Hope They Will Achieve a Coup Again, Just as They Did Before: Pashinyan

During a rally held in Republic Square today, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that we welcome March 1, 2021, under entirely different circumstances, emphasizing that previously this day was marked by memorial events.

“The heavy consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, the fact of our thousands of casualties, the existence of our missing persons, the circumstances of many brothers and sisters being captured, the ongoing propaganda of violence, attempts to involve the armed forces and judiciary in political processes have presented us with new challenges,” he said.

Speaking about the well-known events of March 1, Pashinyan highlighted that they were the result of the struggle for the people's power, when the then-authorities of Armenia used the army against their own people.

Pashinyan noted that there are defendants in the court regarding the March 1 case. “I must state that the March 1 case is, in my assessment, revealed. Many ask how it can be considered revealed when the murders have not been clarified. My opinion and personal assessment is that, true, the shooters have not been identified, but the murders, the context in which this occurred, are evident,” Pashinyan explained.

According to him, this is why the lawyers of the defendants in the March 1 case are doing everything possible to delay the trial. “What is the purpose of these delays? Because they hope that, just as in the past they usurped power, they will achieve that usurpation again,” he stated.

It is worth recalling that on February 24, 2008, the Armenian Central Electoral Commission announced that Serzh Sargsyan had won the elections. Participants in the protest demanded a recount of the votes. On the night of March 1, law enforcement launched operational-intelligence actions in Freedom Square to “check the area” and removed thousands of protesters from the square. In the evening of March 1, military and police units carried out special operations in the central streets of Yerevan with weapons, explosives, and special means to disperse protesters. Hundreds were injured, and eight civilians and two police officers lost their lives.