Raffi Elliot
The Armenian capital has been rocked by two weeks of continued civil
disobedience which began on July 17, as 30 armed veterans, calling
themselves “Sasna Dzrer” after the Armenian epic of the same name,
crashed a dump-truck through the gates of a police depot in the Yerevan
district of Erebuni. A brief gunfight led to the death of Police Colonel
Artur Vanoyan and the capture of eight hostages (including the infamous
deputy-chief of police, Valery Osipyan) as well as the capture of the
facility by the gunmen. The gunmen, most of which are celebrated
veterans of the 1990-1994 Karabagh War, have called for the liberation
of Jirair Sefilian, a fellow Karabagh War commander-turned-activist, who
heads a fringe political faction known as the Founding Parliament. The
hostage-takers initially also called for the immediate resignation of
President Serzh Sargsyan and Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian as a
precondition for further negotiations, before dropping this condition
entirely.
