"Capitulation"
Statement of the Armenian National Congress
On June 6, Serzh Sargsyan announced that he is revoking his order to create a Fact-Finding Group and terminated its activities.
The creation of the Fact-Finding Group was made possible by the active role played by the Armenian society and the international community, particularly the PACE and the CE Human Rights Commissioner T. Hammarberg. The group worked for six months with two representatives from the coalition, two from the opposiition and one from the RA Ombudsman's office and mainly focused on revealing the circumstances for the murders on March 1. The work of the Fact-Finding Group was praised and its importance was emphasized in the PACE Resolution 1643.
In April, the Fact-Finding Group handed the NA parliamentary commission the first written report on the circumstances for officer Hamlet Tadevosyan's death. The factual materials turned the hypotheses of the authorities around. If the work continued, the commission would be presented with a couple of other reports about the remaining murders. Representative of the Ombudsman V. Stepanyan (head of the group) and later coalition representatives R. Avagyan and G. Tovmasyan undertook the initiative to stop the work of the Fact-Finding Group for two weeks and then they all refused to show up to the meetings.
The Armenian National Congress announces that the disbanding of the Fact-Finding Group is an evident capitulation of the regime in front of the indisputable facts that were being revealed by the group and the facts that the authorities were trying to conceal for a year and a half. The only reason that the authorities would take this step was if the facts gathered by the Fact-Finding Group were to prove that the former authorities and current state officials are to blame for the events of March 1 and especially the murders.
Condemning the termination of the Fact-Finding Group's activities, we continue to demand an independent investigation into the events of March 1 with international experts.
We are also certain that there will be a correct response to this peculiar fact by the Armenian society and the international community, particularly the PACE, the CE Human Rights Commissioner and others.
