In Armenia, term of office of the commission for investigating March 1 events extended

On October 22, the National Assembly of Armenia passed a decision to extend the term of office of the temporary parliamentary commission set up to investigate March 1 events in Yerevan by four months, till February 25.

On October 20, Samvel Nikoyan, chairman of the temporary commission and a member of the faction of the Republican Party of Armenia, addressed the Parliament, referencing to a huge volume of work, and asked to extend the term of office of the commission till February 25. We note here that initially the deadline for the commission to submit its final report was October 25.

Armen Martirosyan, leader of the parliamentary faction "Heritage" of the National Assembly, has characterized the decision to extend the deadline for the parliamentary commission's report as unjustified. As he said, during seven months of its work the commission has failed to present any interim report; besides, all questions exciting the society remained unanswered. In the opinion of the oppositional MP, the only worthy statement of the parliamentary commission was the statement of the fact that the operation to disperse the sit-in demonstration in the Freedom Square began before seven in the morning on March 1.

Mr Martirosyan has noted that the decision to set up the commission had assumed possibilities to invite state officials only for evidencing. However, the commission has no rights to invite, within the scope of the investigation, the first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was an eyewitness of the operation in the morning on March 1, or the second President Robert Kocharyan.

Meanwhile, according to Armen Martirosyan, it is absolutely clear that the order to open fire on the peaceful demonstration was given by the second President Kocharyan; otherwise, one can assume that in Armenia any policeman has the right to start shooting. "Where're these policemen who had opened fire without an order from above, why haven't they been found yet?" asks the deputy.

He treated as disinformation the Robert Kocharyan's statement that the policemen had received gunshot wounds. "Either Kocharyan knowingly gave disinformation when speaking that certain people shot at militaries leaving buses, or he was given wrong information, because it became clear later that all the wounds were fragmental," Armen Martirosyan has stated.