Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has decided not to visit the towns of Goris, Kapan, Meghri and Kajaran, in Armenia’s southern Syunik Province, as originally planned, saying that local residents have blocked the roadway to protest what they see as the government’s inaction to safeguard the new border with Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan, in a Facebook post, writes that he and his entourage would be returning to Yerevan after a brief stop in Sisian. Pashinyan writes that he wants to avoid escalating tensions in the area.

Residents in these Syunik towns had organized protests on the eve of Pashinyan’s scheduled visit.