Former Deputy Defense Minister: Armenia’s Enemies are Behind October 27 Tragedy

YEREVAN (News.am) – The October 27 crime was immediately solved in formality, but it is not actually solved.

Former Deputy Defense Minister and former Deputy Prime Minister Vahan Shirkhanyan told the aforementioned to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

He noted that Armenia’s enemies are behind the October 27 tragedy, and they came out the winners from this calamity.

“Had the October 27 not taken place, Armenia would have been in a qualitatively different condition. It would have been lot more advanced in terms of human relations, economic development and capacity, and national ideology,” Shirkhanyan stressed.

A group of criminals broke into the Armenian National (Assembly) Sessions’ Hall, on October 27, 1999, and shot and killed several government and parliament members.

This terrorism took the lives of Prime Minister and Supreme Commander Vazgen Sargsyan, NA Speaker Karen Demirchyan, Vice-Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and Ruben Miroyan, Operational Affairs Minister Leonard Petrosyan, and MPs Armenak Armenakyan, Henrik Abrahamyan, and Mikayel Kotanyan.

The trial of the terrorists, who committed this crime, was held from 2001 to 2003. As a result, six of them were sentenced to life imprisonment, and one was handed down a fourteen-year prison sentenced.

The trial, however, did not expose the persons behind this tragedy, and, to this day, the Armenian society has serious doubts about the architects of this terrorism.