Authorities in Armenia detain 150 demonstrators.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are looking to settle their age-old dispute. A peace agreement suggest Armenia will hand over territories it's seized back to Azerbaijan. Yet, hundreds of Armenians are objecting and around 150 have been nabbed by the police.
As per authorities, around 150 protesters have been arrested in Armenia for opposing the giveaway of a few villages to nearby Azerbaijan. The Ministry of the Interior revealed that their efforts to hinder roads in the capital, Yerevan were unsuccessful. An estimated 1000 people were on hand for the demonstration.
Armenia annexed these four villages on their border with Azerbaijan in the 90s. The area is significant for Armenia due to its influence on their transport routes to Georgia, an integral part of their foreign trade, a Russian gas pipeline, and military installations. Additionally, Armenians living nearby are concerned the land's transfer to Azerbaijan will cut them off from the outside world.
This land giveaway is meant to bring normalcy to relations between the neighboring Caucasus nations, which have been feuding for over two decades. Ever since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a feud over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is part of Azerbaijan based on international law.
In the last quarter of 2020, they waged a bloody battle for several weeks, resulting in over 6,500 casualties. Azerbaijan gained control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in a wide-scale assault in September 2023, forcing almost all of the approximately 120,000 Armenian residents of the area to flee to neighboring Armenia.
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Despite the ongoing peace negotiations, the proposed handover of several villages to Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh has sparked fierce protests in Armenia. These demonstrations, which attracted over 1000 people, resulted in the arrest of around 150 protesters by Armenian authorities. The disputed territory, rich in strategic importance for Armenia due to its transport routes, foreign trade, and military installations, is a contentious issue between the two neighboring Caucasus nations, who have been embroiled in conflicts for over two decades.
Source: www.ntv.de
