New witnesses questioned over March 1 clashes
The Special Investigation Service of Armenia has interrogated ten people-alleged witnesses of the March 1-2 deadly clashes- in an attempt to reveal the consequences of the tragic events.
"I regret to say that the witnesses did not say anything new on the clashes," Vahagn Harutyunyan, a senior SIS official heading the probe into the March 2008 unrest, told A1+.
Harutyunyan did not exclude the possibility of questioning Armenia's first and second Presidents [Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan] though he does not find it necessary at the moment.
"There is no need to interrogate ex-Defense Minister Mikael Harutyunyan either. The interrogation is not enough to reveal the army's involvement in the clashes," said the SIS official.
Harutyunyan says the Special Investigation Service pinned great hopes on the disbanded fact-finding group, but the group failed to justify their expectations.
"The fact-finding group was unable to unveil any fact; it only gave political assessments and distorted the facts."
The investigative group has identified the youth who is disguising himself in civil clothes on the footage. But for the investigative group, the fact-finding group would have been unable to identity the fellow," Harutyunyan stressed.
In his speech on March 1, Robert Kocharyan said that "demonstrators were shooting and then hiding behind the cars."
"Mr. Kocharyan was right in his statement. The preliminary investigation revealed that a group of armed demonstrators waylaid near the Statue of Miasnikyan," said Harutyunyan.
