Armenian PM: Armed Occupation of Yerevan Police Station ‘Unacceptable and Reprehensible’
YEREVAN (A.W.)—Armenia’s Prime Misiter Hovik Abrahamyan called the ongoing occupation and armed seizure of a Yerevan police station “unacceptable and reprehensible” during a Cabinet session on July 21.
A scene from the first day of the armed occupation (Photo: Photolure)
“It is impossible to achieve a real change through violence: this is a dangerous and ineffective idea. The situation is highly alarming—the Government is doing and will do everything to settle the situation peacefully,” said Abrahamyan, according to the Armenian Government’s press service.
President Serge Sarkisian is yet to comment on the situation.
On the same day, Armenia’s Economy Minister and member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Supreme Council Artsvik Minasyan urged the armed group to immediately release the remaining hostages being kept at the occupied police station and for the hostage-takers to surrender to law enforcement officers.
The ARF condemned the attack from the first day of the armed occupation. Speaking to Armenia’s Yerkir news service on July 17 ARF Parliamentary Faction secretary and ARF Supreme Body of Armenia member Aghvan Vardanyan said that violence was not the correct way to solve issues in Armenia. “Issues are not resolved through weapons, violence, hostage-taking, and terrorism. These people have chosen the most incorrect and reprehensible way to make much needed change in this country a reality,” Vardanyan said, adding that these types of approaches only reduce the possibility of real, qualitative change.
One police officer was killed and two others were wounded on July 17, when members of an Armenian radical opposition group seized and occupied a Yerevan police station. There is an ongoing hostage situation at the station, as members of the armed group demand the release of a group of political prisoners and the resignation of President Sarkisian.
“Unfortunately, the news of the attempted Turkish coup has been replaced with the incident in Armenia,” Vardanyan said, adding that it is the responsibility of law enforcement to diffuse the hostage situation. “The rest is the responsibility of the law enforcement, which, in my opinion, have not carried out their job well,” Vardanyan said.
Source: Armenian Weekly Mid-West
