Two days ago an “investigative” parliamentary commission submitted a report to Armenia’s National Assembly documenting its findings of the March 1, 2008 mass protests, the resulting violence of which lead to the deaths of 10 people, including two police officers. The National Assembly concluded that the government crackdown on the protesters was necessary and justifiable. This includes the virtual sweeping away of sleeping protestors camped out in Liberty Square, where the Opera House is located, early in the morning on March 1. It was that specific event which lead to the chaos that unfolded in the evening, although the authorities still fail to understand that.
There has been great controversy surrounding the events of March 1 and exactly who was responsible for the deaths as well as brutal beatings that day. Most people including opposition parties of course put the blame directly on former President Robert Kocharian, and I concur that the decisions made that day to pacify the protesters were those of a madman. Many I spoke to believed that there were agitators planted on site, which makes sense seeing that the people who I saw in front of City Hall that afternoon were mostly middle-aged, totally rational and civil people. Although I did see some collecting sticks and metal rods to protect themselves in case yet another clash with the police would transpire (the police attempted to attack the crowd at 2:00 pm but retreated because they were outnumbered), they were only a handful, and quite honestly, they didn’t seem as though they were playing with a full deck of cards judging from the way they were behaving. Another reliable eyewitness who is a friend of mine and watched was happening from an apartment window confirmed that by late evening around 11:00 pm, there were manic criminals running around the area destroying whatever they could find by the time the crowd had dispersed.
Hetq Online on August 27 printed a story revealing rather interesting information. Andranik Kocharyan and Seda Safaryan, both of whom were on the March 1 Fact Finding Committee, divulged that several bodyguards representing oligarchs with strong ties to the government (or who are parliamentarians) were dressed in police uniforms and took part in the crackdown that occurred in mid-evening. There are certainly many other facets to the truth that will not be revealed at this time and won’t be any time soon. Parliament members undoubtedly know what was covered up are but they are not about to discuss them publically since that would mean turning against the policies/decisions of the government.
What is striking is that although two of the commission members representing the opposition ARF-Dashnaktsutiun party are calling for further investigations citing flaws in the report, they went ahead and signed the report anyway. One of them, Artsvik Minasian, told RFE/RL that “Just because we don’t like a particular provision of the report doesn’t mean that we must reject the whole report.”
Um, yes it does. If you find that some information is inadequate in a report investigating unjustified, still unexplained riots and the deaths of 10 people, you must reject it. The party did this with the protocols—they found flaws and they are actively protesting the endorsement of them. However, the ARF did justify the crackdown only a couple of days after the March 1 violence, so it isn’t a huge surprise that it wouldn’t show the same support now, even though the party is technically in opposition and needs to be openly critical of any controversy surrounding the government, especially when the Armenian nation’s statehood is on the line. Now that the protocols are on everyone’s mind, March 1st has been downgraded to being the second most controversial topic, but it hasn’t lost its unequivocal relevance.
Photo courtesy of The Huffington Post
While being against, they are for it. That’s a classic ARF tactic that has been central to their loss of credibility.