Armenian premier denies links with Tbilisi grenade suspect

Interfax news agency, Moscow
24 Jul 05

TBILISI

Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan has flatly denied any links
between Vladimir Arutyunyan, who is suspected of attempting on US
President George Bush’s life in Tbilisi on 10 May, and Armenia and the
Armenians.

“Vladimir Arutyunyan, who is currently in custody, is a Georgian
citizen and is not connected with Armenia or the Armenians. Some media
are drawing absolutely incomprehensible and inappropriate parallels,”
Andranik Markaryan told journalists in the Ninotsminda Region of
Georgia on 24 July during his two-day official visit to Georgia.

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli, who was accompanying his
Armenian colleague, told journalists that Arutyunyan’s case “is very
clear and the investigation will be completed soon”.