Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
It was six years on March 1st since the tragic events of 2008, when the ruling regime used guns against peaceful people protesting against the results of the presidential elections of February 19th. As a result of an unbalanced useof force 10 people died and more than 200 people were injured. The ruling regime thought that due to use of force, terror, and implied consent of leading foreign players who were interested in the weak and vulnerable government of Armenia, they would manage to close the page of March 1st.
Six years have passed, but the consequences of the political crisis haven’t been surmounted. The current authorities, which are successors of the previous government, don’t want to investigate the events of March 1st and detect the true guilty persons. This is the basis of the current situation.
From this point of view, a recent parliamentary discussion of the second suggestion by the opposition faction of the Armenian National Congress on establishing a timely parliamentary commission on an investigation into the events of March 1st was a bright example. According to Gagik Dzhangiryan, an MP from the ANC, such a commission should be established, because in six years none of the 10 murders had been solved, many of the injured people were not registered as having sustained injuries, nobody got compensation, while the timely commission of 2008-2009 didn’t detect those who were guilty in the crime.
The opposition fractions agreed to establish a commission, but representatives of the parliamentary majority tried to prevent establishment of the commission for various reasons (not to politicize the issue of March 1st, not to stir up non-tolerance in the society). As a result the authorities represented by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia and its small partner Orinats Erkir stayed isolated.
The events of March 1st predetermined changes in the balance of forces and became a starting point in internal political processes in the country. Prosperous Armenia and Dashnaktsutyun which used to be parts of the ruling coalition appeared to be in the opposition because they try to distance from the events of March 1st, which are called a national tragedy. The day divided the Armenian society into two different parts, painting the political field in two colors – white and black. The events created an atmosphere of a Cold civil war in Armenia. And the current civil and political intensification of the Armenian society unfroze the well-known developments in the context of a complicated social situation.
