Canadian actress detained amid chaos in Armenian capital

Armenian-Canadian actress and producer Arsinee Khanjian was among hundreds of people detained in Yerevan, Armenia, near a police station that has been occupied by gunmen for 10 days.

A spokesperson for Khanjian, who is married to Canadian director Atom Egoyan, told CTV News that she was no longer detained as of Wednesday afternoon.

The reason and the duration of her detention were not immediately clear.

In a video posted online by Armenian news outlet CivilNet, Khanjian is heard talking to someone in English on her cellphone, while police officers surround her.

“They want to take me in with two people,” she says in the video. “They have been pushing me.”

The incident was filmed by what appeared to be news crews and bystanders, and Khanjian herself was recording the scene with her own camera.

“This is pathetic. The entire diaspora should stand on its feet and stop this ridiculous situation in our homeland,” she said in the video before she was led away by officers.

She also told the person on the phone that she was stopped by police “because I don’t have papers to be a journalist.”

Gunmen who took over the police station in the Yerevan also took an ambulance crew hostage on Wednesday, police said.

The gunmen seized the police post in the Armenian capital on July 17, killing one officer, wounding several others and taking those remaining hostage to demand freedom for a jailed opposition figure.

With files from The Associated Press

CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Wednesday, July 27, 2016 5:54PM EDT
Last Updated Wednesday, July 27, 2016 7:21PM EDT