FORMER HEAD OF RA POLICE WAS IN GENERAL CONTROL OF POLICE ACTIONS DURING MARCH 1-2 EVENTS IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan

Nov 14, 2008

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The former head of the RA police
Hayk Harurtyunian was in general control of the police actions during
the March 1-2 events in Yerevan. At about 5:30-6 pm on March 1, Hayk
Harutyunian instructed the deputy heads of the police Alexander Afian,
Hovhannes Hunanian, Armen Yeritsian and the former head of the 6th
department of the police Ashot Gizirian to implement direct control
of police operations in the area adjacent to Monument to Myasnikian
and some sections of Grigor Lusavorich and Mesrop Mashtots Streets
in Yerevan. The deputy head of the RA Police, Major General A. Afian
said this at the November 14 sitting the National Assembly Ad Hoc
Committee on Inquiry into March 1 Events.

According to the deputy head of the RA police, he did not give an
order to fire at demonstrators and, in his opinion, nobody gave such
an order.

However, in the words of A. Afian, under the law, the policemen who
were attacked by demonstrators had the right to use fire-arms. It
was also mentioned that after finding grenades, rods, etc. during
the operation in Liberty Square early in the morning of March 1, a
decision was made to bring marz (regional) police sub-units to Yerevan.

Information about the control of police actions in response to
persistent questions of National Assembly deputies during the two-hour
sitting was the only revelation. All the other questions either
remained unanswered or received the official viewpoint regularly
published in the past 8 months – about the restraint of the police,
the aggressive actions of demonstrators, the plundered shops, and
the vehicles which were damaged or destroyed.

In the words of the RA ombudsman Armen Harutyunian, who was with
the rapid response group of his office in the area near Monument to
Myasnikian during the events, his impression was that the demonstrators
did not argue aggressively but they were afraid that the police,
which appealed to them with the demand to continue the rally in some
other area, were going to "cudgel" them. According to A. Harutyunian,
in order to ensure their safety, the demonstrators chose an area
adjacent to some embassies and were armed with batons and rods
for self-defence. He testified that indeed there were attackers
on policemen, but these persons were "obviosly provokers". It was
mentioned that the demonstrators erected barricades from buses and
trolleybuses not in order to take streets and attack policemen but to
protect themselves from police. A. Harutyunian said that what continues
to be unexplained and incomprehensible is that if the demonstrators
were really the persons who plundered some shops in the area, why they
did not steal anything from "Svin" gun store located near these shops.

The ad hoc committee members were also interested to know whether
law enforcers in civilian clothes had participated in the actions
as the well-known video spread by the opposition shows some young
men standing beside the law enforcers and arming. A. Afian said that
he is not aware of this fact but the men in civilian clothes could
have been employees of the operative service. The deputy head of the
police noted that he did not watch that video so he cannot explain
why at 7:15 am the policemen were attacking a peaceful demonstrator
and throwing stones at him in Republic Square. In this connection
the chairman of the committee Samvel Nikoyan said that stones could
hardly be among the special antiriot weapons of the police. A.

Afian was given a copy of the videofilm so that he could watch it.

The chairman of the United Labor Party Gurgen Arsenian declared
that he is becoming more and more convinced that there was a third
disorientating side.

Otherwise it is incomprehensible based on whose information the then
president of Armenia Robert Kocharian stated for the world to hear that
the demonstrators hidden behind buses were firing at law enforcers
(which was not confirmed so far), and based on this he declared a
state of emergency for 20 days and introduced restrictions for the
3.5 million population of Armenia.

S. Nikoyan announced that with the aim of receiving explanations, the
former and current police officials who led actions of law enforcers
in other sections of Yerevan, as well as the opposition figure
Levon Zurabian will be invited to participate in the committee’s
sitting soon.