Police arrested seven members of the Martakan Yeghbayrutyun (Combat Brotherhood) yesterday near the Tavush village of Bagratashen who resisted their attempts to unblock a state highway leading to Georgia.

Formed in 2021, mainly by 2020 Artsakh War vets, the Combat Brotherhood group strongly opposes any concessions to Azerbaijan.

Residents and group members had blocked the roadway to protest the Armenian government’s decision to hand over four adjacent areas to Azerbaijan in a border delimitation deal announced on Friday.

The Combat Brotherhood, in a Facebook post, claims clashes started after one of the land guards drove a car into the people blocking the road.

Small Azerbaijani villages occupied the areas prior to their capture by Armenian forces in the early 1990s.