Armenia’s PM passes as witness in armed attack case, gives testimonies at court

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited today Yerevan court of general jurisdiction in Shengavit passing as a witness in a case involving member of Yelk bloc Hayk Sargsyan and Arthur Ayvazyan with Manakh nickname that happened in 2017.

Pashinyan said he knows Hayk Sargsyan, the latter was the head of their headquarters at the 2017 parliamentary elections.

“I had friendly relations with him before the incident as well,” Pashinyan said.

The premier also said he sees Artur Ayvazyan for the first time but while being NA lawmaker he received letters from him.

Referring to the incident, Pashinyan said on the last day of electoral campaign in 2017 he was at home when at about 10 p.m. present vice speaker Alen Simonyan called him and said that the guys were attacked.

“I tried to contact with Hayk, but he did not answer the phone and I told Alen to tell him to contact me. They called me saying that an incident took place. I told them to immediately leave the territory and come to electoral headquarters,” the PM told the court.

He said he immediately left the house and saw that his poster was painted.

“They told me that when they left the building they saw that the flag fixed on the car was taken. They asked few people there who took the flag, one of them said he,” Pashinyan said, adding that the guys demanded the flag back but one of the present hit Hayk Sargsyan.

“Naturally our guys interfered, after which that person took out the gun. One of the present hit his hand and the gun fell. When I learnt that the gun was with them, I asked them to give it to me and without touching it I called the police. After it I showed the gun in live video on Facebook and showed what happened with the headquarters,” Pashinyan told the court.

He said he does not remember how he handed the gun to the police.

“If I am not mistaken, the police did not come to Teryan street, I departed for the scene, then to Malatiya police department and handed the gun there,” the head of the government said.

On March 31, 2017 in the South-Western administrative region the trustees of Yelk bloc were attacked. One of the leaders of Yelk bloc Nikol Pashinyan posted the photo of the gun.

It has been revealed later that the armed attack was implemented by former convict passing under October 27 case Artur Ayvazyan, known as Manakh.