Former Armenian President’s house attacked overnight

PanARMENIAN.Net - An unknown assailant threw a hand grenade towards former President Robert Kocharian’s private residence in Yerevan, the Armenian police said on Friday, April 15, RFE/RL Armenian service.

The police spokesman, Armen Malkhasyan, told RFE/RL Armenian service that the incident occurred in the evening. He said police officers are now examining the scene.

It was not immediately clear whether the grenade actually exploded. Kocharian’s press secretary, Victor Soghomonyan, said only that no blasts occurred near the ex-president’s house and that nobody was hurt as a result.

“It’s a ludicrous incident that has been blown out of proportion,” Soghomonyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on the line from Moscow. Kocharian is also in the Russian capital at the moment, he said.

Current President Serzh Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) was quick to strongly condemn the attack.

“In the existing military-political conditions [in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone,] there are forces seeking to destabilize the situation in the country,” Armen Ashotyan, an RPA deputy chairman, wrote on Facebook. “I hope that all circumstances will be established and the investigation will answer the questions.”