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I Never Called Vartan Oskanian a Murderer, Says Armenia’s Former Foreign Minister

Free Democrats party member, Armenia’s former foreign minister Alexander Arzumanyan today denied that he ever called Vartan Oskanian (pictured), another former foreign minister of Armenia, a murderer.

“I didn’t call Vartan Oskanian a murderer. I said, he’s one of those responsible for [the fatal events of] Mar. 1 [2008], since it was Vartan Oskanian, when people were being shot at, who at the president’s office spread statements inconsistent with the truth — attributing unlawful actions to peaceful opposition demonstrators and defending the entire process of the authorities preparing for slaughter, preparing to introduce special status,” he said.

According to Arzumanyan, Oskanian shares the full responsibility of the events of Mar. 1–2, 2008, with Armenia’s authorities.

The former foreign minister also pointed that he has never met with Oskanian after his resignation.

“There have been elections when we saw each other, but we didn’t approach [one another]. A week ago, the Civilitas Foundation invited me as a speaker to its Question and Answer series. And Oskanian, being the president of the Civilitas Foundation, greeted me — I would be very surprised if he didn’t greet me; he was obliged to; we greet one another and walked to the hall. This is the extent of my and his meeting; we’ve never had any contact,” he said.