With regard to the fact-finding group to look into the events of March 1-2, the first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan said, “We shall do our best but our involvement in the group is still under consideration. We shall exert all our efforts but I think it won’t be enough as it will be a voice in the wilderness. Decisions will be made by their courts, and the final assessment will be given by their commission.” Nevertheless, according to Ter-Petrosyan, they will do everything possible once they participate in the activity of the group. Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian on Monday expressed serious misgivings about a government offer to the Armenian opposition to participate in a new, supposedly independent investigation into the March 1 clashes in Yerevan on an equal footing with government representatives. Ter-Petrosyan said that those guilty of the deadly post-election clashes between his supporters and security forces will not be brought to justice as long as President Serzh Sargsyan remains in power. That information is meant to help an ad hoc commission of the Armenian parliament to determine whether the use of lethal force against opposition protesters was justified and to ascertain the circumstances in which ten people died on that day. By saying a third side Ter-Petrosyan meant international experts. “It was earlier decided that the fact-finding group will recruit equal representatives from Serzh Sargsyan’s team, my team and CoE experts. I have had a long conversation with the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg about the fact-finding mission. This group was to replace the NA ad-hoc commission. Nevertheless, we have overcome many hardships.”
