By a vote of 66 to 46, Armenia’s National Assembly rejected a bill to create an ad-hoc committee to investigate the events of March 1, 2008 in which ten people died during political protests in Yerevan.

Galoust Sahakyan, who heads the ruling Republican Party faction, declared that while his party placed great importance on the matter, they would not vote for the bill since they considered it grandstanding by the opposition.

This elicited a terse response from HAK MP Gagik Jahangiryan who said that his party had no intention of staging any ‘show’.

Jahangiryan accused Republican Party MPs of not following through on their stated desire to see those responsible for the March 1 tragedy to be punished.

The bill was introduced by the Armenian National Congress (HAK).