Police block food delivery to rebels inside seized patrol regiment

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian opposition MP Zaruhi Postanjyan on Tuesday, July 26 tried to deliver food to the armed group inside the seized patrol department in Yerevan, but the police won't allow her to.

The group are members of the Sasna Tsrer movement. One police officer was killed, and several more were wounded in a shootout that broke as the members of the group hit the gates of the police department with a track. All the captives have been set free. The group demand the release of Jirair Sefilian, the founder of the Founding Parliament who was arrested on June 20, as he and a group of people had allegedly planned to seize premises and communication facilities, including the Yerevan TV tower. They also demand the resignation of President Serzh Sargsyan and the creation of a transitional government.

The MP made an appeal to the Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin II, saying that “caring about our compatriots is the duty of the holy fathers and the clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church too.”

In a letter to Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan, Health Minister Armen Muradyan, police chief Vladimir Gasparyan, chief of the National Security Service Georgi Kutoyan, as well as the Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, Postanjyan said: “On Tuesday, at 9:00 am, I must deliver food to the rebels inside the seized police department. So please give me such an opportunity.”

Postanjyan is currently on Khorenatsi street near the patrol HQ but the police don’t let her enter the area.

Two of the gunmen were wounded in the foot overnight, as they rode a car towards the police cordon, and officers opened fire on them. According to the group, a person later managed to break throught the police barricade and deliver food to those inside the patrol HQ.