Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan paid tribute on Tuesday to the victims of the October 27, 1999 terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament, marking the 27th anniversary of the tragedy.

They laid flowers at the memorial on the grounds of the parliament building dedicated to the victims.

On October 27, 1999, a group of five heavily armed gunmen stormed the Armenian parliament during a session and assassinated Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Speaker of Parliament Karen Demirchyan, Deputy Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and Ruben Miroyan, as well as three lawmakers and a Cabinet member. The gunmen held the remaining MPs hostage until they surrendered to the authorities the following day. The perpetrators were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Over the years, various theories have emerged about possible masterminds or accomplices, including allegations of foreign involvement in the attack.

The investigation was reopened in 2019 and is ongoing.

Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has issued an update on its ongoing investigation into the October 27, 1999 terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament, reporting a number of investigative and procedural actions taken over the past year. 

Approximately 10 interrogations and additional questioning have been conducted. Requests for information have been sent. Three instructions have been issued to the relevant operational body to conduct operational-intelligence measures to establish circumstances of significance to the criminal proceedings. Documents have been examined. With the authorization of the supervising prosecutor, a number of classified documents have been seized and examined to establish circumstances of significance to the criminal proceedings. Covert investigative actions are being carried out.

“During the preceding period, the supervising prosecutor also held meetings with citizens who possessed certain information about the case. The results of these meetings were forwarded to the investigator for the relevant evidentiary actions to be carried out,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a press release.

The Investigative Committee was instructed to continue the preliminary investigation in February 2024.

The preliminary investigation is ongoing.

On October 27, 1999, a group of five heavily armed gunmen stormed the Armenian parliament during a session and assassinated Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Speaker of Parliament Karen Demirchyan, Deputy Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and Ruben Miroyan, as well as three lawmakers and a Cabinet member. The gunmen held the remaining MPs hostage until they surrendered to the authorities the following day. The perpetrators were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Over the years, various theories have emerged about possible masterminds or accomplices, including allegations of foreign involvement in the attack.

The investigation was reopened in 2019.

Lawmakers observed a minute of silence at the parliament’s plenary session on Tuesday in memory of the victims of the October 27, 1999 terrorist attack.

Speaker Ruben Rubinyan told MPs that exactly 27 years ago, leaders and members of the National Assembly and the government were killed in a terrorist attack in the very same parliamentary chamber.

“I propose that we observe a minute of silence in memory of the victims of this heinous crime,” Rubinyan said.

The lawmakers stood in silence to honor the victims.

On October 27, 1999, a group of five heavily armed gunmen stormed the Armenian parliament during a session and assassinated Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Speaker of Parliament Karen Demirchyan, Deputy Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and Ruben Miroyan, as well as three lawmakers and a Cabinet member. The gunmen held the remaining MPs hostage until they surrendered to the authorities the following day. The perpetrators were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Over the years, various theories have emerged about possible masterminds or accomplices, including allegations of foreign involvement in the attack.

The investigation was reopened in 2019 and is ongoing.

Armenian Parliament Speaker Ruben Rubinyan has said that the authorities are interested in uncovering the alleged masterminds behind the October 27, 1999 terrorist attack, while questioning why the circumstances of the case were not brought to light during the presidencies of Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan and third President Serzh Sargsyan.

Rubinyan made the remarks during a media briefing on October 27, in response to a question about the political will to solve the case.

In his assessment, the period immediately following a crime is the most favorable time to identify those who ordered such crimes.

“The easiest way, or the most opportune time, to identify those who ordered such crimes is the period immediately following the crime,” Rubinyan said.

The Speaker of Parliament recalled that at the time of the terrorist attack, Robert Kocharyan was serving as president and Serzh Sargsyan as minister of national security. He stressed that they continued to hold senior leadership positions in the country in the years that followed.

“Of course, there is no political force more interested than we are in solving this crime,” the Speaker of Parliament added.

On October 27, 1999, a group of five heavily armed gunmen stormed the Armenian parliament during a session and assassinated Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Speaker of Parliament Karen Demirchyan, Deputy Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and Ruben Miroyan, as well as three lawmakers and a Cabinet member. The gunmen held the remaining MPs hostage until they surrendered to the authorities the following day. The perpetrators were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Over the years, various theories have emerged about possible masterminds or accomplices, including allegations of foreign involvement in the attack.

The investigation was reopened in 2019 and is ongoing.

The authorities want a multiparty democratic system to take shape in Armenia and the opposition to be loyal to the Republic of Armenia, Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan has said, commenting on a recent statement by PM Nikol Pashinyan on the need for a “state-centered opposition”.

The Speaker said the authorities do not want Civil Contract to be Armenia’s only political force.

“On the contrary, we want a multiparty democratic system to take shape,” Rubinyan said at a press briefing.

The opposition may harshly criticize the authorities and seek a change of government, but it must remain loyal to the country, he emphasized.

“We want an opposition that is loyal to Armenia. They may hate us, consider us the worst in the world, and want to come to power. One day they will come to power, of course; we will not be in power forever,” the Speaker of Parliament said.

Addressing the formation of the opposition landscape, Rubinyan noted that following the 2018 revolution, this space had largely been occupied by representatives of the former authorities.

He criticized forces driven by a desire to protect illegally acquired wealth or by the interests of foreign power centers.

Rubinyan stressed that the Republic of Armenia must be the sole recipient of the opposition’s loyalty.

Armenian Parliament Speaker Ruben Rubinyan has said that the implementation of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) should not be contingent on the signing of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, rejecting opposition Strong Armenia faction head Narek Karapetyan’s argument that the project should not be implemented before the agreement is signed.

The Speaker of Parliament was responding to Strong Armenia faction head Narek Karapetyan’s assertion that the TRIPP project, an Armenian-American project, should not be implemented until the initialed peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan is signed.

“Our opposition colleagues believe that TRIPP is a bad project for Armenia. If you insist that we should not implement this project in order to obtain a peace treaty, this means you think TRIPP is a bad project for Armenia. TRIPP is by no means a bad project for Armenia,” Rubinyan, a senior member of the Civil Contract party, said at a plenary session of parliament debating the TRIPP ratification bill.

“I will say more: it is very good that the implementation of TRIPP does not depend on the signing of the peace treaty. At the same time, it is also very good that the delimitation and demarcation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan does not depend on the signing and ratification of the peace treaty. There is a simple explanation for this: there is currently an issue regarding the signing of the peace treaty. Azerbaijan is making a claim on the basis of which it is currently refusing to sign the peace treaty,” Rubinyan said, referring to Azerbaijan’s demands for constitutional amendments in Armenia.

“We disagree with this claim and say that we are ready to sign it now. In this context, it is very good that the other components of peace, which are manifested on the ground, can be implemented and do not depend on the signing of the treaty,” Rubinyan said.

The Speaker of Parliament also rejected Karapetyan’s assertion that Armenia would make concessions to Azerbaijan through TRIPP. Rubinyan maintained that, through TRIPP, Armenia and Azerbaijan would unblock regional communication routes on the principle of reciprocity.

Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ararat Mirzoyan met with visiting Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Tom Berendsen in Yerevan on Tuesday morning.

The ministers’ one-on-one meeting was followed by an expanded meeting attended by the delegations. 

The FMs are expected to hold a joint press conference following their talks, Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade spokesperson Ani Badalyan said.

Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ararat Mirzoyan said he discussed with his Dutch counterpart Tom Berendsen in Yerevan opportunities to implement the steps envisaged in the joint declaration on strategic partnership.

“In March 2025, Armenia and the Netherlands signed a joint declaration on strategic partnership, and today our main task is to ensure the full implementation of the priorities and objectives outlined in that declaration and put them into practice. This has actually been the focus of our discussions with the minister,” Mirzoyan said at a joint press conference with Berendsen, who is visiting Armenia.

Mirzoyan emphasized that bilateral priorities, particularly economic cooperation, were also discussed.

“We agree that political dialogue is at a fairly high level, active and effective. We also see that economic cooperation is gradually progressing and the figures are growing, but we also see that there is significant untapped potential. By this, we mean very specific sectors, very specific companies, and emerging cooperation opportunities. In particular, agriculture, floriculture, healthcare and infrastructure. Cooperation has been established between our flower-growing and flower-producing companies and the world-renowned relevant companies in the Netherlands,” Mirzoyan noted.

During his visit to Armenia, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Tom Berendsen will also visit one of the flower greenhouses operating in Armenia that uses Dutch technologies.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Tom Berendsen visited the Moon Rose greenhouse facility, accompanied by Armenian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Vahan Kostanyan. During the visit, opportunities to increase Armenian flower exports to the Dutch market were presented.

According to Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the visit included a tour of the greenhouse facility, during which the Dutch Foreign Minister was briefed on the Armenian side’s views on exporting larger volumes of flowers to the Dutch market.

A delegation led by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Tom Berendsen visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on October 27.

The Dutch FM was accompanied by Armenian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Vahan Kostanyan, Armenia’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands Viktor Biyagov, and the Netherlands’ Ambassador to Armenia Marieke Monroy-Winter.

According to a statement released by the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, the delegation was welcomed by Hrachya Tashchyan, Acting Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

FM Tom Berendsen laid a wreath at the memorial commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide, after which members of the delegation laid flowers at the eternal flame to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

The delegation members also visited the Armenian Genocide Museum, where, accompanied by Lusine Abrahamyan, Deputy Director for Museum Affairs at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, they learned about various aspects of the history of the Armenian Genocide.

At the end of the tour, Tom Berendsen made an entry in the Book of Honorary Guests.

Tashchyan thanked the delegation members for their visit and presented the head of the delegation with the Armenian Genocide Museum’s illustrated album.