Translated material
Four police officers were injured as a result of clashes in Yerevan
In Yerevan, four policemen were injured as a result of clashes with a group of people who were trying to enter the territory of the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized on July 17. It is reported by Interfax. Radio "Azatutyun" reports three victims.
The victims were hospitalized. Yerevan Police Chief Ashot Karapetyan stated that no one was detained after the incident.
According to MP Nikol Pashinyan, the attackers “tried to get into the protected area through detours” and, colliding with the police, began to throw stones at them.
Earlier it became known that shots were fired from the territory of the occupied building. After that, supporters of the invaders gathered near the building tried to break through the police cordon, thinking that the security forces had launched an assault, writes Novosti-Armenia . Later it turned out that the invaders fired several warning shots to prevent the police from using force against the protesters.
- On the morning of July 17 in Yerevan, armed supporters of the Constituent Parliament movement seized the police department. During the seizure, police colonel Artur Vanoyan was killed, five more policemen and one attacker were hospitalized .
- Initially, eight people were taken hostage, including the Deputy Chief of Police of Armenia Vardan Yeghiazaryan and the Deputy Chief of Police of Yerevan Valery Osipyan. On July 17 and 18, five hostages were released.
- The police who seized the building are demanding the release of Zhirayr Sefilyan, one of the leaders of the Constituent Parliament movement, who was arrested in June for illegal possession of weapons. In addition, as reported, they demanded the resignation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. The Armenian authorities refused to comply with these demands.
- On the evening of July 18, gathered several dozen people near the captured department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They demand that the police not storm the building. Novosti-Armenia writes that the protesters began to erect barricades.