The Armenian State Security Service announced this evening, Saturday, that it had foiled an attempted coup against power and the assassination of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, while protests and unrest continue in the country after the government agreed to a peace agreement with Azerbaijan.

A statement by the State Security Agency said that the former head of the agency, Artur Vanitsyan, the former President of the Republic Serge Sargesian, and the President of the Republican Party, Dashnaq Tzion, were arrested on charges of plotting to assassinate the prime minister and a coup against power.

Hours earlier, Russian media reported that the security service conducted a search operation in the house of Grigor Grigorian, the former deputy defense minister, who was summoned to the agency’s headquarters.

Armenia has been witnessing for days, unrest and protests calling for Pashinyan's resignation, after announcing the acceptance of a ceasefire in Karabakh province and the withdrawal from large areas in it in favor of Azerbaijan under Russian auspices, a step which Azerbaijan described as an Armenian "surrender".

On Monday evening, angry people stormed the government headquarters in Yerevan, and Parliament Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan was also beaten by the protesters.