Armenian law-enforcers detain five people for attempting to seize government building

YEREVAN, January 29. /ARKA/. Armenia's Investigative Committee said today it has launched an investigation to find out all the circumstances of an attempted seizure of the government building on Thursday Five people have been detained.

According to the Investigative Committee, on January 28, at approximately 17:00, during a pre-announced rally in Republic Square, a group of people, according to a preliminary agreement, attempted to seize the government building.

Dozens of protesters who gathered Thursday in downtown Yerevan Republic Square demanded that prosecutors arrest prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and attempted to break into the government building, but were rebuffed by riot police officers.

Some time later, the protesters made another attempt to force their way into the government building, but the attempt was thwarted by reinforced squads of police.

An alliance of more than a dozen opposition parties have been demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's resignation holding him responsible for Armenia’s defeat in the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

It wants Pashinyan to hand over power to an interim government to be led by a former prime minister Vazgen Manukyan who would hold snap parliamentary elections by the end of this year.

On December 25, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he was ready to step down to pave way for early elections. The opposition forces, however, demand that he resign and give his position to an interim prime minister who must prepare the country for early elections. According to Pashinyan, "the opposition's demand that he resign does not have broad public support."

In a related development, ex-president Armenia Robert Kocharyan said Wednesday that he was going to take part in the early parliamentary elections whenever they take place. -0-