The Opposition and the Commission

I met Samuel Nikoyan in his Parliament office, after several reschedules. He told me we knew each other, but I hadn't met him until that day. During our discussion, he showed me the ballistic reports of some of the cases under investigation, but I couldn't photocopy them. I saw the death record of a man who had been shot in the head with a tear gas capsule that left a huge hole in his cervix.

The Commission for the Investigation of March 1st Events is working with a group of American experts who will also issue a report after the investigations. During the investigations, the American experts encountered bureaucratic obstacles in accessing some information, because many documents being considered a matter of state secret, Samuel Nikoyan says. Those of us from the Armean Commission were confronted with the same problem. I understood that every commission has the same problems during investigation work, especially if the government is involved.

For example, we requested a document from the Prosecution Office, but they wouldn't give it to us, arguing that the case wasn't closed yet. Such obstacles delayed our investigative work. And I'm worried about that. Maybe they actually need time to study those documents and solve the cases before showing them to us.

Can you tell me what the documents you were talking about contain?

Samuel Nikoyan: They regard the case already made public, that of a cheek bone fragment found on the street. I asked the Prosecution to track its origin and find out why it was lying there. I invited a lot of experts, including doctors from various hospitals in Armenia to examine the cheek bone and find its origin. The first impression was that it came from a pig. The final result of this expertise is still being expected.

Where was the cheek bone found?

Samuel Nikoyan: It was found on the street, in a pool of blood. The cheek bone itself was never found, there is only a video recording. I called the operator who had filmed the scene for investigation, but he didn't want to show up. The Commission wanted to ask him where he had filmed the scene, because the location isn't clear in the recording. There's only a colse-up on the blood pool and on the cheek bone fragment. There are witnesses who claim it wasn't lying where the events took place and that is was filmed elsewhere. But it doesn't matter where it was filmed, the fact that it was passed out to the people is what really counts, causing resentment and the impression that the scene was part of the March 1st events. I find it important what people think, as the president of this commission. Because, sometimes, such pieces of untruthful evidence get to the crowd and you can't prove the contrary. Or you do it with great difficulty.

The opposition made a film about the events that took place on March 1st and March 2nd, which was passed out to the population. The documentary showed scenes with the armed police forces, the group who fired Chiromuchas weapons, wounded people receiving help from the protesters, being removed from the danger zone and taken to the cars, statements made by political leaders from both sides, the speeches given by the opposition leaders during the protest meetings. One scene shows that cheek bone fragment found on the street and the disfigured face of a protester who was missing a part of his cheek bone, examined by a medical specialist. This is the film Samuel Nikoyan is talking about.

It was also said that during the events there were not only 10 dead people, but more of them, around 78-80, and we can't prove to the population how things really happened. And, unfortunately, 10 deaths mean a great deal, even 1 death means a great deal. We don't need 11 deaths. The case of the cheekbone film in a pool of blood proves that there were in fact 11 deaths. That's what the opposition wants to prove. That's why we hurry to give a final conclusion to the examinations.

The commission is in a predicament. On one hand, it faces pressure from the American experts, on the other, there is an external pressure. We don't have support from the society, which is segregated, the political scene is divided and, whatever the result the commission showed, there will be two different interpretations, two different truths. Not everybody wants a minute investigation of the events, to know everything about what really happened. Because each and one of them would have to take responsibility for his share of the guilt. On one hand, the protest leaders, who organized and led the 10 days of illegal protests and instigated the population to acts of vandalism, telling the people they had to defend themselves, to bring in guns, to build up blocks. The police forces shared the guilt because of the violent attacks initiated on the morning of March 1st, instigating the protesters even more. And no one wants to know about this.

Mister Nikoyan, what sort of weapons did the policemen use?

Samuel Nikoyan: They used the arsenal specific to this sort of actions: rubber sticks, plastic shields, water cannons, tear gas and fire arms (personal pistols, automatic weapons, machine guns). There was also a sniper. These were the weapons used during the March 1st events.

You were talking about the grenades thrown by the protesters. Where did they get them from?

Samuel Nikoyan: The black market. The Nagorno Karabakh War left behind many unregistered weapons. Weapons that were then purchased on the black market and that the owners kept. (At the beginning of the war in Karabakh, the fight took place between organized crime groups supplied with weapons by different factions and organizations. After a while, the army stepped in, which hadn't been officially formed until 1991).

How was the political process influenced by these events, what is the message?

Samuel Nikoyan: Since March 1st, the Opposition has been struggling to keep up the fight, hoping they will succeed. They want a revolution, this is their main goal, and they call it the "music and dance revolution". That's what they call it, not me. If such protests were successful in Ukraine and Georgia, they won't succeed in Armenia either. One step at a time, the society is calming down. This cataclysm had the kind of impact that the lightning has on nature. The March 1st events made the government work normally, they made it stronger, consolidated its position and fortified the ties between government members. Now, nobody can say that the Armenian ministers are corrupted and that one of the ministers behaves inadequately. This is the result of the March 1st events. These events strengthened the presidential and governmental system. The Opposition is always on their backs.

The political process also faces international pressure. There are two type of pressure. A political one, based on the decisions and on the priorities of the great powers. And there is also the Council of Europe, being used as a weapon against some countries. I believe this is an organism created for the Opposition. But the entire country, together with all its structures, is a member in the Council of Europe, not only the Opposition. These obstacles must be overcome. Whatever the international pressure, if you don't have grounds for this, it won't have any effect.