Armenian rebel found dead in jail cell

Armenian rebel found dead in jail cell

AFP
YEREVAN, April 16

One of the men who attacked Armenia’s parliament, killing eight people
including the prime minister in 1999, was found dead in his jail cell
Friday after apparently committing suicide, the justice ministry said.

“This morning around 11, Vram Galstian, who was convicted in the
attack, committed suicide in his jail cell. He was found hanging from
a sheet,” justice ministry spokesman Ara Sagatelian told AFP.

Galstian is the uncle of former Armenian journalist Nairi Unanyan, who
led a group of rebels into parliament on October 27, 1999 in a
dramatic siege broadcast on national television and later aired across
the globe.

They shot dead prime minister Vezguen Sarkissian and the parliament
speaker, along with six deputies in parliament, before giving up after
an extended siege.

Their demands were never clearly spelled out, but analysts at the time
believed that they opposed Armenian efforts to strike a peace deal
with its neighbor and arch-foe Azerbaijan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS