WHY DID AFYAN NOT CALL?

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11:45:49 – 26/09/2009

The report of the NA temporary commission to study March 1
interestingly dwelt also on the coordinator of the Armenian National
Congress Levon Zurabyan. `The commission considered strictly
unacceptable the behavior of the organizer of the mass event Levon
Zurabyan with which the latter failed the arrangement between the
Police and the organizer of the event David Shahnazaryan to continue
the event in some other place’, is written in the report of the
commission. Our interview with the HAK coordinator Levon Zurabyan
dwells on this topic.

How do you assess the report of the NA temporary commission to study
March 1? Did it justify public’s expectations?

We have already given our assessment through the statement of the
Armenian National Congress. From the beginning, the public did not
have any expectation from those people who had to serve assassins and
lawbreakers. They are completely immersed in crimes and naturally did
what they were ordered to do: they kept the malicious crimes of the
regime.

This report dwelt also on your actions and the commission considered
unacceptable that you with the help of your behavior failed the
arrangement between the Police and David Shahnazaryan.

I am very much pleased with such a behavior of the commission. Any
criticism in my address from such defamed and dishonorable people only
enhances my rating in the eyes of the public. As to the concrete
episode, so even this small episode shows the whole breach of the
commission. In reality, they do not know or they did not want to learn
or they mutated the facts on purpose. The reality is the following:
when on March 1 near 12 o’clock I reached the statue of Miasnikyan,
there already was some arrangement between the Police and David
Shahnazaryan, though Mr. Shahnazaryan was not a member of the
headquarter and could not negotiate in the name of the headquarter. I
was forced to annul all the arrangements. And started to negotiate
with the Police and in the end we came to the same agreement to lead
people to Matenadaran. But when I announced about it the public,
nonetheless, insisted that they were ready to listen only to Levon
Ter-Petrosyan. When I throw a look back I understand that the
government wanted to involve the public into a trap and what they did
in the evening of March 1 with the help of their provocateurs, shop
plunder etc, they planned to do when taking people to Matenadaran.

After, I turned to the deputy head of Police Sashik Afyan telling him
that people do not obey the headquarter and in fact we lost control
due to the actions of the Police because the audio technique is taken
away, many leaders of the opposition are arrested and the president
Levon Ter-Petrosyan was taken by force to his house. I proposed to
Sashik Afyan to procure me a meeting with Levon Ter-Petrosyan because
the president was under home arrest and his house was blockaded. He
procured me a car, but we met obstacles at every step, and every time
had to call Sashik Afyan for him to tell them to free the way for
us. I finally met Levon Ter-Petrosyan and he told me to go back and to
inform Afyan that the president was ready to make proposals to solve
the situation. I came back told the people to stay there because we
were trying to solve the situation through negotiations for further
actions. I gave Afyan Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s number and he agreed to
call him with pleasure. I considered that the situation could be saved
in this way. After half an hour Levon Ter-Petrosyan called me and
asked where Afyan was. I went to the Police department and there
Aghasi Kirakosyan connected with Afyan and I talked to him for a long
time. He was found out not to have called Levon Ter-Petrosyan unlike
our previous arrangements to change the situation with joint
efforts. I tried for long to explain to him that the situation is very
tense and he was wrong not to call Levon Ter-Petrosyan. But he said he
did not have such instructions. I did not manage to convince him. We
started negotiations with the government through an international
diplomat. Levon Ter-Petrosyan was calling me, I – the international
diplomat, they were calling Robert Kocharyan staff. They were
protracting time to organize their bandit groups, to take the army
there. It was already 9 o’clock and when the international diplomat
called me the first fires were heard. And in fact, the negotiations
were not over but the government started its assault at people. T!
he most i
is topic in the press and everyone knows, the Police have videos which
were shown on H1 TV also. With all this no one responded or called me
for an interrogation. It is another question how I would answer but
they had to call me. They did not because they knew I would reveal
their breaches.

Alongside with the NA temporary commission an oppositional public
group was also working engaged in the study of the March 1
events. Will this group continue its activities or it stopped working?

There is not need today. This task was put on the fact-finding group
by Serge Sargsyan’s order. But even the abolishment of the group, it
continues working. Who waned to reveal the truth now continues working
and releasing relevant reports. The members of the fact-finding group
will release new reports. This group is the only source of truth.

But for whom are they going to work? Whom are they going to present
their reports if the NA temporary commission does not exist any more?

We never expected such a thing and we have never said that the only
mission of the fact-finding group was to provide the NA commissions
with reports. I am saying this because we did not have any expectation
from the NA commission, and providing reports was a necessary but a
useless task from the point that it never revealed anything. The
fact-finding group has a wider mission. It presents its reports, its
facts to the public and to the international public. And if today some
truth on March 1 has been revealed, it happened thanks to the members
of the fact-finding group.

Interview by ARMAN GALOYAN