The armed opposition group, which has been keeping the patrol police regiment under occupation for about a week, has announced a plan to free the police officers being kept hostage.
Yerevan hostage stand-off: Armed group pledges to free policemen
STEPANAKERT, JULY 23, ARTSAKHPRESS: The activists intend instead to set up a press center to allow journalists’ free entry of into the premises, as Tert.am reports, Varuzhan Avetisyan, a spokesperson for the group, has told the news website Gala after a meeting with the head of the National Security Service (NSS).
“After more discussions in the evening, we decided meet them half-way as a sign of good will and free the two young policemen before the press center’s opening,” he said.
The meeting was arranged by Vitaly Balasanyan, a hero of Nagorno-Karabakh who visited the protest site earlier this week.
Avetisyan added that further organizational issues, as well as the press center’s location are also being coordinated with Balasanyan.
Four high-ranking police officers, including Deputy Chief of Yerevan Police, Colonel Valery Osipyan, and Deputy Chief of Armenian Police, Lieutenant-General Vardan Yeghiazaryan, are among the hostages.
The group calling itself “Sasna Tsrer” (Daredevils of Sassoun) burst into the patrol police regiment in Yerevan’s Erebuni district on Saturday, keeping seven policeman hostage under the threat of violence. Five were later freed for different reasons. The regiment’s deputy commander, Artur Vanoyan, was killed hours after the building’s seizure.
The group, which represents the Founding Parliament movement, demands the release of their leader, Zhirayr Sefilyan, who was detained last month over a coup attempt. The activists also call for President Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation.
