Gyumri tradegy: Five more policemen applied to medical center in Gyumri for treatment (video)
Five more policemen injured during last week’s clashes between protesters and riot police in Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri have applied to a local medical center for treatment, Gyumri's Tsayg TV reports. Residents of Gyumri city marched through Gyumri street on January 15 to demand that Valery Permyakov, the Russian soldier accused of killing six members of a local family be handed over to Armenian law-enforcement authorities. The protesters gathered walked to the Gyumri headquarters of a Russian military base in Armenia where Valery Permyakov has been kept since being caught after detention. After scuffling with Armenian security forces, they broke through a police cordon to approach the base’s main checkpoint located in the city’s outskirts. Over 28 civilians and 18 policemen were hospitalized following the clashes. Most of them were discharged later that day. Six members of the Avetisyan family – Seryozha Avetisyan, his wife Hasmik, daughter Aida, son Armen, daughter-in-law Araksya, and two-year-old granddaughter Hasmik – were murdered in their home on January 12. Only the six month-old Seryozha Avetisyan survived the vicious murder, who was hospitalized with stab wounds in his chest. The six murders that occurred in Gyumri shocked residents of Armenia. Later on the same day Valery Permyakov, a Russian soldier stationed at military base No. 102 in Gyumri was arrested by Russian border guards and Armenian security forces when attempting to cross the border with Turkey. Permyakov confessed to the murders. He was reported to have deserted his post at night and gone on rampage, killing the six people of the Avetisyan family. The six-month-old Seryozha Avetisyan was later moved to the Surb Astvatsamayr (Holy Mother of God) Yerevan Medical Center. He remains in critical condition and is being treated at the hospital’s intensive care unit.
