DUSHANBE, August 1, 2016, Asia-Plus — The remaining opposition gunmen holed up in a police station in Yerevan have laid down their arms, ending a two-week standoff with the Armenian authorities, which has left two police officers dead.
“With their consistent and coordinated actions, special units of Armenian law enforcement bodies have forced members of the armed group to surrender to the authorities,” Armenia”s National Security Service said in a statement on July 31. “Twenty terrorists have been arrested.”
The National Security Service announced the “complete liberation” of the police compound more than an hour after the leader of the gunmen, Varuzhan Avetisyan, said they had decided to give themselves up.
According to
U.S.News
, the leader of the gunmen barricaded inside the police compound, Varuzhan Avetisyan, said in a telephone interview with local media that they decided to surrender after security forces used armored vehicles to enter the police compound.
Another factor, he said, was that police had started to shoot gunmen who ventured outside. Most were hit in the leg, but a man shot Sunday was hit in the chest, he said.
The gunmen chose to surrender to avoid heavy losses on both sides, Avetisyan said.
The group reportedly had 30 or so members when it stormed and seized the police compound on July 17, demanding that President Serzh Sarkisian free Founding Parliament’s jailed leader, Zhirayr Sefilian, and step down.
They had also briefly held nine officers hostage.
