WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE
During the evening of October 27, 1999, an armed band of Armenian nationalists stormed the country’s parliament building in Yerevan, the capital, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisyan and several other officials in a bid to topple the government.
Nairi Unanian, a former journalist and member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, led the attempted coup. Entering parliament, the gunmen approached Sarkisyan, accusing him of “drinking the blood of the people,” before opening fire only several meters away, killing him instantly. An additional seven people were killed in the attack: Karen Demirchyan, National Assembly Speaker; Yuri Bakhshyan, Deputy National Assembly Speaker; Ruben Miroyan, Deputy National Assembly Speaker; Leonard Petrosyan, Minister of Urgent Affairs; as well as three members of parliament, Henrik Abrahamyan, Armenak Armenakyan, and Mikayel Kotanyan. A total of 30 people were injured.
After Unanian had gained control of the building, he proclaimed over local television that the attack was intended to spark a popular uprising across the country: “In this country, it is not possible to create a political organization,” he said. “The people have no way to go… The country is in a catastrophic situation. People are hungry and the government doesn’t offer any way out.” The broadcast also stated the intended target was supposed to be only Sarkisyan, and the other killings were a “mistake.”
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, who had appointed Sarkisyan as prime minister, directed the response of military and police units after the killings. A standoff ensued for 18 hours, with the gunmen holding 50 people as hostage. After an agreement revolving around safe passage and a fair trial, Unanian and his accomplices surrendered. On December 2, 2003, the gunmen were sentenced to life in prison.
The crisis in Armenia was, at root, the product of the Stalinist betrayal of the October Revolution and its restoration of capitalism throughout the former Soviet republics, which had taken place less than a decade before Unanian’s failed coup. The imperialist powers, led by the US, now fought over access to oil, raw materials, and geo-politics in regions wracked by political intrigue, economic turmoil and social deprivation. Within this context, the coup expressed right-wing nationalist sentiment, nurtured by sections of the Armenian ruling class, surrounding the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, a largely Armenian-populated area controlled by neighboring Azerbaijan, another former Soviet republic. War between the states had only concluded with a 1994 ceasefire after an estimated 35,000 deaths on both sides.
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