TER-PETROSIAN INITIATES NEW ACTIONS TO FORCE SERZH SARGSYAN PUNISH THOSE GUILTY FOR MARCH 1
NOYAN TAPAN
Ju ly 4
During the mass meeting of the Popular Movement, its leader, the first
president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosian declared his intention to
make the movement more active to force the authorities to implement
democratic reforms and investigate the events of March 1st. Addressing
the gathering of some 20 thousand people near the Matenadaran hill
in downtown Yerevan, Ter-Petrosian, who was one of the presidential
candidates during the February 19 elections, said his movement will
undertake in July numerous actions all over the country to show the
authorities that the movement is decisive in its efforts to have
the political prisoners free and those guilty for the violence of
March 1st in Yerevan punished. According to Ter-Petrosian, the first
person guilty for the March 1st bloodshed is the then president
Robert Kocharian.
Ter-Petrosian also called Serzh Sargsyan to fire other officials who
are, according to him, to blame for the crimes of that day, namely the
current deputy prime minister Armen Gevorgian (in March he was the head
of the president’s staff), the current head of president’s staff Hovik
Abrahamian (who was then deputy prime minister), head of the National
Security Service Gorik Hakobian, Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepian
and the director of the Public TV and Radio Alexander Haroutiunian. The
first president said the next national meeting will be held on August
1st, "to sum up the first 100 days of presidency of Serzh Sargsyan
and to see if he fulfils the above mentioned demands. If no, the
Popular Movement will turn to demand early presidential elections,
Ter-Petrosian announced.
The meeting was followed by a rally in downtown Yerevan, which lasted
about two hours and ended at the Northern Avenue, where a sit-in strike
was started, one of the actions to be held before the August meeting.