Drive-by shooting injures mayor in Armenia
Glendale elections are tame, fortunately, compared with what's going on in Armenia right now. Yerevan reporter Marianna Grigoryan writes that a car with no plates sprayed bullets into a Mercedes carrying the mayor of Armenia's second-largest city and his entourage. Nobody's been arrested and there's no motive for the attack. But Democratic Way Party Chairman Manuk Gasparian predicts more bloodshed as the country is set to hold a contentious parliamentary election on May 12.
Grigoryan writes ...
Vardan Ghukasian, mayor of Armenia’s second largest city, Gyumri, and his staff came under gunfire late in the evening of April 2 while returning to Gyumri from a meeting of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia in Yerevan. At the gathering, party leaders made acting chairman and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian their choice to become prime minister, replacing Andranik Markarian, who died from a heart attack on March 25.A car with unidentified license plates sprayed Ghukasian’s Mercedes-Benz automobile and another car accompanying the mayor with automatic gunfire near the town of Ashtarak on the northward-bound Yerevan-Gyumri highway. Three security guards died on the spot; Ghukasian, Deputy Mayor Gagik Manukian and the mayor’s driver were badly wounded. The driver subsequently died from his wounds. Ghukasian and Manukian were reportedly in serious, but stable condition.
...One opposition leader argues that the shooting is a sign of trouble to come in connection with Armenia’s upcoming May 12 parliamentary vote. "During a press conference this year, I said that blood would be shed in Armenia during the elections, and this is only the beginning," commented Democratic Way Party Chairman Manuk Gasparian. Like other observers critical of the government, however, he notes that it "is not ruled out" that Ghukasian’s alleged business interests played a role.