ArmInfo. The events of March 1, 2008 became one of the most shameful pages in the history of Armenia, for which we are all responsible. The head of the Constitutional Court of Armenia, the chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Gagik Harutyunyan stated this in a conversation with journalists.
"We are all to blame for the fact that it came to the victims, and we failed to prevent the tragedy. This should not happen," he said. At the same time Harutyunyan assured that if there had been no intervention these days, the consequences would have been more tragic.
Harutyunyan said that in the history of the third Republic of Armenia there were other difficult periods in addition to the terrorist attack in the Armenian parliament on October 27, 1999 and the tragedy of March 1, "It was a very tense time, I will not say when, but people in camouflage and with weapons were ready to take extreme measures." Then I called a meeting at night with the condition that such exits should not be found that would not lead to bloodshed. The situation goes out of control, I said: if blood is spilled, I will be the first victim," said Harutyunyan.
Asked whether he happened to be against the will of the country's leadership when he was head of the Constitutional Court, Harutyunyan answered: "There were cases when the country's top leadership did not talk to me for months because of the decisions taken."
After the presidential elections on March 1, 2008, at which Serzh Sargsyan won, the people went out into the street. As a result of the clash between the law enforcers and the protesters, 10 people were killed.