Thousands of Armenian protesters clashed with riot police in the capital city Yerevan on April 16. Police attempted to prevent demonstrators from reaching the parliament building, local media reported, while the health ministry said 46 people including six police officers required medical assistance after the clashes.

Protests have been ongoing for several days as the parliament prepares to vote on the next prime minister on April 17. As the chairman of the ruling Republican Party and its nominee for the position, Armenia’s last president Serzh Sargsyan is the top choice for the prime minister spot and is widely expected to win the legislative body's vote of confidence. 

Sargsyan's second term as president ended on April 9, and the country is now poised to transition to a parliamentary republic from a presidential republic. This means, in practice, that the prime minister will be the leading executive power in the country. Sargsyan's administration has often been accused of corruption, failed economic policies and poor management of the territorial conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Organised by Nikol Pashinian, a prominent opposition politician, the protests are meant to stop the appointment of Sargsyan as prime minister.

According to several local media reports, riot police used batons and stun grenades against the crowd when demonstrators tried to break the police cordon blocking the way to the parliament building. Footage from the day’s events also shows a tussle between protesters and police at a Yerevan metro station. 

With around 6,000 people on the streets on April 16, according to Reuters, the demonstrations haven't yet reached the scale of the mass protests after Sargsyan’s first election as president back in 2008. The protests a decade ago drew tens of thousands of supporters of Sargsyan’s defeated rival Armenia’s first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, ending in bloody clashes that claimed the lives of 10 people, after which a 20-day state of emergency was imposed. 

However, in the current protests, which started on April 13, both protesters and the authorities appear to have taken an uncompromising stance, which could lead to a worsening of the situation following Sargsyan’s expected election. 

On April 14, hundreds of activists led by Pashinian broke into the headquarters of Armenia’s Public Radio and occupied the building for an hour in protest against what they said was the failure of the state media to cover their campaign. 

The latest clashes were accompanied by accusations exchanged between Pashinian and Valeri Osipian, a deputy chief at the Yerevan police department, who warned the former against engaging in "provocative" actions. The national police force issued a warning that the protests would be broken up by force if they continued. 

But Pashinian vowed to continue with the protests. In a speech to demonstrators, he told them that "“You are powerful, and you are going to win today [...] Serzh Sargsyan will not be Armenia's prime minister. [...] The Republican Party will not be in government.”