Armenian Prosecutors to Question Ex-President & Arrest Ex-Minister of Defense
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) of the Republic of Armenia has reopened the investigation of the events of March 1, 2008, when the government opened fire against peaceful demonstrators who were challenging the official results of the presidential elections of that year.
The SIS has decided to question the former President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan (1998-2008), for his connection with the deadly crackdown on the peaceful demonstration, which Armenians most often call “The March 1st Slaughter”.
On July 4, the press-Secretary of Kocharyan, Victor Soghomonyan, spoke on recent developments and the decision to question his boss for the shooting, and stated that Kocharyan is out of the country at present. According to the Azatutuyun radio station (Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty) Kocharyan stands ready to testify for his actions before and during the events of March 1.
Meanwhile, the law-enforcement agency decided to arrest Kocharyan’s Minister of Defense, Mikael Harutyunyan, who played a key role in the event.
According to the SIS press-release, Harutyunyan illegally used, together with “other individuals,” armed forces against peaceful protesters in what amounted to an “overthrow of constitutional order.”
According to the Armenian Constitution, the Army commandership is banned from using the Army in internal political developments, while Harutyunyan, according to a secret order released on February 23, 2008, formed special regiments in Yerevan, giving them combat weapons and an arsenal to depress the peaceful demonstrations.
The protests in Armenia started on 20 February 2008 and lasted 10 days. The demonstrators were protesting the most criticized and disputed presidential elections of Armenia according to which Serzh Sargsyan was announced the winning candidate.
The protests against the official results of the presidential elections were led by the main opposition candidate, Armenia's First president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan (1991-1998), who raised a huge popular movement in support of his nomination in 2008 and demanded the annulment of the election results by the Constitutional Court. The increasing pressure by Ter-Petrosian and 10-day non-stop demonstations in Yerevan, which put the government under risk of collapse, "forced" Kocharian's regime to use brutal actions against the opposition to maintain his power.
After the crackdown of the protest early in the morning in 2008 followed the arrests of most opposition leaders and the house arrest of Ter-Petrosyan. Current Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, was one of the few opposition leaders who escaped arrest and lead the main demonstration later that day.
The negotiations between Ter-Petrosyan and the authorities received no results and later the same day the government announced a state of emergency and opened fire against Ter-Petrosyan's supporters, killing at least 10 and wounding a hundred demonstrators.
After the crackdown on the demonstration, Pashinyan had to spent almost 1.4 years underground, and then willingly went to the General Prosecuter's Office in July 2009, where he was arrested and sentenced to seven years inprisonment in 2010.
Pashinyan spent just 1.5 years in the prison and was released in an act of amnesty, which was announced ensuing another popular movement raised by Ter-Petrosyan in 2011. This pressed the government to release the dozens of political prisoners imprisoned during the 2008 presidential elections.
During the 10 years of the presidency of Sargsyan, no serious steps were made to investigate the killings of the peaceful demonstrators; the opposition parties and human rights defenders marked all the actions made by Sargsyan's government in this direction as "imitation and show."
The Armenian National Congress party lead by Ter-Petrosyan and other parties opposing the former government lead by Sargsyan have already expressed their satisfaction with the recent move of the Special Investigative Service of Armenia and their willingness to support the investigation.
By Karen Tovmasyan in Yerevan