Today Armenia honors the memory of the terrorist act committed in the Armenian parliament October 27, 1999. The National Assembly members laid flowers and wreaths to the memorial erected in the parliament’s park. “Although seven years have passed since that tragic day I am convinced that the people who knew and worked with those killed and the people who were present at the parliament sitting on that day will carry this pain during all their live,” said NA Speaker Tigran Torosian. “The people who were killed lived for the sake of the ideas and principles of Armenia’s future,” Torosian said.
7 years ago a group of terrorists rushed into the sitting hall of the Armenian National Assembly and fired on the leaders and members of the RA parliament. Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Speaker Karen Demirchyan, Vice-speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and Ruben Mirzoyan, Minister for Operative Issues Leonard Petrosyan, parliament members Armenak Armenakyan, Henrikh Abrahamyan and Mikael Kotanyan were killed.
The trial lasted from 2001 to 2003. The prosecutor demanded extreme penalty but it was cancelled in September 2003. 6 terrorists – Nairi Hunanyan, his brother Karen Hunanyan and his uncle Vram Galstyan as well as Derenik Bedjanyan, Edik Grigoryan and Ashot Knyazan – were sentenced to life imprisonment. Hamlet Stepanyan was sentenced to 14 years in jail. They all were accused of treason and terrorism, reports newsarmenia.ru.
