11:37, 28 October 2019

20th anniversary of shooting of Armenian parliament highlights need to resume investigation into terror act

Placing of flowers at the monument to victims of the terror act in the territory of the National Assembly of Armenia. October 27, 2018. Screenshot of the video by GALA NEWS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C9CTcvh330

In Armenia, officials and ordinary residents paid tribute to victims of the shooting of the Armenian parliament on October 27, 1999. The possibility of resumption of the investigation into the terror act was discussed.

On October 27, 1999, a group of armed people broke into the hall of the National Assembly of Armenia and opened fire. Armenian Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Chairman of the National Assembly Karen Demirchyan, and six other persons were killed.

On the anniversary of the terror act, the country's top-ranking officials, headed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, as well as relatives of the victims of the shooting laid flowers at the "Biblical David" memorial.

Levon Zurabyan, the deputy chairman of the Armenian National Congress, stated that members of the party "have been fighting for 20 years against closure of the case." According to him, "the former authorities have forgotten the case."

In December 2003, seven persons were sentenced in the case on the terror act at the Armenian parliament. According to investigators, Nairi Unanyan was the leader of the terrorists. On October 22, it became known that he had filed a motion for conditional early relief (CER).

Anait Bakhshyan, a widow of the killed vice speaker Yuri Bakhshyan, does not see any prerequisites for the case to be resumed.

On his Facebook page, David Sanasaryan, the former head of the State Control Service of Armenia, wrote that "it was on October 27, 1999, when the country significantly weakened." He believes the unrest in Yerevan on March 1, 2008, was the result of the terror act.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 27, 2019 at 11:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Armine Martirosyan

Source: CK correspondent