YEREVAN -- Opposition protesters have clashed with police as they marched against the Armenian government's handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute with Azerbaijan.
Video published by RFE/RL showed a number of violent skirmishes between riot police and protesters after large group of demonstrators attempted to break through a police cordon near a government office in central Yerevan on May 30.
Two police officers were hospitalized and 111 protesters were detained, according to the police. Opposition leaders have said several protesters were injured, but RFE/RL was unable to independently verify the claim.
Opposition parties have been staging rallies for weeks demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, accusing him of mishandling negotiations with archrival Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinian has faced heavy criticism since he and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed in April to begin drafting a peace treaty to resolve the conflict and set up a joint commission on demarcating their common border.
Pashinian met again with Aliyev last week for a fresh round of talks on the future treaty.
Armenia lost control over parts of the Azerbaijani breakaway region in a 2020 war that ended with a Moscow-brokered cease-fire monitored by Russian troops.
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During the May 30 protest, demonstrators demanded to meet with government ministers to ask them whether they see Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.
Parliament deputy speaker and opposition party leader Ishkhan Saghatelian urged government employees to distance themselves from Pashinian so they are not seen as complicit in "ruining the country."
Saghatelian, a member of the Hayastan faction, said during the rally that demonstrators would assemble outside state institutions over the next four days in an effort to determine their position on a document adopted by the opposition on May 28.
The document declares the right of the peoples of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination. The peace treaty being negotiated would reportedly return parts of the region still populated by ethnic Armenians to Azerbaijani control.
In addition to the fighting in 2020, Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a bloody war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s.