Levon Ter-Petrossian Post-Election Rally, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

The area around the French Embassy and Yerevan Municipality are now pretty much barricaded off by buses, trolley-buses and the wrecks of burned or smashed up police vehicles. About 10,000 Ter-Petrossian supporters, many armed with metal rods, have dug in and show no sign of leaving.

Yerevan’s Liberty Square is cordoned off by police and riot squads while others guard outside of the main government building on Republic Square. What looked like Kalashnikovs were being handed out. RFE/RL reports that the increased tension comes after this morning’s dispersal of opposition protesters and later clashes with police.

The post-election unrest in Armenia deepened on Saturday evening as thousands of people rallied and barricaded themselves on a major street intersection in central Yerevan in anticipation of another government attempt to forcibly end the ongoing opposition protests. President Robert Kocharian, meanwhile, threatened to call a state of emergency in the country.

The crowd, furious with the brutal break-up earlier in the day of an overnight protest by fellow supporters of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, blocked all streets leading to the area with buses and other vehicles seized from riot police that tried unsuccessfully to disperse them several hours earlier. Ter-Petrosian associates urged the protesters not go home until the authorities end the opposition leader’s de facto house arrest.

[…]

Meanwhile, another opposition leader, Nikol Pashinian, urged the protesters massing in the vast area outside the Yerevan municipality and the French Embassy in Armenia to boost their “self-defense” and brace themselves for a possible police attack. He also told them to reinforce the barricades set up there following the police attempt to disperse several hundred opposition supporters who gathered there by noon.

[…]

Many protesters were already armed with metal and wooden sticks and sounded bullish about taking on security forces. Some held truncheons and shields seized from riot police. Angry protesters also set ablaze a police jeep which eyewitnesses said raced through the street intersection and ran over two women. They said a policeman that drove it escaped the scene unharmed.

The full post is available on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008.