ANC: By concealing March 1, 2008, crimes Armenian authorities are  becoming complicit

ArmInfo.By concealing the devastating crimes of March 1, 2008, the current Armenian government  is becoming just as criminal and responsible as those who initially organized and carried them out. This statement was issued by the Armenian National Congress (ANC), the party of Armenia's first  president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, on the anniversary of the March 1 events.

The ANC recalled that the presidential elections of February 19,  2008, were held amid gross violations of the Constitution and laws,  mass violence, and large-scale fraud perpetrated by the ruling  regime, leading to a nationwide uprising that culminated in peaceful,  round-the-clock rallies in Yerevan's Freedom Square. It was during  this period, the party recalled, that the campaign headquarters of  first president Levon Ter- Petrosyan filed a lawsuit with the  Constitutional Court of the Republic, along with compelling evidence  declaring the election results illegal (Serzh Sargsyan won the  election with 58.64% of the vote - ed.).

"To prevent the Constitutional Court's inevitable positive ruling on  the lawsuit, armed groups in police uniforms attacked peaceful  demonstrators sleeping in tents early in the morning of March 1.  Ignoring offers of negotiations, they barbarously destroyed  everything around them and turned everything upside down," the ANC  recalled.

That day, the political party continued, several groups of  demonstrators, driven from the square, gathered around the Alexander  Myasnikyan monument in Yerevan. "The news of the regime's plot  quickly spread, bringing tens of thousands of people there. Despite  the horrific destruction, the protest remained peaceful and  organized. However, under the cover of darkness, new police attacks  began. Shots rang out, killing at least 10 people. The following day,  a state of emergency was declared, in violation of the law, and mass  arrests began. Thousands of movement participants were persecuted;  criminal cases were fabricated, and more than 150 activists were  arrested in illegal trials and sentenced to prison," the ANC noted.

Meanwhile, as the party recalled, Nikol Pashinyan came to power in  Armenia in 2018 as a result of the "Velvet Revolution," but was  imprisoned for the same crimes on March 1 (he was accused of  organizing mass unrest - ed.). The ANC noted that upon coming to  power, one of Pashinyan's first steps was to reopen the March 1 case,  which seemed logical. Specifically, as the political party noted,  numerous investigations were conducted and important testimonies were  published, which, along with other existing documents, were more than  sufficient to fully resolve the March 1 case and bring Armenia's  second president, Robert Kocharyan, and others guilty of violating  the constitutional order and instigating the coup d'etat to justice.

"However, the case, which was on the verge of a resolution,  unexpectedly reached a dead end. Kocharyan was acquitted by  Pashinyan's 'reorganized' Constitutional Court. The case was closed  on March 1. The only tangible result of all this was the political  revival of the long-suppressed, faded, and forgotten Kocharyan," the  party noted.

Soon after, as the ANC continued, the Prosecutor General's Office of  Armenia, which had been carrying out all of Pashinyan's orders, also  suspended the process of judicial acquittal of those illegally  convicted in the March 1, 2008 case. The party noted that as a  result, more than seventy people illegally convicted remain  unacquitted, while others on the same fabricated charges have been  acquitted by both the Armenian and European Courts of Human Rights.

"Despite dozens of acquittals, not a single investigator or  prosecutor who handled the fabricated cases in 2008, not a single  judge who issued illegal decisions, has been punished. Moreover, many  of them were promoted under Pashinyan as a reward. In other words,  the latter used the case of the most high-profile crime in public  opinion, March 1, solely to boost his own approval ratings. Even  today, in this pre-election period (parliamentary elections in  Armenia are scheduled for June 7, 2026 - ed.), Pashinyan, who has  absolutely no moral compass, is resorting to yet another 'juggling  act' for the same purpose, initiating pathetic cases related to the  March 1 case against a few rank- and-file officials," the political  force noted.

The ANC emphasized that the crimes of March 1, 1999, and October 27,  1999 (the terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament - ed.) "are a  stigma on the forehead of Armenian statehood, and their failure to  disclose them and the impunity of the perpetrators constitute a time  bomb embedded in Armenian statehood, undermining citizens' faith and  trust in the rule of law, justice, and the security of life in an  independent state." "Consequently, today's authorities, by concealing  these crimes, which are devastating to the state, are becoming just  as criminal and responsible as those who once organized and carried  them out," the ANC concluded.

It should be recalled that 15 years ago, following the February 19  presidential elections won by Serzh Sargsyan, unrest erupted in  Yerevan, culminating in clashes with law enforcement. The Armenian  opposition, led by first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who also ran  in the election, held rallies in central Yerevan beginning February  20, expressing dissatisfaction with the vote results. The protests  escalated into riots and clashes between protesters and law  enforcement on March 1-2, resulting in 10 deaths, including police  officers, and over 200 injuries of varying severity.

On August 17, 2018, Nikol Pashinyan declared that the case  surrounding the events of March 1-2, 2008, in Yerevan had been fully  resolved.