Epress.am News from Armenia
As long as the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) remains in power, it won't allow the "slaughter" of March 1 to be uncovered, said MP Alexander Arzoumanian today in parliament during discussion on establishing a commission to study the events of March 1, 2008. Recall, on Mar. 1–2, 2008, the forceful dispersal of peaceful protests of supporters of unsuccessful opposition presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian resulted in the death of 10 people and the arrest of hundreds of opposition members.
Arzoumanian remarked that Republicans in parliament speak about the different sides of March 1; meanwhile, there is one side — the people, and those who shot them.
"You ask so many questions to [Armenian National Congress MP Gagik] Jhangiryan. You should’ve asked questions to [former president of Armenia] Robert Kocharian, who said on television that opposition members fired at police. There was a foreign minister who spread the same [message] in English to the entire world. A person who is suspected in the case of October 27 proposes creating a commission. Well create it — who's stopping you?" said the opposition MP.
At that moment, shouting something from his seat was HHK MP Hayk Babukhanyan, to whom Arzoumanian's last remark was directed: "Ara, I'm not afraid of going to jail. I've sat behind bars three times, boy."
The opposition MP also said that, examining Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe documents, he discovered that apart from the Heritage Party and the Armenian National Congress, all factions currently in parliament are party to concealing the events of March 1. He said, it's surprising that those who participated in covering up the events of March 1 now declare that they want to uncover them.
"It remains [only] for Robert Kocharian to organize a demonstration and demand March 1 be uncovered. Cynicism has a limit. You’ve changed the law four times, so you could judge us [in court]. March 1 is in your subconscious. A person proposes to respect the memory of the victims with one minute of silence. Margarit Yesayan has nothing to do with this or that side, but she subconsciously pictures herself as a Berkut [special police forces] because the majority is the Berkut," he said.