Approximately three months ago the same deputy chief of police Sashik Afyan during the session of the same commission was trying his best by using the eloquence of his Armenian language to convince that he was the commander of the police operation on March 1, which caused the death of 10 innocent people.
However during yesterday’s session Sashik Afyan stated that on March 1-2 they only obeyed the orders of the former chief of police of Armenia Hayk Harutyunyan. Afyan said that he was only obeying the orders of Hayk Harutyunyan. According to Afyan’s version, which he presented yesterday he is responsible only for the events near the French Embassy and Shahumyan square. He said that he had consented all his commands with the former chief of police Hayk Harutyunyan. By the way, according to Afyan he supervised that area not alone. He was accompanied by the former head of the 6th department of RA Police Ashot Giziryan. And Grigor Lusavorish avenue was under the supervision of deputy chief of police Armen Yeritsyan and Hovhannes Hunanyan. In a word, according to Afyan the March 1-2 operation was headed by Hayk Harutyunyan in direct participation of Afyan, Giziryan and Hunanyan. Yesterday Afyan was invited to the commission session to present the events of March 1 near the French Embassy. Reminder: Afyan was also invited in previous sessions of the commission but he didn’t show up by saying that he was sick. In his words after the events of March 1 in the Liberty Square the police created mobile groups to travel in the city and report on what’s going on in different corners of Yerevan. They should have offered their “services” to the citizens. Let us remember that the mobile groups were travelling in Mashtots Avenue, Tumanyan Street and Republic Square and persecuting and beating innocent protesters. However, before talking about that let us speak about certain statements, which Afyan made yesterday. According to him on March 1 at about 11 o’clock these mobile groups alerted that there are 200-300 people gathered near the French Embassy. After that 50-60 people were sent to the area near the French Embassy. Afterward they reported that the situation is pretty tense and they had to send new police forces near Myasnikyan’s statue. “We had to do that because the French and the Italian embassies are located there. A little up there is the Russian Embassy and the City Council. They sent some new forces. So I had a clear order to go and see what was going on there,” said Afyan. But he didn’t go there alone. He took some extra help with him and according to him reached the embassy area at about 11:30. “I reached there and noticed that near the embassy one trolley bus was pulled out from the rails and the street was blocked. Afterward a big truck was turned into a barricade. At the beginning at about 12 o’clock we worked with our own efforts in order to open the road but it didn’t work. At the beginning we wished to open part of the street and clean up the central street from the protesters. But they didn’t obey. They were already making statements, construction was being held; they were breaking the tiles of the street and bars of park gates. Afterward they would put all that in the truck and prepare bottles with gasoline. I decided to build a chain to ban their progress to the central street, such as Mashtots Avenue, government building, CB,” said Afyan and added that in half an hour after that about 2000 gathered there, who were probably called by phone. As a result we needed extra forces to resist their assault. According to him after that Giziryan and Hunanyan started to negotiate with the opposition “leaders” present there. According to Afyan they made a chain near the French Embassy and near Myasnikyan’s statue and negotiated for 2-3 hours. According to him among the ones present there were Yerjanik Abgaryan, Anahit Bakhshyan and Samvel Gevorgyan as well as Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan with his staffers. “We decided to negotiate because we saw that people were getting armed with rocks and metal sticks,” he said and added that the negotiations took quite long because one would agree the other wouldn’t. “We offered them to head the protesters to the area near Hrazdan stadium to continue their protest action. They didn’t agree. We also offered them Sasuntsi Davit Square near the train station. We even offered them to gather near Vardan Mamikonyan’s statue. They disagreed again. They offered the area near Matenadaran. We offered them to negotiate with Davit Shahnazaryan. I thought that there are people who would be responsible for the security of the protesters but it turned out that they all refused to be in charge of the actions of the protesters. When we would ask who we are going to negotiate with to come to a certain agreement people would scream that their protests are not led by anyone and that they are expressing their complaints on their own. Davit Shahnazaryan agreed to mediate and Anahit Bakhshyan was calming down the people by saying that the right decision is to go to Matenadaran. I gave a microphone to Shahnazaryan who announced that people move to Matenadaran.” According to Afyan as it was agreed the police should have opened the chain so that the people could move to Matenadaran. “The people agreed and I was there to witness that. We kept our promise and opened the chain by sending part of the policemen to Lusavorish avenue and the rest went to Shahumyan square so that people could easily proceed to Matenadaran.” By continuing his story Afyan says that they asked for two minutes to move the police vehicles from there. “During that period the tires of the police vehicles were torn apart probably by knife or other sharp instruments,” he said. According to Afyan at that moment Levon Zurabyan approached them and said that Shahnazaryan is not competent to conduct negotiations and that they have to negotiate with him. Can you believe this? Afyan, Giziryan and Hunanyan even agree with this demand, which is very doubtful. Moreover, when Zurabyan asks for some time to deliver the result of the negotiations to Levon Ter-Petrosyan and consult with him Afyan instead of offering police vehicles for a ride catches a taxi and personally sends Zurabyan to Ter-Petrosyan’s residence. “Of course I didn’t understand why he wanted to go see Ter-Petrosyan but we agreed with his demand,” yesterday such a surprising statement was made by Sashik Afyan by emphasizing that what happened afterward is known to everyone. “Then the crowd started to attack. I’d say Nicol Pashinyan petitioned the people not to move and instead build barricades. They would stop trucks and mini buses, tossing people out from their vehicles and building barricades. And then the police cars started to burn; they started to attack policemen because only 100 people were left from the police there. That was the police of Armavir. I have commended them to chain the area near the City Council and watch the situation,” said Afyan. The Ombudsman of Armenia Armen Harutyunyan, who was also participating in yesterday’s session, said that during the period, which Afyan noted he was also present there and people were quite calm and they were trying to defend themselves and the barricades were created for self-defense. Moreover, he said that if the people had a purpose of attacking they wouldn’t create barricades. “You bring up the right facts but that is not the impression. When I was there people were not aggressive, they just were emotional because of the morning events. Even they refused to go to the suggested place as they were afraid that they could be beaten and persecuted if they moved anywhere. That’s why they wanted to stay there,” said A. Harutyunyan. He also didn’t agree with the statement of Afyan that after D. Shahnazaryan’s petition people were ready to go to the Matenadaran. “People needed protection and when the police left they already had been calmed down. So what has changed since then, that the calm people suddenly became so aggressive and moved in different directions? Don’t you think that if nothing was done they would calm down and disperse?” asked A. Harutyunyan blaming the police of abetting conflicts. Afyan’s answer was shocking. “Would you like me to say what had happened? Then came Nikol Pashinyan,” announced Sashik Afyan and didn’t continue. Reminder: N. Pashinyan only petitioned the people to take wooden poles and stones for self-defense and didn’t move from the place. Ombudsman also stated that the wooden poles and stones were for self-defense, as they were frightened that the morning events could be repeated. He also mentioned that among the demonstrators were people who petitioned aggression, but they surely were “provokers”. “Because there was an incident and went to someone and screamed at him by calling him a provoker. Later that person was neutralized,” said Harutyunyan. He was also interested why people would steal yogurt from nearby food stores and wouldn’t break the windows of the weapon store “Svin.” “In order to attack and protect themselves they would enter the weapon store Svin and steal weapons. Why didn’t they do it?” This question of Harutyunyan also stayed without response because Afyan would just say, “I don’t know. I am not competent.” Yesterday it was also found out that Afyan hadn’t yet seen the videos that the opposition released. The video shows how the mobile groups of the police would beat a person with a whole group. “I didn’t see how that happened? Does it mean that poor man is walking and several policemen attack and beat him?” wondered Afyan. “Why if the person is not poor he must be beaten?” reacted Harutyunyan. Afyan as usual didn’t have response to Harutyunyan’s words. Afyan was also seriously surprised by the question by a civilian would go to the police vehicle, get the police weapon and attack the protesters. “I don’t know I am not competent,” repeated Afyan. However, it was quite obvious that Afyan attended the commission session to inform that he was not the one, who issued the order to shoot. By the way, Afyan also didn’t know whether his former boss Hayk Harutyunyan consented his orders with former commander in chief Sashik Afyan. As a response to Gurgen Arsenyan’s question as to who fake a fake information that the protesters are shooting the police vehicles and policemen, which caused the curfew afterward Afyan said, “I don’t know.” Thus, Arsenyan assumed that “there was some third force, which commanded the March 1-2 operation.”