Armenian lawmakers brawl in parliament

A brawl broke out in Armenia’s parliament on Wednesday as lawmakers hurled objects across the floor of the house and grappled with one another.

The scenes of chaos erupted after a ruling party lawmaker described some of the country’s past defence ministers as “traitors,” the TASS news agency reported.

Domestic political tensions have run high in Armenia since a war last year in which Azeri forces drove ethnic Armenian forces out of swathes of territory they had controlled since the 1990s in and around the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Security officers could be seen pouring onto the floor of the house to quell the disturbance in television footage. The parliament called a recess.

The current parliament convened for the first time earlier this month after this summer’s elections that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party won.