Armenia: No Answers for March 1 Violence

More than nine months after Yerevan's March 1 post-election clashes, the Council of Europe and many ordinary Armenians are taking issue with the official investigation into the violence for being long on promises and short on results.

Political tensions after Armenia's February 19 presidential election this year led to street clashes between opposition protesters and security forces that left at least 10 people dead and hundreds wounded. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Many opposition activists and supporters were arrested following the crackdown; some went into hiding.

In response to opposition claims about political prisoners, the government has insisted that steps are being taken to expose the "real culprits" for the violence. An ad hoc parliamentary commission was set up in June to look into the violence, and trials of suspected instigators have begun. In October, a group of experts to assist the investigation was also established.

These steps, however, have done little to assuage international concerns. For the third time since March 1, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) plans to raise Armenia's compliance with PACE resolutions for further scrutiny. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"If no changes are registered by the time when the issue of Armenia is raised at the PACE session in January, it is likely sanctions will be imposed," Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg told EurasiaNet at the end of his November 20-22 fact-finding visit to Armenia. "Unless there is a satisfactory situation, it is not excluded that Armenia will be stripped of its voting right."

Two earlier resolutions passed by the Strasbourg-based body (#1609 and #1620) have stressed the need for Armenia to conduct an independent and unbiased investigation into the March 1 events.

Patience among many Armenians is already running thin for a resolution to the question of culpability for the bloodshed.

"It's been already nine months and I want to know who killed my husband. Why did he die while he had nothing to do with all that and was simply coming home from work on that damned night?" asked Yerevan resident Varduhi Gevorgian, whose husband, Grigor Gevorgian, was reportedly killed while trying to make his way home by foot. According to his death certificate, Gevorgian died from a gunshot wound to the forehead.

The lack of answers for deaths such as Gevorgian's fuels international concerns.

At a November 22 press conference in Yerevan, Hammarberg hailed the formation of the Fact-Finding Group of Experts, but expressed criticism about Armenia's degree of "democratic progress."

"The information I have gathered has rather disappointed me," said Hammarberg, who expressed specific concern over the conduct of trials, interrogation methods, and the practice of keeping people in custody for months "without sufficient grounds."

"Tear gas cartridges were found in the bodies of three of those killed and it was those that caused their deaths," Hammarberg said, speaking through an Armenian interpreter. "Those cartridges were fired from guns carried by police and the narrow circle of police that dealt with guns [on that night] is known. I also thought that it was possible to establish who carried those guns whose cartridges caused the deaths." Hammarberg stated that he has twice raised the matter with the general prosecutor's office, but "they have so far failed to clarify the issue."

Yerevan translator Levon Baghdasarian believes that the general uncertainty surrounding the entire investigation makes it far from credible.

"The investigation body must be independent and unbiased, but it is not so," Baghdasarian commented. " What unbiased investigation can we talk about in this case if the sides that were involved in the events -- the police, the prosecutor's office -- are now conducting the investigation? That is, it turns out that the murder is being investigated by the murderers."

Arman Musinian, spokesperson for opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian, argued that there is no investigation into the March 1 events as such.

"Their logic is 'If you hadn't gathered on March 1, there would not have been victims. Since you did, then you are to blame,'" Musinian said.

However, 20-year-old student Hakob Manukian said he trusts the authorities.

"The authorities found themselves in a rather difficult situation after the March 1 events and now must do everything with a clear conscience to keep the public's trust . . .," said Manukian. "No doubt, steps are being made in this intricate case, however perhaps it would be correct if international experts were involved in the investigation for transparency."

Hammarberg said that the authorities have not made any specific request for assistance from international experts. "If they make such a request, we are ready to assist," he added.

Meanwhile, government representatives continue to stress that they are doing their utmost to conduct the most effective investigation possible.

"In order to have a complete picture to comment on, the investigation work needs to be completed," Edward Sharmazanov, a senior lawmaker from the governing Republican Party of Armenia, said. "But I think everything is being done for the public at large to have exhaustive answers to their questions."

The complaints, he added, are normal for a developing democracy.

"Reforms are not carried out within one day, particularly for such an intricate case as March 1," Sharmazanov said. "We are implementing reforms not for Hammarberg and his European partners, but for having a democratic and developed Armenia tomorrow."