Scuffle in Armenian Parliament: Lawmakers trade blows during session; watch chaotic scenes unfold
A brawl broke out in Armenia's National Assembly on Tuesday following a speech by an opposition lawmaker, who called for ousting President Nikol Pashinyan, as political tensions flared in the European nation.
Artur Sargsyan, who represents the opposition bloc Armenia, had finished a speech in which he said a case against him had been decided "ahead of time," and tried to leave the chamber. Other lawmakers then moved to stop him, and security guards rushed in to intervene.
"Armenia has become a 'bastion of dictatorship' where 'everything is decided in advance, written down, approved',' the lawmaker said in his speech before the fight, according to The Associated Press.
Lawmakers later voted to strip Sargsyan of his parliamentary immunity, opening him up to prosecution. He turned himself in to the country's Investigative Committee, which had accused him and 15 others of "plotting to overthrow the government."
Pashinyan's government is accused of cracking down on political opponents who he alleges are trying to engineer a "coup."
Various members of the opposition, including the influential Armenian Apostolic Church, have been leading demonstrations urging the president's ouster after he agreed to territorial concessions in the country's decades-long battle with neighbouring Azerbaijan for control of regions on which both rivals claim territorial jurisdiction.
Archbishops Mikael Ajapahyan and Bagrat Galstanyan, both senior church leaders, are in pre-trial detention after being accused of taking part in the alleged plot.
On June 28, church supporters gathered at the church headquarters outside the capital, Yerevan, to prevent Ajapahyan's arrest. He later turned himself in to the authorities.
Ajapahyan and Galstanyan are members of the opposition group "Sacred Struggle," which played a central role in anti-Pashinyan demonstrations last year.
Although the territorial concessions were the movement's core issue, it has since expanded to a wide array of complaints about Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018.
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