Four policemen injured in new clashes in Yerevan
YEREVAN. July 19 (Interfax) - Four policemen have been injured in clashes between radicals and police forces cordoning the territory of the police station taken over by an armed group in Yerevan.
"Some people attempted to use by-pass paths to get into the secured area, which resulted in a clash with police. Four policemen were injured then and later sent to hospital. According to preliminary estimates, their wounds are not of gunshot nature. It's just that the people threw stones at policemen," Nikol Pashinyan, a member of the opposition faction Armenian National Congress at the Armenian parliament, told reporters.
Pashinyan and two journalists were earlier permitted by police to enter the territory of the police station taken over by an armed group in order to make sure that law-enforcement forces did not make any attempts of special actions against the armed group.
Yerevan police chief Ashot Karapetyan told reporters that no protesters were detained by police.
"The policemen have been hospitalized. The provokers attempted to escalate the situation. Now everything is quiet," he said.
At dawn on July 17, a group of armed individuals took over a police department to free Zhirayr Sefilian, coordinator of the Armenian opposition civil initiative Founding Parliament, who is under arrest on the charges of illegal purchase and storage of weapons. One police officer was reportedly killed and four wounded when the building was taken over. Deputy Armenian Police Chief Maj. Gen. Vardan Eghiazaryan and Yerevan's Deputy Police Chief Col. Valery Osipyan were among those taken hostage and are still kept in the building.
Earlier Armenia's National Security Service revealed that intense negotiations have been underway with members of the armed group that seized the police department in Yerevan.
The negotiators have been discussing the release of hostages and surrender to authorities of all members of the group without law enforcement forces resorting to any special operation, the National Security Service press service said.
