In different parts of the Republic and the capital arrests and investigative actions were recorded, and roads were still closed. Upon assessments of the law enforcement, number of the detained exceeds 200. Hunan Poghosyan, First Deputy Chief of RA Police, told reporters that special units have been brought to the initial position, however they have no command to operate.
“It’s a very dangerous process. Everything must be done to avoid bloodshed. Surrendering to the police would be the right choice, and in this case problems would be solved in another way. When people rely on weapons to solve political issues, it may lead to fatal consequences. It does not befit our public, solving issues with weapons does not befit the Armenian public, it is not a way out. Everything must be done to put an end to this through negotiations and avoiding new casualties,” the MP added.
“Despite the attitude towards the authorities you don’t and won’t have public support. I call on laying down the arms and surrender to the law enforcement. And maybe then our society will somehow soften its attitude towards you and the court will take it into consideration.”
“It’s a sabotage terrorist act, an anti system one that cannot lead to positive results. The politicians regardless from the ruling party or opposition condemn these actions. Taking into account the fact that the radical, anti system opposition has a huge lack of resources, they have no positive steps here,” Margarov said, noting that the only goal now should be to resolve the situation.
“Armenian law enforcement bodies fully control the situation and have undertaken all necessary means to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, the National Security Service calls on the mass media to use the information from official sources, as in case of the contrary that would assist the illegal actions and would pose threat for people’s life and health”.
The head of the Public Council of Armenia Vazgen Manukyan considers unacceptable the attempts to solve any issues with illegal actions. In a conversation with “Armenpress” Manukyan commented on the hostage situation in Yerevan. “Solving problems with illegal actions is unacceptable, I’m not a supporter of these kind of actions. They only harm Armenia. There are other way to resolve issues,” Manukyan said.
“A group of armed people have taken as hostages a small group of policemen and in order to release them they demand the release of Jirayr Sefilyan who was imprisoned with the charges of illegally obtaining, keeping, transporting weaponry. A policeman has been killed, two have been wounded. In order to stop and disrupt the criminal actions of the armed group that illegally holds the area, the Special Forces have released two hostages.
Currently the society is becoming more demanding, and the civil society should raise from that demanding and lead the public, make the state and the authorities assume that responsibility. I don’t know it succeeds or not, I can’t say, the situation is yet unstable and indefinite.
“As you know the death penalty had been removed from our legal system. We will discuss… what further measures we should take to prevent such future attempts,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday morning when the arrests of pro-coup officers and soldiers were in full swing across the country.
More than 160 people, many of them civilians, are now confirmed dead – while over a 1000 others were wounded following overnight clashes, gunfire and explosions, principally in Turkey’s major cities of Ankara and Istanbul. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insisted his government is back in charge and promised to purge the armed forces of rebels.
