Police began using flash-bang grenades against protesters

ArmInfo. The situation near the National Assembly of Armenia has become extremely tense. After a  warning from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, police officers began using special means against participants of the protest movement.  In particular, police began using flash-bang grenades. In total, about 10 grenades were used. A special forces unit is in the front rows of the police. Protesters and police  officers are throwing bottles and stones at each other.

An equally tense situation is developing in the session hall of the  National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. The tension reached its  peak when the police did not allow opposition MPs Tigran Abrahamyan,  Anna Mkrtchyan, Aspram Krpeyan and Garnik Danielyan into the session  hall. As a result, a scuffle broke out, and the police began to push  back the protesters with shields. The police also began to detain the  protesters en masse.

Against this background, leader of the Tavush for the Motherland  movement, Archbishop Bagrat Galstyan, called on the protesters not to  succumb to provocations and to retreat.

In turn, Speaker of the Parliament Alen Simonyan justified the use of  flash-bang grenades by the police. He accused Bagrat Galstyan of  provoking attacks on the police, after which the activists began to  break through the cordon to the parliament building. "Bagrat Galstyan  announced on the street that we were allegedly beating each other  here, ordering people to attack the police. The police rightly used  grenades. All this had been organized and planned for a long time,"  the Speake of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia  emphasized.