YEREVAN. – After being closed off for several days, Baghramyan Avenue—in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan—was reopened on Wednesday morning.
Police have removed the barbed wires, special measures, and armored equipment from the avenue.
France Square also is open at this time, and traffic there has been restored in full.
At present, the demonstrators, who were to start a rally at 10am at France Square, are assembled nearby the Aram Khachaturian statue.
On Tuesday, “My Step” initiative leader, Civil Contract Party member, and National Assembly “Way Out” (Yelk) Faction head Nikol Pashinyan and his supporters closed off and marched through several streets in downtown Yerevan. Subsequently, they blocked the buildings of a number of state agencies.
In the evening, a rally of thousands of people held at Republic Square at the heart of Yerevan, where Pashinyan presented his plan.
“We need to block departmental buildings, roads, highways,” he had said. “Tomorrow, we will start operations at 10am.”
Also, he noted that they will form a revolutionary committee that will coordinate all actions, and they will begin the third phase of their actions on Wednesday.
“Tomorrow, the entire city of Yerevan will be paralyzed,” he added.
On Monday, Police used special means, especially stun grenades, against the demonstrators at Baghramyan Avenue.
As a result of these clashes, 46 people—including Pashinyan—were taken to hospital.
And on Tuesday, police detained several demonstrators from the streets of Yerevan.
According to police, 76 of the 82 people that were detained have been released.
On March 31, the opposition Civil Contract Party, led by Nikol Pashinyan, had started a protest march through several towns of Armenia—and whose objective is to prevent the third term in office by ex-President Serzh Sargsyan; but this time as the next Prime Minister—and which concluded on April 13, with a rally at Liberty Square in downtown Yerevan, and then with a round-the-clock sit-in at France Square.
But on Tuesday, the National Assembly elected Serzh Sargsyan as the Prime Minister of Armenia.
