demands for the format of negotiations unilaterally made by the opposition figure.
READ MORE: Armenia's Opposition Leader, Acting Prime Minister Talks Canceled — Party
Earlier in the day, the Prosperous Armenia party, headed by businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, joined the protest actions in Yerevan. The party's Block Tsarukyan faction is the second-largest one in the country's parliament. The Democratic Party of Armenia (DPA), headed by former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic Aram Sarkisian, joined protests as well.
On Monday, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned amid the large-scale anti-government protests against his appointment. Following Sargsyan's resignation, Armenian First Deputy Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan became acting prime minister.
READ MORE: Opposition Leader Pashinyan Says Ready to Become Armenia's Prime Minister
Sargsyan served two five-year consecutive terms as president until April 9. His election as prime minister on April 17 was largely regarded as an attempt to get around presidential term limits, since the 2015 constitutional amendments transferred governing powers from the president to the head of the government, and provoked mass protests.
