Sefilyan Wants to Be Part of Negotiations with Erebuni Gunmen

Zhirayr Sefilyan, a key member of New Armenia opposition alliance and the leader of Founding Armenia anti-government movement jailed last month for illegal weapons possession, has expressed a desire to be involved in negotiations with the “Daredevils of Sasun” armed group who seized a Yerevan police station on Sunday to demand his release, Ara Zakaryan, a lawyer for Sefilyan, said in a conversation with A1plus.am.

Sefilyan, according to the lawyer, wants to help find a peaceful resolution to the situation and is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that there is no further bloodshed. Zakaryan added that the jailed opposition leader is eager to be a part of negotiations since he is convinced that his involvement would have a positive effect on the process and help resolve the issue peacefully.

The siege of the Erebuni police station began early on Sunday after a group of armed men calling themselves the “Daredevils of Sasun” stormed the building, killing a police colonel in the process, wounding several others and taking the remaining personnel hostage. The initial demand of the gunmen affiliated with radical anti-government movement Founding Parliament was the release of its jailed leader, Karabakh war veteran Zhirayr Sefilyan and a number of other jailed oppositionists. They subsequently announced that they also wanted Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan to step down.

Sefilyan was arrested last month for having allegedly formed an armed group and plotting to organize an armed takeover of the capital's important communication buildings. For that purpose, Armenia's law enforcement authorities insist, the oppositionist had organized an illegal acquisition and transport of weapons and ammunition and their storage in various locations in Yerevan; he now faces charges under the corresponding article of the Armenian criminal code. Sefilyan and his supporters, however, claim that he is being persecuted for his political views, namely, for opposing territorial concessions to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.