Armenia, 2016 — dissident coup attempt

Event Summary

On 17 July 2016 an armed group of veterans and opposition activists in Armenia, known as Sasna Tsrer, stormed and seized a police headquarters and patrol regiment base in the capital Yerevan, killing a police officer and taking hostages, in a violent challenge to the government of President Serzh Sargsyan. The group, whose name means Daredevils of Sasun after an Armenian epic, was made up largely of veterans of the Nagorno Karabakh war and members of the opposition Founding Parliament movement; they demanded the release of their jailed leader, the opposition figure Jirair Sefilian, and the resignation of Sargsyan, whose government they denounced as corrupt and as insufficiently defending Armenian interests, particularly after a flare up of fighting with Azerbaijan over Karabakh months earlier. The gunmen held the police compound for about two weeks in a tense standoff that drew crowds of sympathizers into the streets and clashes with police, before surrendering at the end of July.

The seizure, which killed several police officers over its course, did not topple the government, but it exposed deep public discontent that would culminate two years later in the peaceful Velvet Revolution that swept Sargsyan's circle from power.