DID THE FRENCH CONSUL KNOW ABOUT MARCH 1?

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On February 29 RA French Consul had held talks with French Armenian liberation fighter, film director and citizen of France Sargis Hatspanian and had advised him to leave Armenia. Does this mean that the French Consul knew what was going to happen on March 1? In response to ethnographer Hranush Kharatian’s question, Hatspanian refused to reply and only said that the conversation is recorded, can’t be found in Armenia and that he has promised to keep it top secret.

During a press conference today, Hatspanian announced that he is going to stay in Armenia longer than Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsian and that he has lived in Karabakh longer than both presidents. Hatspanian noted that he has no problems with Kocharian and Sargsyan, but said that he can’t stay on the sidelines.

“I can’t put up with the fact that the authorities disrespect the people’s voice and I have made an announcement on that on February 20 at Freedom Square. The Armenian people received an awakening thanks to Levon Ter-Petrosyan and proof of that was Freedom Square, which was the last poll where the people had come to vote. There has never been anything more legal in the history of independent Armenia.”

After the beatings in Freedom Square on March 1, Hatspanian’s friends helped him move to Nagorno-Karabakh where he stayed until August 20. He was forced to leave for Paris on August 21 due to his parents’ poor health conditions. He returned to Yerevan on October 9 and found out that Robert Kocharian had decided to deny Hatspanian RA residency status when Yerevan was still in a state of emergency on March 10. Police chief of the Kentron police division Arthur Mehrabian handed Kocharian’s decision to Hatspanian without a stamp. As an attorney, Hatspanian stressed that he still doesn’t have the original copy of Kocharian’s decision, which means that the decision is illegitimate and nobody has the right to exile him from Armenia.

In 1997, when Kocharian came to Armenia and took the post of Armenian Premier, Hatspanian also came to Armenia and applied to receive RA citizenship; however, three months later he received a denial. In 1995, Hatspanian got married to RA citizen Hasmik Poghosian and has two children and, according to RA legislation, he may always reside in Armenia.