INTERIM PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE: FOR WHOM AND WITH WHAT PURPOSE WAS IT SET UP?
Kima Yeghiazaryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
07 Oct 2008
Armenia

For those who deprive it of its reputation?

There is such an impression that the interim parliamentary committee
investigating the March 1-2 incidents and their causes works only for
the sake of the revolutionaries. To be more exact, this is no longer
an impression, but rather – a reality.

Judging by the activities of the committee, we can definitely say
that from the very start it adopted an approach of not making the
Ter-Petrosyan-led "pan-national" movement angry or offended. Whereas
the revolutionary leaders ignored the activities of the committee
from the outset, announcing that they didn’t trust the body because
it couldn’t work "impartially".

The members of the committee were not even offended when LTP made a
statement on sending Gevorik, an activist of the Armenian Pan-National
Movement, to the committee, instaed of participating in its activities
himself.

As we have already mentioned, the committee continues to act in
support of the revolutionaries, in an attempt to resist the blows it
receives every day from the centre of the movement. At the same time,
it spares no effort for being considered a little bit "tolerable"
by the aggressive minority.

Whereas the task of setting up an interim commi ttee was conditioned
by the necessity of revealing to the public why the tragic events
happened and what they were caused by. And not with the purpose of
making titanic efforts in an attempt to prove certain things to the
organizers and activists participating in the March 1 events. And
this is what the committee has been doing for around 3 months. But
all the efforts proved fruitless.

The way the committee works is really strange. Especially
considering the fact that the revolutionaries, expressing "distrust"
of the committee and rejecting its proposal of having their own
representatives there, set up their own "committee conducting an
inquiry into the March 1 incidents". And now it turns out that both
the parliamentary and the "public" committees act in support of the
revolutionaries.

Just look here: the NA Interim Committee never misses a week and pays
regular visits to the prison cells to see the "political detainees".

One might think that it has managed to find out certain things during
those visits. But as a matter of fact, there’s nothing new apart from
the successive self-justifications of the detainees saying that they
haven’t done anything wrong and are in prison only because of their
political views.

For example, Souren Sirounyan, chief security guard of Vano
[Siradegyan] called the committee members from the isolation cell. And
they ran there again to hear Mr. Sirounyan say that he took pride in
standing next to Alik Arzoumanyan, Sassoon Mikayelyan and the others
during the court hearings.

We do not know what the committee managed to find out as a result
of this particular visit, but we are sure that the exciting meeting
cannot, in any way, contribute to inquiry into the cases, let alone
revelation of their causes.

Or, let’s take the issue discussed during the previous session. I mean,
the well-known video material provided by the revolutionaries. First,
it is surprising why the interim committee does not conduct an inquiry
into a "thriller" that doesn’t have an author; something which results
from the fantasy of the radical collective, so to say.

And what’s more, it wastes time and means on sending the anonymous
message for expert examination in order to find out whether the films
shown in the video material are human parts of body or not; or whether
what is seen on the walls of the French Embassy is really blood. If
the revolutionaries do not trust those people, was there any point in
making their reflections a subject of inquiry? Especially when there
was something the committee members knew from the outset: regardless
the conclusion of any of the experts, the anonymous authors of the
video material (who had authorship rights) wouldn’t believe them.

And where is the only eye-witness, i.e. the operator o f "A1+"? It
turns out he has disappeared from the country. Once the committee
proposed that the operator participate in the upcoming sessions and
clarify certain points, he was immediately lost sight of.

As to former Home Minister Souran Abrahamyan, one of the responsible
members of the committee of the revolutionaries, he turned down
the invitation of the parliamentary committee and didn’t attend the
session and then labeled it as a "cynical show". And frankly speaking,
he did the right thing. If the committee allows him and other people
like him to wind its members round their fingers, it may not wait
for other assessments.

Do you remember that during one of the sessions, the committee
members assured the participants that there was a pile of pictures
full of petrifying scenes, which the revolutionaries had photographed
on March 1? So many people asked and begged them for the photos,
however… It turned out they had gone underground, together with
Nickol [Pashinyan]. One can only imagine with what responsibility the
NA Interim Committee would have sent the pile of photos for expert
examination had it received them in time.

It is really ridiculous to see the committee members making attempts
to satisfy the revolutionaries at any price.

Another interesting consideration: Vahagn Haroutyunyan, Head of
the group conducting the investigation of the "March 1" case,
participate d in the sessions several times. Do you remember any
member of the committee ask him whether they were going to interrogate
L. Ter-Petrosyan at least for an hour? No committee member dares to
address such kind of question to the Head of the Investigative Group.

Why? Because the NA Interim Committee has adopted the following
slogan: to win the favor of the revolutionaries, to caress and cherish
them. Otherwise, their fit of anger will be repeated.