Armenian police clash with anti-government protesters
STORY: Police made several arrests as some protesters tried to break through a security cordon outside the building.
Protests have simmered for weeks against possible concessions over territory disputed with neighbour Azerbaijan. Anger has intensified on the streets after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the international community wanted Armenia to "lower the bar" on its claims to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The Nagorno-Karabakh enclave is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but was populated and fully controlled by ethnic Armenians until they lost to Azerbaijan in a six-week war in 2020. A Russia-brokered peace deal that ended the war led to a significant loss of territory for Armenia.
Armenia is currently a close ally of Russia, which has a military base in the northwest of the country and sent peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh under the accord that ended the fighting in 2020.
