President Sarkisian Breaks Silence on Hostage Situation

YEREVAN (A.W.)—Armenian President Serge Sarkisian said the country’s problems “will not be solved through violence, attacks, or hostage taking” during a July 22 meeting with the heads of the National Security Service, police, prosecutor’s office, and investigative bodies.

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian said that the country’s problems “'will not be solved through violence, attacks, or hostage taking' during a July 22 meeting. (Photo: president.am)
Armenian President Serge Sarkisian said that the country’s problems ‘will not be solved through violence, attacks, or hostage taking’ during a July 22 meeting. (Photo: president.am)

In the meeting, Sarkisian emphasized that to achieve a peaceful resolution of the ongoing hostage situation at the Yerevan police station, it is necessary to “take all available means” and to conduct a “comprehensive and unbiased” investigation of all alleged violations of the law.

“The resolution of this standoff will become the most serious test for Armenia, for our society, and the maturity of our state. I urge the armed people, who have occupied the territory of the police headquarters, to show restraint and not endanger the lives of others with their reckless moves. Hostages must be released,” Sarkisian said, adding that the armed group must also surrender their weapons.

In a statement released by the president’s press office, Sarkisian said that authorities will continue to be patient when dealing with the hostage-takers. “We have been and we will be patient; life and health of every citizen of our country is precious to us. In this situation, we have not taken the ‘traditional’ route. We have given the armed group an opportunity to take a step back. I hope they will come to [their] senses. However, we will not allow to make our entire society a hostage of this tense situation,” Sarkisian said.

1 Comment

  1. SERZHIK SARGSYAN FINALLY SPEAKS!
    Here’s the speech SERZHIK SHOULD have made:
    “I call on all mega money thieves and illegitimate criminal hijackers of the Armenian elections and government, including myself, to surrender to the Armenian people and allow for the return to the state treasury of the billions of dollars we have stolen from the people through tax evasion, procurement fraud and other forms of systemic fraud that I’ve encourage and partaken in.
    I call for immediate free and fair elections.
    I call on all police to never again indiscriminately illegally arrest, beat and/or torture innocent citizens because of my personal paranoia and my desire to secure my personal protection against facing justice. Unfortunately thousands of videos showing illegal police activities – and millions of shares worldwide – have made it impossible for me to simply deny it.
    I call on my favorite diaspora organizations to continue to disregard all these horrible beatings of protesters by my police, to disregard the indiscriminate illegal Soviet-style arrests of concerned citizens expressing their thoughts and words, and to just continue to close your eyes to my consistent theft of elections and billion$ while I allow you to let me walk on your red carpets and take selfies with me.
    Have a nice day and if you don’t agree with me, you’re going to jail!”

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