Epress.am News from Armenia
Yerevan police detained 42 people late on Friday, the day of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's official visit to Armenia, from the city's central Baghramyan Avenue as they forcibly dispersed the march of the members of the “We Are the Masters of Our Country” initiative towards the Armenian president's residence. Prior to the attempted march, the initiative held a rally at Freedom Square, putting forward a number of demands to the authorities. Namely, demonstrators demanded that local authorities refrain from signing any documents on Nagorno-Karabakh and rule out any territorial concessions to Azerbaijan, that Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandyan, Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan, and Chief of the General Staff of the country's armed forces Yuri Khachaturov be fired from their posts, and that the families of soldiers killed in the latest hostilities be provided with state support.
After the rally, the demonstrators tried to stage a march towards the presidential palace but encountered heavy resistance from law enforcement officers at the beginning of Baghramyan Avenue and were detained in an ensuing confrontation. 1in.am website editor Arman Babajanyan told reporters that among those detained were also cameramen of the news outlet.
Note, at the Friday meeting with Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who had come to Armenia to propose a plan for the de-escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said that there could be “no military solution” to this conflict.
“I think, if we could make at least a little progress in the political process, if we could outline the general principles for the parties to rely on when drawing up and preparing legally binding documents, this would not only play a key role in re-launching the talks but would also be a deterrent to prevent outbreaks of violence. But, again, a solution can be reached only by the parties themselves. We, along with the [OSCE Minsk Group] American and French co-chairs, tried, are trying and will continue to try to help [in the process],” Lavrov said.