YEREVAN. – On the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the tragedy that occurred in the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, a commemoration ceremony was held Thursday at the NA garden, in front of the monument to the victims of this calamity.

NA President Galust Sahakyan, Vice Presidents Eduard Sharmazanov and Hermine Naghdalyan, MPs, relatives of the victims, Parliament staff representatives, and journalists accredited in the NA placed flowers to this monument, and honored the memory of the victims of this calamity.

In his remarks at the event, Galstyan described what occurred 17 years ago on this day as a tragedy for the Armenian state and people.

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 terrorist act 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 sentence. 

The trial, however, did not expose the persons behind this tragedy, and, as a result, the Armenian society still has serious doubts about the architects of this terrorist act.