Published since 17.06.1997

TER-PETROSYAN – THE CHIEF OGANIZER OF “MARCH 1”

• 
  Yesterday, during regular meeting with the journalists, President ROBERT KOCHARYAN first expressed condolences to the relatives of the people who had died as a result of the massive disorders organized on March 1

  Head of the Republic expressed belief that “imposing a state of emergency was a must. If that method hadn’t been applied, the losses would be greater and the consequences - much graver. The complete picture of the events will be restored by each minute. There are a lot of materials and video records, and this enables the law enforcement agencies to make proper assessments and carry out activities of relevant volumes.”

  Despite the unprecedented nature of the number and “geography” of the people involved in the criminal case instituted at the beginning of spring in connection with the “criminal revolution”, the investigative group is entirely capable of restoring the complete picture of the incident and, on the recommendation of the President, inform the public on daily basis “what is being done, in what volumes and direction”.

  The President divided the participants of the disorders into three groups, “The first are the organizers who arranged the gatherings of the people in front of the Mayor’s Office; as a result, serious clashes were provoked.” The latter can conventionally be divided into two parts: ‘hawks” which simply “provoked clashes in a very aggressive manner. The most outstanding figure among them was Nikol Pashinyan.

  But there were also such people as David Shahnazaryan who, realizing that the situation was going beyond control, tried to appease the crowd. But the crowd mostly obeyed the provokers.”

  The second group includes “those who organized attacks on the police by using arms and explosives. The responsibility for the victims mostly falls upon this particular group. Their activities caused deaths and a lot of people were wounded. There are 130 wounded people, the majority being policemen. And those attacks on the police bore an organized nature.”

  The third group consists of the so-called “peaceful demonstrators” who did not participate in the attacks on the law enforcers; instead, they actively participated in the plunder. The approaches towards these groups will be naturally dependent upon the degree of the dangerousness of their deeds.

  Nevertheless, R. Kocharyan is convinced that “it will be very unfair if, without punishing the organizers and perpetrators, the law enforcers impose measures on the people who fell prey to those demonstrations. Everyone should receive the kind of punishment he deserves, the kind of punishment he has earned by his activity. And of course, it is first of all necessary to punish the organizers, those who drove the people out of control, turning the crowd into a mob.

  And no one in the course of history has ever managed to control a mob. When you gather people, you must also bear responsibility for them and think about the possible consequences.” It is necessary to demonstrate a special attitude towards those who used arms and explosives, “It is approximately known to us in what circles they were searched, but it should be mentioned that both the organizers and the people belonging to that stratum are simply evading the justice system now.”

  Can the state of emergency be extended or, vice versa, removed ahead of time? “The state of emergency was declared for a period of 20 days, and I presently see no necessity for either extending or reducing that time limit. We must first of all try to clarify the list and the place of the organizers. Before removing the state of emergency, we must be confident that illegal actions of the type will not be repeated. Today there is no such confidence because people who have used arms and explosives are there in the street. Unless we have the clear-cut answers to those questions, we cannot remove the state of emergency and then become faced with graver consequences,” R. Kocharyan is convinced.

  In response to the question of the journalist from the Georgian “Roustavi” TV Channel, the President touched upon the most recent tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border zone. “The Azeris occupied one of the Armenian positions, but after prompt and decisive return operations the status quo was restored. There are two injured people from the Armenian side.

  Our Ministry of Defense contacted the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense, and as a result, an agreement was reached on discontinuing the firing. Our positions were fired from mine throwers. Nothing of the kind had happened for a long time. I believe we’ll manage to settle the situation and restore the ceasefire regime.

  Although Azerbaijan has decided that the current situation in Armenia has blunted the vigilance of the NK armed forces or some large military subdivisions have been moved to Armenia from Karabakh. There’s nothing of the kind; the efficiency of the Armenian forces is on a proper level. But I don’t think it is politically correct to use such situations with other purposes.”

  As regards the dialogue with the pro-Ter-Petrosyan opposition, the President made the following statement, “They themselves have refused to have a dialogue with this particular part of the Opposition. This was mentioned many times during the rallies. Ter-Petrosyan announced that his dwelling was the Freedom Square from where he was to be taken to the presidential palace. Such statements block the path for a dialogue.

  Besides, the newly elected President of Armenia almost immediately expressed willingness to cooperate with all the pro-Opposition forces; almost all the candidates responded to his offer, with the exception of Mr. Ter-Petrosyan. We have always been for a dialogue. Simply, one of the candidates relied on the radical electorate and was trying to polarize the situation to the maximum. Perhaps, his electorate was not inclined to a conversation” or maybe, he avoided a dialogue for fear of losing the “efficiency” of that electorate; and we all became the eyewitness of such efficiency.

  Why wasn’t LTP “given the opportunity” to join the activists crowded near the Mayor’s Office and guard them against spontaneous violence? “That thesis does not, mildly speaking, correspond to the reality. What’s the idea of the statement ‘he wasn’t given the opportunity’? Who prevented him from going and joining the demonstrators?” R. Kocharyan said in response to the question.

  LTP’s bodyguards were not obliged to do anything, and they refused to be present at the illegal protest of the “defendant”, but “he was free to go there without guards. And if he was afraid for his own security, he should have been concerned about the security of those who had gathered the. He should have been manly enough to go and participate in the demonstration. But the goals were different.”

  By the way, L. Ter-Petrosyan informed the President through “third persons”, i.e. the National Security officials, that he wanted to go and appease the people. And the response was, “We will only welcome that; if you can, go and appease them.” But instead, the revolutionary leader presented an ultimatum that he intended to lead his own people to the Freedom Square and continue the demonstration boom for an additional period of 15 days. Furthermore, the ultimatum was presented after the situation was beyond control and the barricaded mob attacked the policemen with clubs and metal poles.

  “Do you imagine what would have happened if the mob had reached the Opera along Mashtots Avenue? What would have been the situation in the capital city? He was told that the offer was delayed,” R. Kocharyan noted, expressing a hesitation as to how that person could have sat at home the whole night, knowing that his proponents were plundering shops, setting cars on fire and rebelling against the law enforcers.

  What’s much more extraordinary according to the President is that Ter-Petrosyan refused to receive the Catholicos (supreme patriarch) of All Armenians. His Holiness had previously informed of his intention to visit LTP with a peacemaking mission. Even though the President didn’t believe in the effectiveness of the meeting, he welcomed the initiative saying, “Even if there is a small likelihood to attain some result, it must be done.”

  But what happened is unbelievable. “His Holiness went there and wasn’t simply let in. It’s just perplexing. I would never have imagined that any Armenian in any part of the world could refuse to receive His Holiness in his place. Perhaps, it seemed to him that he was riding a horse, and the authorities were in panic; or, maybe, he thought that I had asked His Holiness to visit him and considered that the meeting was not advantageous to him.” Thus, he missed the chance of overcoming the situation in a more or less dignified manner.

• LILIT POGHOSYAN

• AZERBAIJAN REMINDS ABOUT ITSELF

  VARDAN BARSEGHYAN   
  Trying To Take Advantage Of The Situation The March 4 attack by Azerbaijani special detachment, on NKR-Azerbaijani border zone, in village Levonarch, of Mardakert region and the one-day battle following ...

• TER-PETROSYAN – THE CHIEF OGANIZER OF “MARCH 1”

  LILIT POGHOSYAN   8
  Yesterday, during regular meeting with the journalists, President ROBERT KOCHARYAN first expressed condolences to the relatives of the people who had died as a result of the massive disorders organized ...

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• MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OFFICIALLY REFUTES

  The Ministry of Defense has officially refuted many reports made by certain foreign Mass Media. It has referred to the report spread by Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, saying that during the clash between ...

• NORMAL PERSON NEVER SAYS SUCH A THING

  According to politician Artyom Khachatryan: “At present many people avoid responsibility. Ter-Petrosyan says that it was provoked by the acting regime. It is obvious that normal person would have never ...

• PUTS PRESSURE

  Even On The Constitutional Court In his announcement made in the Constitutional Court yesterday L. Ter-Petrosyan particularly said. “Consequently in such circumstances any decision made by the Constitutional ...

• THE BATTLES IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT KEEP ON

  The hearing of the dispute of CEC 24.02.2008 N 24-A decision on “The Election of The President of the Republic”, based on the applications submitted by the Presidential candidates Tigran Karapetyan and ...

• TER-PETROSYAN LIES OVER AGAIN

• INTOLERABLE APPROACH

• TER-PETROSYAN HAS PROBLEMS WITH MORALITY

• IN POLITICS ONE MUST BE AS PATIENT AS A FISHERMAN

  KIMA YEGHIAZARYAN   

• COALITION MEMBERS SHOULDN’T STEP ASIDE

  GEVORG HARUTYUNYAN   

• ARMENIA IS NOT MONGOL-TATAR CARAVANSERAI

  

• OTHERWISE “MARCH 1” WILL BE REPEATED

  GAGIK MKRTCHYAN   

• TER-PETROSYAN SUFFERS DEFEAT INSIDE THE COUNTRY

  ARMEN TSATOURYAN   

• TER-PETROSYAN – THE CHIEF OGANIZER OF “MARCH 1”

  LILIT POGHOSYAN   

• AZERBAIJAN REMINDS ABOUT ITSELF

  VARDAN BARSEGHYAN   

• HEAVY BLOW ON THE COUNTRY’S REPUTATION

• POLITICAL PARTITION APPARENT

  “HAYOTS ASHKHARH”   

• ALL THIS WAS PREDICTABLE AT THE PRE-ELECTION STAGE

  

• VAHAN HOVHANNISYAN’S STATEMENT

• CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER AND SOCIAL SECURITY TO BE OBSERVED

• 1857  Death of Rooben Papazian, linguist, teacher, literary and public figure. He was born in 1806, in Constantinople.
• 1894  Birth of one of the founders of the Armenian national ballet school, Ilia Arbatov (Yeghia Yaghoobian) in Tbilissi.
• 1905  Death of composer Makar Yekmalian. He was born in 1856.
• 1916  Signature of the Sykes-Picot Secret Pact between Great Britain and France. It dealt with the allocation of the Asian regions of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1921  Creation of the "Ararat" trust in Yerevan.
• 1924  Foundation of the Armenian State Central Archives by decree of Armenia's Central Committee. Now there are 3 million documents in our archive. The oldest document dates from 1630.
• 1926  Foundation of the first Sewing Factory in Yerevan.
• 1945  Lieutenant-colonel of the Guard, Nelson Stepanyan is awarded his second "Gold Star" medal. Because he is a two-time "Hero of the USSR" his bronze bust is to be placed before his residence.
• 1955  Fourth election of the Armenian SSR Supreme Council.
• 1974  During a meeting of the UN Human Rights Sub-Committee, the 1915 Genocide of the Armenians was recognized as the first Genocide fo the 20th century.
• 1992  Azeri Turk forces occupy Karanchi (Martakert, Artsakh).

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