Wednesday, February 13 2019 14:24

ArmInfo. The promised "objective, impartial film about the events of March 1, based  exclusively on facts" failed, a well-known Armenian journalist and  writer Ashot Ghazaryan wrote in his author's article in the  Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Independent Newspaper) about the film "The Case  of March 1". 

The author reminds that the film "Case of March 1", the script for  which was made by Russian TV presenter Roman Babayan and Anton  Grishin, and directed by Dmitry Novokshonov, presents the events of  March 1-2, 2008, when 10 people died in Yerevan, and more than 200  received injuries of various severity.

Essentially, Ghazaryan writes, who also participated in the film and  commented on the events of those days, the film promotes the idea of  the responsibility for everything that happened to the presidential  candidate in those elections Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first president  of the republic, and his supporters, including the current Prime  Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. Other opinions were not included  in the final version of the film. This naturally caused outrage among  respondents, eyewitnesses and participants in those tragic events,  who did not regret their time, spiritual strength and dispelled their  memory and wounds for another revival of those memories for the sake  of objective reproduction of the assessment of what happened in the  film. However, instead, they, for the most part, those who considered  the authorities, President Robert Kocharyan, to be the main culprit  of the bloodshed, turned out to be participants of a certain show,  most likely, intended with a certain unequivocal task.

The political writer notes that the Supervisory Board of Armenia on  Media Ethics made a special statement about the film. Armenian media  experts, in particular, noted that the authors of the film "The Case  of March 1" crossed a number of 'red lines', outlining the boundaries  of professional, quality journalism, including documentary  filmmaking. The testimonies of the film participants, documented by  the Supervisory Board, suggest that the authors of the film abused  people's trust. Although two of the protesters following the 2008  presidential election, Aram Manukyan (chairman of the opposition  Republic Party, an ally of Levon Ter-Petrosian) and Vladimir  Karapetyan (former press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry),  are featured in the film, however, as they state, all those fragments  in  according to which the then authorities of Armenia were  responsible for the tragedy, were cut. In addition, Manukyan and  Karapetyan say that they were misled ''about the real authors of the  film and its orientation''.

''I don't know who could be interested in the ''The March 1 Case''   in Russia. In Armenia, it must be supposed, pleased a rather narrow  circle of supporters of the former extremely unpopular authorities.  In the overwhelming majority of the audience, the film caused a  categorical rejection. I would not like it to become another barrier  and irritant in relations between Yerevan and Moscow, "Ashot  Ghazaryan mentioned in his article.