27 years have passed since the attack on October 27. Today marks 27 years since attack on the National Assembly of Armenia in 1999. On October 27, during a regular meeting - an hour of questions and answers with the government - an armed group led by Nairi Hunyan burst into the parliament meeting hall.
The victims of attack were 8 government officials: the Prime Minister of Armenia and Zagan Sargsyan, the Speaker of the National Assembly Karen Demirchian, the Deputy Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and Ruben Mirovyan, the Minister of Operational Affairs Leonard Petrosyan, as well as the Armenak deputies Avraham Kuanyan and Mian, Henrik Kotan and Mayanik. As a result of the shooting, 8 other people were injured. The terrorist organization took 91 hostages, most of them members of the National Assembly. The journalists who covered the meeting also found themselves hostages, but they, like the wounded, were released after a while. The remaining hostages were released at dawn on October 28, after the terrorists laid down their weapons and surrendered. The trial of those accused of organizing and carrying out the attack lasted several years: the verdict was announced on December 2, 2003 by Nork-Marsh Municipal Court Judge Samvel Ozonian. Six defendants, including the group's leader Nairi Hunyan, were sentenced to life imprisonment, and another to 14 years in prison. Despite this, human rights activists still claim today that the real clients and beneficiaries of attack remain undisclosed and unpunished.