We have already informed that on January 16-17 John Prescott and Axel Fisher, OSCE co-rapporteurs on Armenia, will visit Armenia for gathering facts. They will meet with officials, but not with the relatives of “March 1” victims, although one of the published purposes of the visit is a discussion on the investigation of 10 deaths during “March 1” events in 2008. Alla Hovhannisyan, mother of one of the “March 1” victims Tigran Khachatryan, said at first that she didn’t know that co-rapporteurs would come to Yerevan and then added, “We will necessarily meet with the Council of Europe diplomatic mission in the Republic of Armenia and ask for a meeting with the co-rapporteurs. Certainly, I don’t know whether they will meet with us or not, because last time, last October when the dialogue between the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and the establishment was in progress, they (co-rapporteurs) did not have time to meet with us, left and noted in their report that the ‘March 1’ page could be perceived closed. But we will demand such a meeting. I don’t know whether they will accept or refuse this request again.”
Mrs. Hovhannisyan said that victims’ relatives were so annoyed with the statement made by the Special Investigation Service (SIS) that they were going to apply and demand a meeting with SIS and also with the officers of the group responsible for investigating “March 1” case, “because SIS continues to falsify the circumstances, in which our children were killed. What is this? I have been saying for four years that on that day at 9:21 my son took a picture near Myasnikyan Statue with the phone I have now and they deliberately say that he went to the place of riots at around 20.00. I.e. they want to describe my kid as a riot participant. We all (relatives of victims) are annoyed, because the reality is distorted in all cases concerning our sons, they want to label everyone a criminal or a riot participant. Now it is the right moment for us to meet also with the co-rapporteurs to express our discontent.”
As for the fact that the meeting with the relatives of 10 “March 1” victims is not on the agenda of co-rapporteurs’ visit to Armenia again, Mrs. Hovhannisyan said, “There are many things that annoy us, including the fact that they don’t want to meet with us.” As for why, in her opinion, “because they don’t want to solve our issue, because they want to come to an agreement with the establishment and they always come here, not taking into account what the real justice requires.”
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Naira MAMIKONYAN
