March 1 remains “Achilles\’ heel”

Is the Special Investigation Agency lazy or doesn’t it wish to examine the weapons of the March 1 soldiers on principle?

Yesterday, senior detective of the Special Investigation Agency of the Republic of Armenia, head of the investigation group investigating “March 1” criminal case Vahagn Harutyunyan stated during another press conference that he did not think that it was necessary to examine the video uploaded to the internet, in which on March 1 afternoon, 2008, people dressed in military uniforms and buses with numbers of the Defense Ministry were standing on Melik-Adamyan Street. It basically proves that the army took a certain part in the March 1 events, which is consistently denied by not only top-ranking authorities, but also the Special Investigation Agency. “What examination should we conduct? What did the army do on March 1? Let’s accept theoretically that there were soldiers; to what extent were they involved in the internal political processes?” said V. Harutyunyan. Let us remind that during the previous press conference, when they were talking about involving the army in uncovering the circumstances, in which the March 1 murders were committed, the latter stated that no army units had participated in any direct preventive actions during March 1 riots, they had had no contact with the citizens, therefore there was no point “in examining the weapons that the army bore, especially because it is technically and physically impossible.” The matter is, however, that as opposed to V. Harutyunyan’s emphasis, the participation of the army in the internal political processes during the March 1 events is not only a violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, but also it was very important in respect that the weapons born by the soldiers, which are explicitly seen on the above-mentioned video, could be used against the citizens themselves during those events. Moreover, the opposition, more precisely ANC representative in the Fact-Gathering Group Andranik Kocharyan’s demand made previously to examine the weapons of the military forces that participated in March 1 events does not refer to all the weapons that are at the service of the army, as the Special Investigation Agency detective tries to put it, but only the weapons of the soldiers that bore weapons on that day in Yerevan. The ANC representative in the Fact-Gathering Group Andranik Kocharyan claimed it at the time, saying that former Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan had stated during the interrogation in the group that not only military uniforms, but also weapons had been distributed on March 1. “Former Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan stated to the Fact-Gathering Group himself that the Defense Ministry had provided buses, and according to his explanations, every bus had been accompanied by soldiers armed with automatic weapon. It means that soldiers with automatic weapon came with the buses, and this means that preliminary investigation organ is obliged to send all those automatic weapons for examination, which it hasn’t done”, stated A. Kocharyan during a conversation with “A1+”, giving additional explanations on V. Harutyunyan’s statement. Meanwhile, senior detective Harutyunyan who conducts the March 1 case stated yesterday that it’s the first time he heard about former Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan’s statement during the interrogation in the Fact-Gathering Group that on March 1, not only military uniforms, but also weapons were distributed. Let us remind that according to the August 15 information of Radio Liberty, during his press conference, talking about providing the police with police cars and armed soldiers, the same V. Harutyunyan himself stated that “in the morning at the request of the Chief of Police many vehicles of the Defense Ministry were provided along with their drivers to the police. All the vehicles were driven by soldiers; yes, they were also armed.” The demand refers to examining the weapons of those very people. By the way, according to the message put on the website of the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Armenia, Attorney General Aghvan Hovsepyan presented petitions to the representatives of the international organizations, requesting assistance in examining along with the international specialists the part of the video called “This is how they shoot on March 1, 2008…” uploaded by the user by the name of “martimek2008” uploaded to youtube.com on May 23, 2011. The Attorney General also expressed readiness “to create all necessary conditions to conduct the investigation both in the Republic of Armenia and abroad. We are ready to cover all their traveling and accommodation expenses.