Local Armenians rally in solidarity with anti-government protesters in Armenia

GLENDALE, CA (FOX 11) - A crowd of thousands of people in the local Armenian community gathered in Glendale Sunday night to protest the power grab of Armenia's new prime minister.

The 10-day protests of Serzh Sargsyan have results in more than 200 arrests and uproar in the country and the anger had spread to Glendale Sunday night after the leader of the protests was detained.

Armenian-Americans our protesting called Sargsyan a dictator and demanded he resign from the position the country's Republican Party nominated him for earlier this year.

Sargsyan served as Armenia's president for two consecutive terms. For 10 years, many Armenians accused the 64-year-old of corruption and only letting oligarchs succeed and thrive, which lead to mass oppression of the many people.

To make matters worse, Armenia's constitution changed its government (during Sargsyan's time in office) in 2015 from a presidential government to a now parliamentary government.

This essentially made the presidency more ceremonial and put the prime minister position in the strongest position. This was a position Sargsyan promised he would not run for.

The thousands of people in Glendale supporting the protestors in Armenia said this was the kind of unruly control they didn't want to see continue in the country where many of their brothers and sisters still live.