YEREVAN. – No provocation took place at night, I left quite late, I returned a little while ago; everything is normal. Ex-PM Vazgen Manukyan—the PM candidate of the opposition Homeland Salvation Movement which demands the resignation of Armenia’s incumbent PM Nikol Pashinyan—said this Friday morning in a conversation with reporters at Marshal Bagharmyan Avenue in the capital Yerevan.

"The planned program was announced—which can be changed. We will get together, decide. At 11 o'clock, there is a session here of a council in the National Assembly, which shall discuss whether or not to hold a special session [of parliament]. We will gather here at 1 o'clock, we will talk like a rally. Most likely, we will organize a march, after which we will return here because a session of the National Assembly may take place at 4 or 6 o'clock, whose main issue will be the lifting of the martial law. Then we will see," Manukyan added.

On Thursday morning, the General Staff of the Armed Forces issued a statement in which the high-ranking military officials demanded the resignation of Nikol Pashinyan and his government. Pashinyan, however, considered the move as an "attempt at a military coup" and called on his supporters to gather at Republic Square in downtown Yerevan.

After their rally at Liberty Square in downtown Yerevan, the opposition demanding Pashinyan’s resignation marched to Marshal Baghramyan Avenue, continued their respective protest in front of the National Assembly, after which they announced that they would pitch tents and spend the night on Marshal Baghramyan Avenue.