Guest Column: Anxious Local Eyes Watch Disturbing Events Unfold in Armenia

As a father whose first born son lives and works in Yerevan, Armenia, I have become increasingly alarmed about disturbing news I have been receiving from Armenia over this past weekend.

Throughout the day and night,  the situation in Yerevan has been tense. Police officers stand at the crossroads. A water cannon and armored police vehicles have been sighted at several locations. Roads leading to Yerevan have been blocked from all directions, cars are being searched and turned back.

Members and supporters of the Founding Parliament Party have been arrested.

In Freedom Square, a large public place in front of the Opera House, the police have beaten and arrested citizens and activists. Journalists have reportedly been arrested.  (Arrests without cause is nothing new in Armenia. Last year during the Electric Yerevan peaceful protests the police made mass arrests without probable cause.) Earlier in the day Facebook was inaccessible and the websites of media outlets reporting on the developments were being shut down.

An armed group calling themselves Daredevils of Sassoun  seized the Erebuni police station in Yerevan. They are holding hostages including the Deputy Chief of Yerevan Police, Valery Osipyan.  There was an exchange of gunfire during the takeover and casualties sustained. The National Security Service of Armenia has confirmed that one police officer was fatally shot and two others wounded as a result of the initial exchange of gunfire.

Among the group that seized the police station is a national hero, Pavel Manukyan, a decorated combat veteran of the Artsakh Liberation War when Artsakh self-defense forces launched a military operation intended to lift the siege of Stepanakert and end Azerbaijani bombardments of Karabakh’s capital, Shushi.

The group is demanding the resignation of President Sargsyan, that a temporary committee be set up to direct the country, and that Jirayr Sefilian and all political prisoners be set free. Sefilian is also an Artsakh Liberation War veteran and outspoken advocate for regime change in Armenia. He  is the leader of the opposition Founding Parliament party. On June 11^th Sefilian had announced plans to set up a new opposition movement called the National Resistance Committee. And then 9 days later Sefilian and six others were arrested and charged with illegal arms possession.

As events continue to unfold in Armenia two good sources of information are hetq.am and civilnet.am.  Popular opinion is conflicted – some are calling this domestic terrorism, others classify it as a rebellion.