YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. Opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan has been transported to the Nairi Medical Center of Yerevan after suffering minor injuries as result of passing through a barbed wire.

Reporters are lined outside the hospital awaiting updates from medical personnel who are treating the MP, ARMENPRESS correspondent reported.

Earlier, opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan and his crowd of supporters escalated the situation in Baghramyan Avenue in Yerevan.

Pashinyan led his followers from France Square to the beginning of the Baghramyan Avenue, mentioning he “wants to go the parliament, his working place”.

Along with other opposition MPs from the Yelk faction, Pashinyan intended to breach the police line. Deputy chief of the Yerevan Police Department Valery Osipyan negotiated with the MPs and agreed to allow the opposition lawmakers to head to the parliament.

However, Pashinyan began shouting that he will not go alone and that his supporters must also go through the lines.

Despite numerous calls from the police to maintain order, Pashinyan climbed onto the steel barricade, which led to a chaotic situation.

The crowd began lifting the barricades and using them against officers.

A brawl began between protesters and police officers. At one point the MP and his supporters even climbed on a vehicle. The situation drastically escalated.

Police forces installed a barbed wire across the street and smoke was briefly seen on the scene.

Yerevan police issued a statement demanding opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan to cease the rally in the city. In case of failure to comply within a reasonable period of time, police said they will disperse the rally with special measures and force.

“Public order has been grossly violated as a result of the violent actions of protesters of the rally led by you in Baghramyan Avenue.

All warnings, demands and other restrictive actions of the police are no longer effective, thus, under Article 33 of the law on assembly, police are demanding from you to cease the rally.

In case of your absence from the location of the rally or failure to comply with the demand within a reasonable period of time, police will disperse the rally using force and special measures,” the police said in a statement addressed to opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan.

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan