Both the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and the Heritage Party will participate in the work of the Fact Finding Group recently set-up to gather information regarding the events of March 1st. The ANC will be represented by Attorney Andranik Kocharyan and Heritage by Attorney Seda Safaryan. The two political forces issued a joint declaration today, November 1st, declaring that “the creation and activities of the fact-finding body of experts” created by a decree of President Serzh Sargsyan on October 23rd, is not directed towards an independent, trustworthy and transparent investigation of the events of March 1st, towards meeting the demands of either Armenia's public or the European Council and does not correspond to Armenian law.

In particular, “the presidential decree contradicts the powers of the President as set out by the ROA Constitution and the independence, reliability and transparency of the investigative process isn't assured. In essence the group is deprived of the authority to obligate officials serving in the government at the time of the March 1st events and who have since left government office to appear before the group's sessions.

Opposition figures have proposed to Armenia's Ombudsman and National Assembly Deputies that the Constitutional Court debates the constitutionality of the decree. They also have demanded a deadline of one month in which to place the activities of the fact finding group on a legal standing.

The opposition's statement reads, “If within the one month period, at a minimum, the inclusion of international experts in the FFG isn't realized, then we will review the expediency of our participation. We would also not be constrained from halting the participation of our representatives if they or the work of the group is hindered in any way or subjected to various pressures.”