Posted on 07/26/2005 6:56:17 AM PDT by worldpeace
Armenian Attacker Confesses He Attempted to Kill President Bush
Source:Georgia
* Georgian police have announced the arrest of a man suspected of throwing a live hand grenade in the direction of President Mikheil Saakashvili and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush during their joint public appearance in Tbilisi on 10 May. The suspect -- identified as Vladimir Arutyunian, a 27-year-old ethnic Armenian -- was captured overnight following a shoot-out that claimed the life of a senior police officer. Today, Arutyunian confessed to throwing the grenade with a view to harming the U.S. president.
An Armenian man suspected of hurling a grenade at President George W. Bush during his May visit to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, has been charged with premeditated murder. Georgian prosecutors say the charge against Vladimir Arutyunian stems from the killing of a Georgian Interior Ministry security officer during a gunfight that erupted as police tried to capture him Wednesday. The United States expressed sympathy over the death of the officer, and lauded the bravery and dedication of Georgian authorities in taking the man into custody.
Georgian officials say Mr. Arutyunian confessed to throwing the grenade at President Bush, who was addressing tens of thousands gathered in Tbilisi's Freedom Square.
The grenade landed in front of the stage but the Russian-made explosive device, folded in a red handkerchief, failed to go off. A Georgian security officer reportedly picked it up and removed it from the area.
Georgian authorities say the capture was made possible after police were tipped off by some of Arutyunian's neighbors.
Just three days ago, the Interior Ministry had increased to 150,000 laris ($80,000) the reward being offered for any information leading to the location of the man suspected of tossing a grenade toward Bush and Saakashvili while both leaders were addressing tens of thousands of people on Tbilisi's Freedom Square.
At an impromptu press briefing, Interior Minister Ivane (Vano) Merabishvili described what happened next.
"As [police] went to the house of the suspect, Vladimir Vladimirovich Arutyunian, he opened fire, causing the death of one of our men, Zurab Kvlividze," Merabishvili said. "Arutyunian was wounded in the shoot-out that followed and, a few minutes later, detained by a special police unit."
Arutyunian sustained three gun wounds in the leg and chest and was rushed to Tbilisi's Republican Hospital for treatment. His condition is reportedly not life-threatening, but doctors say it does not allow for his immediate transfer to a prison.
Interior Ministry spokesman Guram Donadze today released a short police video of a conversation that he said he had in hospital with Arutyunian. In the video, broadcast on Georgian television channels, the suspect admits to throwing the grenade with a view to harming Bush.
In earlier comments made to Georgia's Rustavi-2 television channel, Deputy Health Minister Irakli Giorgobiani had quoted hospital doctors as saying Arutyunian had confessed to throwing the grenade. But Giorgobiani had also cast doubt on the suspect's mental health.
Source: JTW, News Agencies, RFL, VOA News 24 July 2005
I assume he will become a DU moderator to pass his time in the clink.
A hand grenade is not going to kill anyone who is a 100 ft. away.
I thought most Armenians were Christian?
Fry his a$$.
"Vladimir Arutyunian, a 27-year-old ethnic Armenian"
Is ethnic Armenian PC code for an Insane Jihadist?
You beat me to it!
When their icon (Kennedy) is assasinated we have to spend 40 years debunking myths about the 'greatness' of his Presidency.
recovered = covered... typo
"When their icon (Kennedy) is assasinated we have to spend 40 years debunking myths about the 'greatness' of his Presidency."
How true.
They're also way, way, way, WAY to the Left. They're were the only Soviet Republic that wanted to be in the USSR (the late Catholicos Vasken commemorated the Armenian Genocide by declaring that Armenians must not be allowed to have an anti-Soviet orientation), and despite the fact that they were "the first chr*stian nation" and that US liberals loathe the idea of "chr*stian America," those same liberals always champion chr*stian Armenia.
I sort of have a love/hate relationship with the Armenians. At one time during my spiritual searching I attended an Armenian Apostolic Church. The liturgy was the most beautiful thing my senses have ever beheld but the homilies were PC up to wazoo, and the pastor handed out bumper stickers for a local Armenian liberal Democratic politician after the service one day. Oh . . . and despite their own experience of genocide and at being "the Jews of chr*stendom," they are no friends of Israel. The "Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia" in Antelias, Lebanon has visited southern Lebanon and declared those killed in Israeli self-defense against Hizbollah attacks "martyrs of our own church."
The pride and joy of the Armenians is being the land where Noah's Ark rested after the Flood. Of course, only American "rednecks" actually believe Noah's Ark ever actually existed, so I fail to understand the big deal they make over it.
I'm assuming that "Saakashvili" is Georgian for "Isaacson." The Armenian equivalent is "Sahakian" or "Sahagian."
Gotta love those Georgian names! If you want a sample of what they're like, go to the FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) website and look up the list of Georgian champions.
'Cause all them Georgians plays chess. They're smart!
The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was a Communist terrorist organization godfathered by the late unlamented Yasser Arafat (yimach shemo vezikhro!). Its goal was never an independent Armenia but rather the annexation of eastern Turkey by the Soviet Union.
A good analogy might be that an Armenian Christian is like a Reconstructionist who attends an Orthodox shul.
That I did not know. Interesting.
The Armenians are not Eastern Orthodox (since they reject Chalcaedon), which means they share the theology of the Syrian Jacobite, Malankara (Indian) Jacobite, Coptic, Ethiopian, and now, Eritrean Churches. However, while these churches are in communion with each other (the Coptic and Syriac liturgies acknowledge each others pontiffs in the liturgy) the Armenian Church is in communion with no other church on earth. They are truly a world unto themselves, even though their theology is much more mainstream than the unique Ethiopian Church (which has always been in communion with the Coptic Church).
There are four Armenian Patriarchs: Holy Etchmiadzin (the supreme see), the Great House of Cilicia (originally Cis in Cilicia but now in Antelias, Lebanon, a suburb of Beirut), Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The first two are in a sense rivals, since some churches recognize one and some the other as their hierarch. In America Etchmiadzin is represented by the Eastern and Western Dioceses, and Cilicia by the Eastern and Western Prelacies.
The Georgians, on the other hand, are Eastern Orthodox, just like the Greeks and Slavs.
Bump for later read.
I perceived that as a unifying move.
The Armenians are also deeply involved in the WCC, as I recall.
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