Yerevan, Armenia - Police in the Armenian capital arrested 180 anti-government protesters on Monday who were blocking streets in protest against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Protests demanding Pashinyan's resignation erupted in Armenia last month, after he spoke in the country's parliament about the need to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in a decades-long conflict over the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under Armenian control since the early 1990s.

In a six-week war in the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan managed to regain control over vast areas of territory in and around the region before signing a Russian-brokered ceasefire with Armenia. Pashinyan faced a backlash at home for agreeing to the deal.

As Armenia and Azerbaijan move closer to reaching a proper peace agreement this year, opposition forces in Armenia have resumed protests against Pashinyan.

Rallies are held in the capital Yerevan almost daily since April 17. On Sunday, protesters set up tents in downtown Yerevan to stage a round-the-clock protest and said they would not leave until Pashinyan and his team resign.

Interfax news agency reported that barricades were erected from trash bins and street benches, and that traffic in France Square, a major road connecting four main roads in the Armenian capital, was halted.

Protesters, including opposition MPs, chanted "Armenia without Nikol!" and protest leader and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ishkhan Sagatelyan told reporters that protesters would clean the streets on Monday afternoon, so another crowd could gather in the square in the evening.

Some arrests on Monday were carried out using force, and there were reports of police pushing journalists covering the protests. A police spokesperson told Interfax that protesters were arrested on charges of refusing to obey police officers.