Armenians Charge Soviet Troops Killed 5 in Airport Protest
Armenian activists said today that Soviet army paratroopers fired on protesters trying to shut down Yerevan’s airport and killed up to five people.
“The rumors that an Armenian was killed are groundless,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Vadim Perfilyev told a news conference.
But Perfilyev and the activists agreed that about 2,000 people tried to shut down Zvarnots Airport, and that troops quashed a protest related to Armenian demands for the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly Armenian region of neighboring Azerbaijan.
Until now, the protests reportedly have been peaceful.
The newspaper Pravda said that during a Tuesday rally in Yerevan’s Theater Square, someone began calling for a blockade of the airport, and that a large column of people headed toward it.
Planes were allowed to land, it said, but demonstrators “grossly disrupted order” and prevented them from taking off again.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
