Sargsyan urging rebels to surrender
Serzh Sargsyan, Armenian president, urged today the revolted men, who seized a police building in Yerevan and took four police officials hostage, to surrender.
He said it as met with the heads of law enforcement agencies.
In his words, the authorities are doing whatever is possible to find a peaceful solution to the problem.
Sargsyan declared that the life and health of every citizen is precious to them.
He instructed the heads of law enforcement agencies to continue taking steps with restraint in strictly within the law and said that the authorities refrained from resorting to the classic methods for solving similar problems, giving the armed men room for stepping back.
“In hope they will change their mind,” Sargsyan said.
In his opinion, the situation is lasting longer than ‘we can afford’.
He remembered the four-day war that broke in Karabakh in April and said that not so much time has passed since then.
An armed group stormed a police station in Armenia's capital Yerevan on Sunday and took some officers hostage, demanding the release of Zhirayr Sefilian, the jailed opposition leader of Founding Parliament movement, and the resign of the president.
According to the police, one police officer had been killed and five others and one attacker wounded in the assault.
Later, some hostages were released as a result of intense negotiations.
Two top police officials, Deputy Police Chief Vardan Egiazaryan and Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Valeri Osipyan, are among four officers who remain captured.
Hundreds of people gathered around the building to bar the law enforcement units from storming the building and to prevent а bloody outcome.
The police cleaned up the territory of demonstrators Wednesday night and detained dozens of people. On the next day people gathered again.
As many as 51 people injured in the clashes, including 28 policemen, received medical services this night. --0----