Armenia: Responsibility for 1 March Clashes

RFE/RL reports that a senior aide to the new president, Serge Sargsyan, has said that both the radical opposition and the government were responsible for the 1 March clashes which left at least 10 dead and hundreds wounded. Garnik Isagulian, presidential adviser on national security, described the riot as a “great tragedy.”

Armenia’s government and opposition are both responsible for the deadly post-election violence in Yerevan and should resolve their bitter standoff through dialogue, an aide to President Serzh Sarkisian said on Tuesday.

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“The opposition and the authority should have done everything to prevent what happened on March 1,” he told a news conference. “Nobody is innocent on this issue.”

RFE/RL repeats demands made by a Council of Europe resolution adopted on 17 April. However, while it mentions the need to hold an independent inquiry and the release of all those detained for political reasons, it once again fails to report what is demanded from the opposition:

[…] For their part, all opposition forces should recognise the Constitutional Court’s decision which confirmed the results of the elections as announced by the Central Electoral Commission. This should not be interpreted as the obligation to agree with the merits of the court’s decision. All electoral contestants have the right to challenge this decision by the legal means available to them, including the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.