Armenian authorities don’t allow memory of events of March 1st to be perpetuated

During a meeting today the government of Armenia rejected the proposal of the National Assembly (Parliament) of the country's opposition to perpetuate the memory of the events of March 1st – the Day of Remembrance for victims of the events of 2008 and the protest against state terrorism and repression.

The authors of the bill are deputies of the faction the Armenian National Congress (ANC) Levon Zurabyan, Stepan Demirchyan, Aram Manukyan and Gagik Jhangiryan.

According to the bill, despite the fact that the formal investigation is continuing in respect of events on March 1st, in point of fact, the case is terminated and investigative actions and operational-search actions aren’t being carried out in practice, Sputnik Armenia reports.

According to the conclusion of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia, the bill is based on political assessments, i.e. it gives a political assessment of the authorities and the work of some of its bodies, as well as offers a legal solution, which fundamentally doesn’t correspond to the logic of the law where it proposes to make amendments.

Recall that protests were organized in Yerevan on February 19th 2008, during which protesters opposed violations revealed during the presidential elections. On March 1st the police began to disperse the rally. Eight demonstrators and two soldiers were killed as a result of the collision, as well as hundreds injured.

The leader of the parliamentary faction of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and one of the authors of the draft law, Levon Zurabyan, stated in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza that the present authorities and the government organized those bloody events and then covered all the criminals up. 

"The country's leadership promised to our party that a temporary committee on the investigation into the actions of the law enforcement agencies will be created, but then they didn’t keep their promise. The authorities are responsible for those events, so they do everything to sink it into oblivion,’’ the politician said.

MP from the Armenian National Congress Aram Manukyan also said that the decision of the authorities was expected by him. "They feel guilty, which is why they just cannot adopt such a project. We didn’t expect anything else,’’ the deputy said.

Talking about the achievement of a fair investigation into the events on March 1st in 2008, "there will be no investigation until a change of power,’’ Aram Manukyan noted.