Yerkrapah Volunteer Union congress kicks off in Yerevan
The 10th congress of Yerkrapah Volunteer Union (YVU) opened at Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex in Yerevan.
The attendees include Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Chairman of YVU, Lieutenant General Manvel Grigoryan, National Assembly speaker Hovik Abrahamyan, Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, NKR Defense Minister Movses Hakobyan, Secretary of National Security Council Arthur Baghdasaryan and other officials.
Yerkrapah Volunteer Union is a non-governmental group that consisted of 6,000 Nagorno-Karabakh War veterans, formed by Vazgen Sargsyan. The Yerkrapah is a large and influential veteran group. The Yerkrapah Union was actively involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh War. According to Thomas de Waal, after 1994 "the veterans' group Yerkrapah became the most powerful organization in the country."