Night was calm in Khorenatsi street (video)
The situation was calm on the section of Khorenatsi street leading to the patrol police station that remains occupied by the Sasna Dzrer armed group affiliated with the Founding Parliament radical opposition movement. There were no demonstrators in the street in the early hours of Friday. Only a small group of police officers were keeping control in the area near the barricaded police compound. We remind that the march planned from Liberty Square to Khorenatsi Street on Thursday evening was cancelled because of heavy rain. On July 17, the police patrol building in Yerevan’s Erebuni district was attacked and seized by an armed group calling itself Sasna Dzrer (Daredevils of Sassoun) which is affiliated with the Founding Parliament, a radical opposition group seeking to oust Armenia’s government. Colonel Artur Vanoyan and his friends were on duty inside the Erebuni base when it was stormed by the gunmen. Vanoyan was shot dead and several other police officers were seriously wounded in the attack. The attackers took several police officers hostage, including deputy chiefs of the national police and Yerevan’s police department. The last four hostages were set free on July 23 after negotiations held with the Armenian government through Vitaly Balasanyan, a participant of the Artsakh war. This was followed by numerous events in the Armenian capital. The leader of the armed group, Pavel Manukyan and his son, Aram, were wounded in a shootout with the police on Tuesday, July 26, and were immediately hospitalized. Also, on Tuesday the police warned the protest organizers to choose another venue for their rallies, saying that there is a real danger for public safety in Khorenatsi street. Armen Mikaelyan, a member of the Founding Parliament movement, and Levon Barseghyan, Chairman of the Asparez Journalists’ Club, were arrested on Tuesday. Following these events, the gunmen took four paramedics hostage after they went into the compound to help some of the gunmen that were wounded by security forces besieging them. One of the doctors was released on Wednesday evening. Throughout Wednesday, the police detained some 100 persons in an attempt to prevent another anti-government rally in the street. Arsinee Khanjian, a renowned Canadian-Armenian actress, was among the detainees. Most of them were released later on Wednesday. The mass detentions forced Founding Parliament to rally hundreds of supporters at Liberty Square the same evening. After the rally, they marched through the city center to Khorenatsi street.
