Armenian Authorities Mounted a Coup on March 1: Armenian Civil Society Initiative

On February 28, the Armenian Civil Society Initiative organized a discussion in Pasadena, California, related to the events that took place on March 1, 2008, in Armenia, according to a press release issued by the Armenian Civil Society Initiative.

Among those who delivered a speech were the head of Armenian Civic Society, lawyer Karo Karapetyan’ chief editor of an Armenian-language weekly State and Law, lawyer Armen Voskerchyan; Suren Khudanyan, representative of Social Democrat Hunchakian Party of America; and Levon Babasyan from the People’s Party of Armenia.

The participants stated in their reports that on March 1, 2008, the former and current authorities of Armenia, by committing violations against the citizens of Armenia and by killing 10 of them, mounted a coup d'état.

They also drew attention to the fact that in the past two years, “the authorities have made every possible effort to present the reality in an upside-down manner: they shift the blame of the crimes they committed themselves onto the protesters, and today they are trying to view the March 1 page as being ‘closed’.”

According to the Initiative, at the end of the discussion, the participants exchanged their views and adopted a resolution condemning March 1 events.