Epress.am News from Armenia
The Armenian authorities’ refusal to disclose any circumstances regarding the events of March 1, 2008, is part of a show, Arakel Semirjyan, coordinator of the March 1 NGO and a member of the opposition Armenian National Congress party, said in a news conference in Yerevan on Thursday.
“And even if they are playing a game, I am prepared to become a part of it so that people do not forget about March 1. Our task is to ensure that this issue is never pushed aside into oblivion. We must try to end the show and make the process more real and serious,” the oppositionist added.
Artur Sakunts, the head of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Vanadzor Office, insisted in turn that “from a juridical point of view, the terrorist act of March 1 is fully disclosed.”
“There is a lot of evidence, including video materials and court testimonies given during the hearings in the cases against peaceful demonstrators and political oppositionists. This evidence is sufficient to initiate another criminal case, which should have been done from the very beginning,” the human rights advocate said.
According to Sakunts, “not giving the March 1 events a legal assessment of state terrorism threatens the existence of the Republic of Armenia as a state.” The fact that some of the victims of “this state terrorism” now stand by the authorities “is particularly deplorable.”
“These 10 years have shown us that some of the victims of this state terrorism have, sadly, chosen to stand by those who carried out this terrorist act. The authorities had probably hoped that some of the victims would develop Stockholm syndrome and begin praising the executioner or accepting him as a savior,” Sakunts stated.