Armenia’s National Democratic Alliance (Azgayin Zhoghovrdakan Bever) says that the three-armed men who attempted to seize a Yerevan police office yesterday were its members.

The attack on the Nor Nork police station’s office followed the arrest of scores of Combat Brotherhood group members on illegal arms possession.

Two of the attackers were injured when they detonated a hand grenade. The   third, identified as Stepan Hovakimyan, was later detained after a two-hour standoff with police.

Hovakimyan went on Facebook prior to the incident and condemned the arrest of his comrades who traveled to the village of Verin Voskepar (Upper Voskepar), a former Azerbaijani village controlled by Armenians since the first Artsakh war in the country’s Tavush Province and one of several border villages that Baku has demanded to be returned prior to any peace deal with Yerevan.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has signaled his readiness to return the villages in question.

The National Democratic Alliance issued the following statement yesterday following the arrests.

“We call on the police of Nikol Pashinyan, the servant of Russian-Turkish interests, to sober up, not to follow the orders of Nikol Pashinyan, the enemy of the Armenian people, and to urgently release all compatriots who were detained early in the morning.”

In Armenia’s 2021 snap parliamentary, the NDA (comprised of the Sasna Dzrer Party and the National Progress Party), garnered 18,976 (1.5%) of the 1.276 million eligible votes cast.