Summing up today’s parliamentary hearing convened on the tenth anniversary of the mass public protests and government crackdown that took place on Yerevan on March 1, 2008, Yelk Alliance leader Nikol Pashinyan said he didn’t believe the condolences offered by ruling Republican Party of Armenian MPs addressed to the relatives of those who were killed weren’t “sincere”.

“I don’t regard such conduct as sincere since the victims, aside from Hamlet Tadevosyan and Tigran Abgaryan, are described as participants in mass acts of disorder,” Pashinyan said.

Ten died during the protests – eight civilians, one policeman, and one soldier. Hundreds were injured, and scores arrested. (Hamlet Tadevosyan was a police captain and Tigran Abgaryan, a conscript soldier)

Pashinyan said that Robert Kocharian, the outgoing president at the time, shouldn’t be seen as the main culprit, and that Serzh Sargsyan shares a greater burden of the blame for March 2008 events.

“After all, Serzh Sargsyan was prime minister. Couldn’t he have stopped what was happening. Serzh Sargsyan is responsible person number 1. Kocharian wasn’t shedding blood for himself but for Sargsyan. If he didn’t want that blood, he wouldn’t still be sitting at Baghramyan 26, enjoying the spoils of that blood, laughing at the relatives of the victims and the political prisoners,” Pashinyan said. (Armenia’s Presidential Palace is located at 26 Baghramyan Avenue)