Sargysan opens March 1 page, while PACE closes it?
Relatives of March 1 victims are going to address a letter to the Yerevan Office of the Council of Europe, expressing their indignation over the draft resolution adopted by the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
In particular, they were angered by the following wording in the resolution, "The outcome of the latest general amnesty in Armenia, the renewed impetus to investigate the 10 deaths during the March 2008 events, and the resulting start of a constructive dialogue between the opposition and ruling coalition mean that the chapter on the March 2008 events can finally be considered closed."
"The Monitoring Committee has not right to declare the page of the March 2008 events closed as the murders of our children are not disclosed. The statement is probably based on the dialogue between the Armenian authorities and the Armenian National Congress (HAK) which is disrupted at present. Secondly, the relatives of the victims are not affiliated with any political force, hence the revelation of the March 1 tragedy cannot be linked with political processes," said Alla Hovhannisyan, mother of March 1 victim Tigran Khcahtryan.
"The Monitoring Committee should not forget that four months ago Serzh Sargsyan instructed to renew the probe into the deadly clashes, saying that the page of the March 1 events was not closed. It is the Special Investigation Service that imitates the investigation into the ten murders," said the desperate mother.
Alla Hovhannisyan thinks that the newly appointed PACE co-rapporteur on Armenia, Axel Fischer has no moral right to consider chapter on the March 2008 events closed.
"Fischer is the first PACE co-rapporteur who did not find time to meet with the relatives of the victims during his visit to Yerevan. How could he consider the chapter of March 1 tragedy closed? Is it closed for Europeans? What would they do if the clashes occurred in their country, if their sons were killed in the clashes? Will they easily close that page? "she said.
