Armed men burst into a session of the Armenian National Assembly and opened fire on the chamber, killing the country’s prime minister, Vazgen Sargsyan, and the Speaker, Karen Demirchyan, along with six other officials. The attack unfolded in front of television cameras broadcasting the sitting live, and the gunmen later claimed they were staging a coup with the prime minister as their target.
Armenian troops surrounded the parliament building and began negotiations as the gunmen held hostages inside. After a tense standoff on this day in 1999, the attackers surrendered without further bloodshed, leaving the nation to reckon with the loss of its top two leaders in a single afternoon.
