THIS IS THE SCENE THAT RAISED THE SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTIONARIES
Kima Yeghiazaryan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
06 Nov 08
Armenia
As we know, the members of the NA interim committee dealing with the
investigation of the March 1-2 incidents and their causes recently
visited the Police military unit No. 10/33 with the purpose of meeting
with the commanders and finding out the circumstances of the death
of Tigran Abgaryan, a serviceman who was injured during the March
1-2 incidents and passed away 40 days later.
Commander of the military unit Arsen Galstyan gave the committee
members a thorough description on the number of the servicemen of
the unit, the main tools of their armament and the process of the
activities of the demonstrators and servicemen. He pointed out that on
March 1, around 7 o’clock in the morning, the detachment consisting
of 200 servicemen was deployed in the neighborhood of the opera;
at that time, the territory was already cleared of the demonstrators.
The servicemen were already armed with individual tools of protection,
rubber clubs, anti-attack shields and plastic helmets. Their armament
consisted of special chemical means and bullets with gas grenades
("Tcheryomoukha 4", "Tcheryomoukha 7", "Siren-6" and 6 karabin rifles –
KS-23, that were envisaged for shooting highly explosive shells filled
with gas).
As mentioned by Armen Antonyan, Head of military unit No. 10/33, they
were instructed to move to the intersection of Grigor Lousavorich and
Paronyan streets at around 19:00 p.m., after being deployed in Mashtots
Avenue. In that period, the demonstrators initiated provocative acts
against the soldiers; they threw stones and burning bottles to them
and shouted insults.
According to Mr. Antonyan, 4-5 servicemen were poisoned by the special
means used against them, and some others received missile wounds. The
demonstrators burnt down the ambulance car of the military unit,
which had several injured soldiers lying inside.
At around 21:00-22:00 in the evening, when the soldiers tried to
block the way with barbed wires, the crowd attacked the UAZ vehicle,
forced the soldiers out by beating them and confiscated the vehicle
which was later used for running over Gevorg Tevanyan.
The demonstrators used a great pressure, and the detachment, according
to A.
Antonyan, retreated from Leo Street. A grenade was thrown at them,
but fortunately, it fell between the wall and two parked vehicles. The
vehicles were totally damaged. One of the officers received missile
wounds there.
After a short while, Tigran Abgaryan, a serviceman standing in
the first ranks, fell down unexpectedly. It turned out that he had
received a fire-arm injury on the neck. Because the ambulance of the
military unit had burnt down, it was impossible to provide first aid
to the injured immediately. A little later, he was moved to hospital.
So, what’s described above exactly coincides with the instructions of
Nikol Pashinyan when the latter announced, "Our guys have occupied the
bridge of the avenue. We need 50 volunteers; it’s necessary to move
forward and strengthen our positions. Around 200-300 people should
move forward to the fish store and strengthen our positions next to
the other shops. Our guys guard the barbed wires, hurrah!"
And he also announced, "Dear people, this papa has brought news
that all the soldiers standing in the avenue have escaped" and
generally, "the whole process is under control." Then he spoke into
the microphone, asking Myasnik Malkhasyan, Hakob Hakobyan, Sassoun
Makaelyan and the heads of LTP’s campaign headquarters to approach
the platform for conducting a discussion over the course of their
further activities.
By the way, the operator of "A1+" worked in the same section of the
road (the intersection of Gr. Lousavorich-Paronyan streets), and
what’s even more, the time of filming the scenes coincides with the
description of the Head of the military unit. But for some reason, he
"didn’t notice" the soldiers injured as a result of the operations of
the "peaceful demonstrators" and didn’t film them. Or, he "pretended
not to notice" the burning ambulance car and the other vehicles damaged
by the grenades. Leaving aside Tigran Abgaryan who was falling down,
he hurried to take pictures of the body parts of the piglet "stained
with blood".
We wonder whether the members of the interim committee will try to
combine the description given in the military unit with the speeches
of the revolutionaries or they will lean on the allegations of the
activists who persist in their statements that the police testimonies
and the information obtained from the military unit cannot be
considered reliable.