“WHAT HATRED THEY FELT”: A POLICEMAN’S ACCOUNT
- “Soldiers with truncheons and shields blocked the whole street and began to go forward to press the people against the embassy [building] believing they will disperse learning the soldiers have come. We went some 20 meters and calmed down, I even lit a cigarette thinking they would not resist and heard the first blast, just in front of the soldiers. One of our specialists said that was definitely a hand grenade,” tells a police troops officer, participant to the March 1st events, who preferred to stay anonymous. He took part in the operations held by the police beginning the morning, except for the operation of dispersing the sitting strike in the square. He tells their unit was located in front of the Myasnikyan monument from the midday. After former head of the National Security Service, oppositional activist Davit Shahnazaryan called upon the people to go to the square by Matenadaran for a rally, the unit was moved to the area by the Opera House. However, they returned in the evening: “Information was received LTP had ordered the demonstrators not to move, because the place [by the embassy] was the most convenient, otherwise the demonstrators would appear in a trap if they moved to Matenadaran. When we got there, the disturbances had already begun.”
The officer says the grenade explosion raised havoc among the soldiers, because they were not prepared for a use of fire arms against us: “I saw our commander on the right wing taken out, one trying to fix a tourniquet to dress his foot. The second one was also in blood, the one who was trying to set the tourniquet was injured at his head; then all of a sudden [I saw] one of the soldiers, his feet weakened, being dragged aside. A panic began in our rows, and then a bullet hit another soldier penetrating his neck.”
“We began to retreat, retreat-attack, retreat-attack, but they [the people] were enraged. If you saw the blasts! Pushing, we reached the Leo Street and then, all of a sudden, they began to throw stones from behind, from the side of the Paronian Street.”
The officer says the police special detachment came at the hottest moment of the fight and began shooting in the air with tracer bullets. “They were shooting the tracer bullets on purpose to show the direction of the shots; so that they [the mob] see them [the police] shoot in the air. But the shooting did not calm them down, they were attacking fiercely.”
“A mad mob, I had never seen a thing like that, [they were] like a pack. What hatred they felt! They would heavily curse us saying ‘you Turks, you go to your Karabakh’. I must say they lie when they say troops were brought from Karabakh. There were only the police troops and its special detachment. And the Army has appeared only after the state of emergency was imposed.”
He insists the police fired no shots on the people, although the soldiers blamed them [the officers] for not giving them weapons to defend themselves: “They would say give weapons, why not give weapons, look they have hurt Mkho, and they hurt another one!”
He heard gunshots coming from the demonstrators: “They were attacking all the time, they knew we wouldn’t fire, they were coming close with metal bars, threw stones, threw something to make smoke and shoot. You want to see where did it come from, but the smoke closes the view and you see nothing. We were in a tough situation, they were calling to say stand it a bit more, the President will sign the order [on imposing state of emergency] soon.”
He saw demonstrators burn a bus that brought soldiers with the driver still inside: “He had the soldiers get down the bus and as soon as he started it they ran after him. He came to turn around on Leo Street, but the bus was already burning. I saw the driver, he was looking for something, I was shouting, telling him to get down and run away, then all of a sudden smoke came and closed view of the bus. When the smoke disappeared the driver was not there and we didn’t know where he disappeared. The bus was burnt so much that its license plates had turned into ashes.”
- Vahan Ishkhanyan
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“WHAT HATRED THEY FELT”: A POLICEMAN’S ACCOUNT
Vahan IshkhanyanWALKING DISORDERS: THOUSANDS STAGE “SILENT PROTEST” ON FIRST DAY AFTER STATE OF EMERGENCY
John HughesWILL THE ARMENIA ELECTIONS CRISIS AFFECT LOBBYING IN WASHINGTON?
HERITAGE PARTY DECLARATION ON ARMENIA'S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
A SHATTERED FAMILY: NO CONSOLATION IN HOME OF VICTIM GOR KLOYAN
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Gayane MkrtchyanBLOODY SATURDAY: A BREAKDOWN OF THE DAY THAT BROKE A NATION
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Aris GhazinyanDEAD INNOCENT: NON-ACTIVIST IN WRONG PLACE AT WRONG TIME ON MARCH 1
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- 0 Our ancestors celebrated the New Year in this day as the reawakening of nature and the work of the farmer.
- 1615 According to a proclamation by the Polish King Sigismund the Third, Armenians were allowed to live and work in Dubrovitsa. This Armenian colony was obliterated in 1672 in the course of Turkish attacks.
- 1747 The Dutch award the Armenians of Indonesia the same civil rights as European free citizens.
- 1758 Birth of Ghookas Eencheechyan (armenologist and geographer). He died in 1833.
- 1763 Death of Catholicos Hakob the Fifth --Shamakhetsee. He was an important figure in the liberation movement of the 18th century. His birthdate is unknown.
- 1828 Tsar Nicholas the First defines the status of the Armenian Province. Major-General Tchavchevadze is appointed Governor of the Province.
- 1879 Birth of Anooshavan Vardanian, playwright, representative of proletarian literature. He was head of the Copyright Protection Department.
- 1888 Birth of Marietta Shahinyan (Bolshevik propaganda writer) in Moscow.
- 1942 Vahan Mirakyan (poet) dies in Yerevan. He was born in 1866.
- 1981 Inauguration of the Arpa-Sevan tunnel.
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