An unknown assailant threw a hand grenade towards former President Robert Kocharian’s private residence in Yerevan, the Armenian police said on Friday.
The police spokesman, Armen Malkhasian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that the incident occurred in the evening. He said police officers are now examining the scene.
It was not immediately clear whether the grenade actually exploded. Kocharian’s press secretary, Victor Soghomonian, said only that no blasts occurred near the ex-president’s house and that nobody was hurt as a result.
“It’s a ludicrous incident that has been blown out of proportion,” Soghomonian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on the line from Moscow. Kocharian is also in the Russian capital at the moment, he said.
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Kocharian and his family moved into the house located outside the city center shortly after he completed his second and final presidential term in 2008. The compound has since been guarded by Armenia’s National Security Service.
In recent years Kocharian has increasingly criticized the policies and track record of President Serzh Sarkisian, his successor and erstwhile ally.
Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), was quick to strongly condemn the reported attack.
“In the existing military-political conditions [in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone,] there are forces interested in destabilizing the situation in the country,” Armen Ashotian, an HHK deputy chairman, wrote on Facebook. “I hope that all circumstances will be established and the investigation will answer the questions.”
