YEREVAN -- Police barriers have been set up in areas of Yerevan leading to Freedom Square on May 15 as activists calling for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's resignation over a land deal with arch foe Azerbaijan pledged to form groups to march to the square, where Pashinian was expected to address an annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
An RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent at the scene said protest leader Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian was in the area but none of the groups appeared to have tried to approach Freedom Square.
The correspondent said security cordons made it virtually impossible to reach the square.
There was no word on the progress of the EBRD's annual meeting and business forum, which was being held at Yerevan's Opera House, which lies directly in Freedom Square.
Galstanian, the leader of the Tavush Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, has encouraged a "civil disobedience" campaign to press for Pashinian's exit.
More than 170 protesters have been detained since the protests began in earnest on May 9 with tens of thousands of people rallying in the capital.
Galstanian has called for a meeting on May 16 with sympathetic political forces to discuss possible courses of action to ramp up pressure on Pashinian and his allies.
Under the border-demarcation deal agreed last month with Baku, Armenia cedes control of four villages that were part of Azerbaijan during the Soviet era, but which have been controlled by Armenia since the 1990s.
The United States and the European Union have hailed the deal, but the Pashinian government has been accused by opposition politicians of giving up territory to Azerbaijan with no guarantees.
Pashinian has said the unilateral concessions are necessary to prevent Azerbaijani military aggression against Armenia. The Armenian opposition maintains he is encouraging Baku to demand more territory from Yerevan and to use force for that purpose.
