Nineteen years ago today, a group of armed terrorists broke into the National Assembly of Armenia to open a dealy gunfire targeting the speaker, Karen Demirchyan, and the prime minister, Vazgen Sargsyan.



At 5:00pm on October 27, 1999 the National Assembly was hosting a Q&A hour with representatives of the cabinet as part of its scheduled session.



The gunmen, led by Nairi Hunanyan, a journalist formerly affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun (ARF-D), shot to death not only the top representatives of the chief legislative and executive bodies but also two deputy speakers of parliament, Ruben Miroyan and Yuri Bakhshyan, Minister of Urgent Affairs Leonard Petrosyan, and three parliamentarians, Armenak Armenakyan, Henrik Abahamyan and Mikayel Kotanyan.



The other members of the band were Hunanyan’s younger brother, Karen Hunanyan, their uncle, Vram Galstyan, Derenik Ejanyan and Eduard Grigoryan.



Hunayan, who was sacked from the ARF-D's ranks in 1992, admitted in his court testimonies later that he had plotted, yet didn’t manage to perpetrate, terrorist acts back in 1991



The verdict in the October 27 criminal case was published on December 2, 2003. Under the judgement passed by the Court of First Instance of Yerevan’s Kentron administrative district, six of the terrorists were sentenced for life, and only one - to 14 years in prison.





Only four of the life-termers - the Hunanyan brothers, Derenik Bejanyan and Ashot Knyazyan - are now alive. Galstyan was found dead in his prison cell on April 27, 2004. Official reports suggest that he committed suicide.



Hamlet Stepanyan, the only person sentenced to 14 years in prison, died in May 2010, reportedly of a heart attack.



Another suspect in the case, Norayr Yeghiazaryan, died of electrocution in May 2010, just days before the return of his final verdict.



Eduard Grigoryan died on November 3, 2017 at the Erebuni Medical Center.



The convicts were found guilty of attempts to usurp state power (Article 300, Criminal Code of Armenia), assassination of a state, political or public figure (Article 305), terrorism (Article 217), illegal deprivation of freedom (Article 133) and iIllegal procurement, transportation or carrying of weapons, ammunition, explosives or explosive devices (Article 235).



According to Yuri Bakhshyan's wife, Anahit Bakhshyan, currently a member of the Yerevan City Council, the criminal case remains largely unresolved after so many years.



“Nineteen years have passed ever since, yet the case hasn’t been fully resolved. I personally have my own assumptions and beliefs as to why and how the ‘October 27’ happened, but nothing has been carried out so far towards resolving the case,” she told Tert.am on Friday.



Bakhshyan agreed that the case isn’t now on the new authorities’ agenda, which are more focused on the probe into the March 1-2, 2008 tragic post-electoral events.



“I think that the resolution of the March 1 case would provide a key to really a lot of things. Also, the same person appears to be a key role-player, hence the state cannot possibly resolve two cases simultaneously,” she said.