Experts: armed forces of Armenia were illegally involved in events on March 1, 2008

The fifth report prepared by the two members from the opposition of the Factfinding Group about events on March 1, 2008, says that the armed forces of Armenia were illegally involved in the events that took place in Yerevan two years ago. According to the report, the secret order of the ex-Minister of Defence AN-0038 of February 23, 2008, was completely contradictory to the Constitution and the Law of Armenia "On Defence".

The authors of the report "Involvement of army and its participation in post-electoral processes and events on March 1, 2008" - Seda Safaryan (Party "Heritage") and Andranik Kocharyan (Armenian National Congress), members of the Factfinding Group disbanded by the President, - write that the above secret order was completely contradictory to the Constitution and the Law of Armenia "On Defence", which forbid soldiers to take part in domestic political life of the country.

The authors of the report specify that according to point 13 of Article 55 of the Constitution of Armenia, national armed forces can be engaged only in three cases: an attack to Armenia, a presence of direct threat of an attack, and also in case of announcement of war on Armenia by some other country.

Experts assert that the then Minister of Defence Mikael Arutyunyan had autocratically appropriated the right to form in Yerevan a new military structure including the major units and departments of the Ministry of Defence and the Joint Staff of Armed Forces; therefore, the Order AN-0038 has no reference to any Article of the Constitution or the Law "On Defence".

Let us note here that ex-Minister of Defence Mikael Arutyunyan has repeatedly denied the existence of the secret order on deployment of certain military subdivisions and machinery in the capital.

The authors of the report recommend discussing the raised problems at the permanent commission for defence, national safety and internal affairs of the National Assembly.

Besides, the report notes that after dissolution of the Factfinding Group its members handed "plenty of factual materials" to the Interim Commission of the National Assembly, which "seemed to have been deliberately ignored and passed by in silence."

Samvel Nikoyan, who headed the Interim Parliamentary Commission for studying the events on March 1-2, said that he had not read the report published by the oppositionists, but noted, at the same time, that he would not treat it seriously.

Naira Zograbyan, a former member of the same Commission and MP from the faction of the Party "Prospering Armenia", said that the Commission had in due time studied all the factual materials, and should there have been any serious grounds to conclude any involvement of the First Army, they would have been surely included into the final report of the Commission. "Be sure: they would have been certainly presented," Radio Liberty quotes Ms Zograbyan as saying.

The final report of the Interim Commission, which was presented in September 2009, qualified the actions of policemen on March 1, 2008, as proportional.