‘Blowing up a bridge’ is terrorism: Melik Manukyan on his assassination attempt

On August 2, a blast occurred on the Yerevan-Sevan road, which former MP Melik Manukyan described as terrorism in an interview with the ‘Hayastani Zhamanak’ newspaper. It is worth mentioning that the explosion took place at a bottle factory located near the beginning of the road. The explosion damaged the pavement and two vehicles belonging to the former MP. It then became clear that the explosion was intentional and that the explosive device had been remotely detonated from a nearby abandoned hotel.

Three individuals have already been charged in this case. The ‘Hayastani Zhamanak’ newspaper spoke with Melik Manukyan to understand what issues he had with the detainees that led them to attempt to kill him by blowing up the bridge.

Regarding the incident, the former MP stated: “I’m asking you the same question—why? You’ve traveled that highway; you know how many cars pass by. If you were to travel that road, you would write about these things... enough with linking me to criminal topics. This is a main inter-state road and the most important road. If you show me such a road, yes, they blew up cars, but a bridge... on an inter-state road... I’m putting that aside, this is terrorism. At least 100-200 cars were there. What if something had happened to someone? Luckily, no one was harmed. You’re blowing up an inter-state road; what are you doing? Such an incident is complete terrorism.”

For more details, see today’s issue of the newspaper.