Saturday, Yerevan Streets Still Blocked By Opposition Protesters • Sisak Gabrielian Armenia - Opposition supporters are camped in France Square in Yerevan, 14 April 2018. The Armenian police avoided dispersing opposition supporters that continued to block the intersection of two key streets in central Yerevan on Saturday in protest against former President Serzh Sarkisian’s apparent efforts to extend his rule. Several thousand people occupied the street sections forming the city’s France Square on Friday evening after a rally held by opposition leader Nikol Pashinian at adjacent Liberty Square. Pashinian said he and his associates will hold nonstop rallies at least until the April 17 election by the Armenian parliament of the country’s next prime minister. Pashinian urged the crowd not to leave the square. Only 200 or so people remained camped there after midnight. Some of them sat on public benches pulled from nearby sidewalks, while others pitched tents on the asphalt. There was virtually no police presence in or around the blocked street junction. In a statement issued on Friday evening, the police criticized the protest organizers for restricting other citizens’ freedom of movement and “not cooperating” with law-enforcement authorities and urged them not to “lose vigilance.” Another police statement issued later in the evening, warned the protesters against taking “noisy actions” that would disturb residents of nearby buildings at night. Neither statement threatened the use of force against the protesters. As of Saturday noon, the Armenian government and the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) made no statements on Pashinian’s campaign. The HHK’s governing Council was due to officially nominate Serzh Sarkisian for prime minister at a meeting later in the day. The meeting was originally expected to take place at the HHK headquarter in downtown Yerevan. Pashinian pledged on Friday to “blockade” the party building during that meeting. Pashinian told reporters in the morning, however, that the ruling party’s leadership has decided to hold the meeting at a hotel in Tsaghkadzor, a resort town 60 kilometers north of the Armenian capital. He said a large group of opposition activists will head to Tsaghkadzor and picket the hotel in a convoy of cars late in the afternoon. He urged other Armenians to also join the procession and make it “very powerful.” The HHK did not immediately confirm the change of the meeting venue. Opposition Protesters Seize Armenian Radio Building • Hovannes Movsisian Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian and his supporters seize the offices of Armenian Public Radio in Yerevan, . Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian and hundreds of his supporters seized the offices of Armenia’s Public Radio and occupied them for about an hour on Saturday on the second day of their anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan. The protesters unexpectedly burst into the radio building as they marched through the city center to condemn former President Serzh Sarkisian’s plans to extend his rule. Two police officers guarding the building pulled their guns in an attempt to stop its seizure. But they did not fire gunshots and were swiftly pushed aside by the crowd, which broke another entrance door and seized key radio studios moments later. Pashinian attributed the extraordinary action to what he described as the failure of Armenian state television and radio to properly cover his anti-Sarkisian campaign launched on Friday. He called this and other broadcasters mouthpieces of government propaganda. Armenia - Opposition supporters occupy the Public Radio headquarters in Yerevan, . “We are protesting against the fact that Armenia’s broadcasters have imposed an information blockade on our campaign and recent months’ political and civic consolidation against Serzh Sarkisian,” he told reporters inside one of the seized studios. Pashinian also apologized to the police officers and Public Radio staff for the “inconvenience.” “But with this action we are fighting against a much greater inconvenience,” he said. “Please leave the building. You can continue your action outside it,” one of the police guards told Pashinian. The opposition leader refused to do that before telephoning Public Radio’s chief executive, Mark Grigorian, to demand that he be allowed to immediately go live on air and appeal to Armenians. He insisted on his demand when a senior radio executive, Lika Tumanian, arrived at the scene. “Why did you smash the door? Has this institution ever deprived you of free speech?” she told Pashinian. Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian (L) argues with a senior Public Radio executive after seizing the radio building in Yerevan, . Tumanian went on to express readiness to invite to Pashinian to a live talk show that would be aired three hours later. “I have come here not to give an interview but to appeal to people,” responded the oppositionist. Tumanian rejected the demand, saying that the state-run broadcaster cannot interrupt its programs. Shortly afterwards, electricity supply to the building was cut off. Public Radio broadcasts appeared to have also been disrupted. Pashinian told his supporters to leave the building about one hour after the intrusion. Public Radio broadcasts resumed about 30 minutes later. The Armenian police condemned Pashinian’s actions and threatened to launch criminal proceedings in a statement issued shortly after the radio headquarters was vacated. The statement also urged him and his supporters to refrain from further “illegal conduct.” Sarkisian Nominated As Armenia’s PM Amid Protests • Emil Danielyan Armenia - Senior members of the ruling Republican Party (HHK) vote in Tsaghkadzor to nominate Serzh Sarkisian to be Armenia’s next prime minister, 14 April 2018. Ignoring continuing street protests in Yerevan, the ruling Republican Party (HHK) on Saturday nominated its chairman and former President Serzh Sarkisian to be Armenia’s next prime minister. The HHK’s decision-making Council unexpectedly met in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor, rather than Yerevan, to formalize the nomination the day after the opposition Civil Contract party launched nonstop demonstrations in the capital against Sarkisian’s continued rule. The Civil Contract leader, Nikol Pashinian, told supporters on Friday to gear up for marching to the HHK headquarters and surrounding it during the key meeting. After it emerged overnight that the meeting has been moved to Tsaghkadzor, Pashinian planned on Saturday morning to send a large group of his loyalists there late in the afternoon. The HHK again wrong-footed the protest leaders when it announced afterwards that its Council has already met and nominated Sarkisian for what will now be Armenia’s top executive post. A short statement released by the party said the nomination was “proposed” at the meeting by Karen Karapetian, the outgoing prime minister and the HHK’s first deputy chairman. “The Council discussed the issue and unanimously approved [Sarkisian’s] candidacy,” it said. Armenia -- Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan, 14Apr2018 Several photographs of the meeting held at a Tsaghkadzor luxury hotel showed both Sarkisian and Karapetian addressing senior HHK members. Their remarks were not immediately made public. Sarkisian and Karapetian met to discuss their political future on April 7, two days before the HHK chairman completed his second and final presidential term. The outgoing premier said afterwards that they decided to “propose” to the HHK leadership to nominate Sarkisian for prime minister. Karapetian cited the need for a “smooth and effective transition” to a parliamentary system of government. He is expected to become the number two government figure in his new capacity as first deputy prime minister. The Armenian parliament is scheduled to vote for the new prime minister on Tuesday. The HHK holds 58 seats in the 105-member National Assembly. Its junior coalition partner, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), controls 7 parliament seats. The Dashnaktsutyun leadership officially announced its endorsement of Sarkisian’s candidacy later on Saturday. “Although there are numerous serious challenges and problems in our country requiring solutions, certain successes achieved in the last two years make us hope that the chosen path is right,” it said in a statement. Dashnaktsutyun cut a power-sharing deal with Sarkisian and the HHK in March 2016. It is represented in the current government by three ministers. Armenia - An opposition protester in Yerevan rips a poster depicting Serzh Sarkisian and his 2014 promise not to hold on to power, 13 April 2018. Sarkisian promised in April 2014 that he will “not aspire” to the post of prime minister if Armenia becomes a parliamentary republic as a result of his constitutional changes. He downplayed that pledge last month, citing the increased risk of renewed fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and other security challenges facing the country. The Armenian opposition and Pashinian’s Civil Contract in particular accuse Sarkisian of failing to keep his word. The ongoing protests in Yerevan are aimed at scuttling the ex-president’s plans. Pashinian has indicated that his supporters will march to the parliament building and try to thwart the vote on the new prime minister on April 17. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org