In Armenia medics are taken hostage

Gunmen locked in a protracted standoff with police in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Wednesday have taken four medics hostage, officials say, after a shootout left five people wounded.

Police said the medics were held after entering a police compound seized by the assailants 10 days ago to treat two gunmen injured in clashes that also left two attackers and a police officer hospitalised.

“The doctors who went into the captured territory to assist two members of the armed group who refused to go to hospital have been taken hostage,” police spokesman Ashot Aharonyan wrote on Facebook.

“The police are taking steps to free the doctors through negotiations.”

Gunmen — supporters of fringe jailed opposition leader Zhirair Sefilyan — stormed a police building in Yerevan on July 17, killing one officer, taking several more hostage and seizing a store of weapons.

Over the weekend they released the final four police officers being held captive but remained holed up inside the police building surrounded by law enforcement officers.

Background on this from Katehon:

Currently, pro-Western opposition uses idea of endangered Armenian interests in Karabakh. Liberals and nationalists advocate that Armenia withdraw from the negotiation process, and agitate for the resumption of  war, under the pretext of "liberating the lost territories." In fact, we are talking about drawing Armenia into a war, and trying to draw Russia with it. Of course, Turkey, which supports Azerbaijan, will not remain on the sidelines. Active opposition of Russia to these plans has now been used as "proof" of the supposed anti-Armenian position of this country. The objective, minimally, is a disruption of the Russian peace plan, which envisages a number of concessions from the Armenian side. The objective maximum  - a change of power, unleashing a new war. Russia will be drawn in on the side of Armenia, or, if Russia will not get involved in the conflict, new Armenian leadership will break its alliance with Russia, leave the EAEC, and CSTO, and start a pro-Western reorientation of the country.

The elimination of this group consisting of veterans of the Karabakh war may become a trigger for a pro-American revolution in Armenia. These combatants maintain a pro-American oppositional position, and they insist on a resumption of war in Karabakh - a scenario that would benefit the United States. In turn, the inaction of the authorities has also played against them, demonstrating the weakness of the regime, inspiring opposition and other groups of armed thugs to increase their activity.

The aim of these actions is regime change in Armenia and the rejection of the country’s Eurasian, pro-Russian course. The consequences of an Armenian “Maidan” could be no less bloody than the Ukrainian case. The opposition has called for rejecting Moscow’s peace plan concerning Nagorno-Karabakh. Using revanchist slogans, they are ready to launch a war in Karabakh. Russia's refusal to be drawn into the conflict on Armenia’s side will be used to drag the country out of Russia's influence.