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OCTOBER 27, 1999 (video)

Politics

At 17:13 armed terrorists broke into the NA session hall and started to shoot at the officials sitting in the first rows.

They killed:

NA Speaker Karen Demirchyan;

RA Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan;

NA deputy Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan,

and Rouben Miroyan;

deputies Michael Kotanyan, Henrik Abrahamyan, Armenak Armenakyan,

Minister of Regional Government Leonard Petrosyan.

Deputies and Ministers were injured.

Those who were alive were kept hostages in the NA session hall.

The official sources did not report about the death of the first officials of the country for five hours.

Only after 10:00 p.m. the President’s residence made a statement about victims.

Late in the evening the dead bodies were taken out of the Parliament building. The negotiations with the terrorists went on until dawn. Even the President of the country met them.

Early in the morning the hostages were set free and the terrorists yielded themselves prisoners getting guarantees of security.

The October 27 trial started In January 2001 and lasted about three years. In the meantime Armenia became member of the CoE, ratified the European convention on Human Rights and its 6th protocol, eliminating capital punishment once and for all.

The terrorists who cruelly shot the first officials of the country were sentenced to life imprisonment.