Armenia: relatives of victims of riots on March 1, 2008, meet PACE co-rapporteur

Today, John Prescott, Co-Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), met in Armenia with relatives and friends of those who perished during the events on March 1, 2008. Parents of the casualties claim that they were not satisfied with the meeting with John Prescott.

Sargis Kloyan, the father of Gora Kloyan, who was killed on March 1, 2008, said that the today's meeting with John Prescott "lasted for 25 minutes only; and during this time neither parents of the casualties nor their lawyers had chances to ask their painful questions."

According to Sargis Kloyan, the co-reporter escaped to answer the question about the grounds to include into the PACE Resolution No. 1837, adopted on October 5, 2011, the phrase that "the page of March 1 events can be considered closed."

"He wouldn't listen to us and all the timed looked at his watch, saying that he was in a hurry for a meeting with the Prosecutor General of Armenia. At the same time, he assured us that he was well aware of our pain," said Sargis Kloyan.

According to his story, "the meeting was purely formal; and it was organized only because the casualties' parents had warned before the visit of the co-rapporteur that if the meeting did not take place, they would hold a protest action outside the office of the Council of Europe in Yerevan."