Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan says that he doesn’t believe the scenario announced by the head of the medical expertise center Shota Vardanyan, according to which the bones taken on video during the bloody events of March 1 were animal bones. To note, Shota Vardanyan has announced that according to their medical expertise the bones taken on video after the bloodshed of March 1 were bones of pig and the tongue was a calf tongue. By the way, the ombudsman is one of those rare officials who were present at the Myasnikyan monument during those events. We wander whether he saw any animals or pigs there, generally we wander whether any citizen of Yerevan has seen calves or pigs running in the streets of the capital city. “No, I didn’t see such thing. I haven’t seen such animals in the streets of Yerevan. I have neither seen a zebra tail,” replied the ombudsman.
In the aspect of the objective investigation of the tragic events of March 1 the Ombudsman of Armenia Armen Harutyunyan finds it extremely important to establish a “fact-collecting” group, which will also submit to international expertise the video prepared by the opposition working group, which investigates the events of March 1.
He informed about this during his yesterday’s press conference. Reminder: According to the State Forensic expert Shota Vardanyan the jaw and tongue showed in blood in the video is not human but belongs to a slaughtered pig. As stated by Armen Harutyunyan he doesn’t quite believe that implication. “I think it would be right to submit such videos to the international expertise. Unfortunately the opinion of the international expertise is more trustworthy to our society than the domestic one. I personally don’t quite believe that. I think that this video should be more thoroughly examined and I think it will be examined. I believe that the fact-collecting group, which will be established will submit the video to international expertise,” stated Harutyunyan. As a response to the question as whether it is possible that Shota Vardanyan will also be included in that group the Ombudsman answered, “I don’t much care about that. I care that this group will be established not by the initiative and members of the coalition but be more independent. It means that there will be an equal number of members from the opposition and government in the group. By saying opposition I mean one representative from the Heritage and another one from the Armenian National Congress. In these equal conditions the group will work more productive and objectively and this enable to reach the voice of the society to the responsible bodies. Even if their answers stay without response it will imply a response.” To the question what had the 70 investigators been doing for seven months now if the only hope is the creation of the fact collecting group Harutyunyan said that he didn’t have information about the work of the investigators. Moreover he also informed that the Ombudsman’s office has sent various letters to the investigative group, however those remained with no response. “I don’t know what these investigators have done. The future will show. The state structure has done its job and it’s now the turn of the fact collecting group. We will estimate their work after the end of the court process. I have received answers to my questions and new ones are being originated.” Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Armen Harutyunyan doesn’t instill great confidence in the NA ad hoc Commission’s statement that the organs seen in the Opposition’s footage belong to an animal and not to a human being. He says that such conclusions can be drawn only after getting the results of an international examination. Therefore, he thinks the footage should be forwarded to international experts for a further thorough study. The Armenian Ombudsman welcomed Serzh Sargsyan’s initiative to set up a fact-collecting panel on the March 1 events. “I wish the panel were set up as quickly as possible and began investigation.” Armen Harutyunyan also added that he had reached an agreement with the RA police to inform the Defender’s office about their next actions. The Ombudsman thinks that the current scene in the country deepens the atmosphere of intolerance in the country. “I think that the first steps to recover the situation should be taken by the Armenian leadership.” The Defender’s Office has received some 4096 written complaints over the past nine years. They all evidence to the fact that human rights are mostly violated by the Police, courts, Yerevan City Hall and finally by other state bodies. “Our law-enforcement bodies should not beg people for trust. They should earn confidence by their actions,” concluded Harutyunyan. When speaking of the acts of the policemen, who went out to repress the peaceful protesters in the Northern Avenue (by the way this happened only after Sargsyan’s petition of being tolerant) Harutyunyan said, “people have the right to hold peaceful protest activities without violating the public order. Screaming in the evenings or writing some notes on the stores of storeowners is a violation of the public order. In that case the police has the right to mediate. First, they need to warn though. I have spoken to the chief of police and we agreed that the police should from now on warn the protesters before undertaking anything. I have also asked him to notify the policemen to invite the young men of our emergency group to the scene of potential public disorder. That way they will also witness the level of legality in the actions of the police. Yesterday when our group went to the scene of disorder they noticed on one hand the actions of the police without warning the protesters and on the other hand we saw provocation on part of the protesters. I think all this should be annihilated because it hinders the environment of tolerance. I think that such cooperation with the police will enable both the policemen and the protesters act in the frames of the law. Meanwhile we will be informed about the actual reality on the scenes. But of course it should be forbidden to scream at late hours because it is called public disorder. In his regard we have to be objective. Our group was invited at 10 p.m. where the situation was really tense and due to our group the situation was appeased. I don’t know what actually happened there but I have personally spoken with the chief of police. His only request was to make noise at night, not to write on the walls and make the area dirty. Other than that there was no problem mentioned. And I on my part asked him to invite our special group before the police would start to undertake any steps to prevent public disorder. They agreed. Form now on before the police starts to do anything we will be there and witness everything with our own eyes.” Yesterday, indeed the journalists asked questions about the crime committed against Andranik Babayan, who died on September 20. According to Harutyunyan the cases of the director of Radiolur Artur Sahakyan and A. Babayan are the culmination of impunity. He believes that the society will start to respect and believe the law-enforcers only after the culprits are publicly punished. “In this regard the investigation of the case will have a key importance for the whole law-enforcing structure of Armenia,” stated Harutyunyan and added that as of now they don’t have any details of the investigation of the case. “I know that some citizen testified that he had committed the crime. I think that a thorough examination must be conducted to find the real culprits. This is a serious issue,” he said and assured that he asked the chief of police to provide him details of the case. By the way Harutyunyan ensured that Sahakyan hasn’t applied to him so far as he stated to the media. He also informed that a woman named Babayan applied to him in the framework of the mentioned case and she did it on the phone. “On that day only a woman called us with the last name Babayan. She verbally told about her complaint and we registered it. The newspapers wrote that that guy Artur Sahakyan applied to us but it’s not true. We don’t have such a complaint letter. Only that woman applied to us verbally and we launched the procedure. We prefer to find clarifications from the state bodies before making any conclusions,” stated Harutyunyan. When speaking about the statements made by the journalists regarding Serzh Sargsyan’s message as well as the opinion of Tigran Sargsyan about the “yellow print media” Harutyunyan said that there is no such formulation as “yellow media” and added, “Let us admit that in many cases there is a lot of offensive information in the media about certain politicians. Besides a few newspapers the rest are just like that. This is how I comprehended yesterday’s message. Of course consecutive arguments and contrast of opinions are necessary for our society but no offense and aggression coming from both the opposition and government media. I find it dangerous for Armenia the rumors about yellow media. And if something goes against the media I will personally withstand them because the print media of Armenia is more or less independent compared to the electronic. But you must agree that the freedom of speech shouldn’t turn into personal insulting. It means that we should always draw this margin of morality. But of course if there are any attempts of limitation of freedom of speech in Armenia we will definitely react on that based on the European Convention and European Court requirements.”