“What Hatred they Felt”

[Sari Galin]

By Vahan Ishkhanyan

ArmeniaNow reporter

Published: 21, March, 2008

“Soldiers with truncheons and shields blocked the whole street and began to go forward to press the people against the embassy [building] believing they will disperse learning the soldiers have come. We went some 20 meters and calmed down, I even lit a cigarette thinking they would not resist and heard the first blast, just in front of the soldiers. One of our specialists said that was definitely a hand grenade,” tells a police troops officer, participant to the March 1st events, who preferred to stay anonymous.

He took part in the operations held by the police beginning the morning, except for the operation of dispersing the sitting strike in the square. He tells their unit was located in front of the Myasnikyan monument from the midday. After former head of the National Security Service, oppositional activist Davit Shahnazaryan called upon the people to go to the square by Matenadaran for a rally, the unit was moved to the area by the Opera House. However, they returned in the evening: “Information was received LTP had ordered the demonstrators not to move, because the place [by the embassy] was the most convenient, otherwise the demonstrators would appear in a trap if they moved to Matenadaran. When we got there, the disturbances had already begun.”

The officer says the grenade explosion raised havoc among the soldiers, because they were not prepared for a use of fire arms against us: “I saw our commander on the right wing taken out, one trying to fix a tourniquet to dress his foot. The second one was also in blood, the one who was trying to set the tourniquet was injured at his head; then all of a sudden one of the soldiers, his feet weakened, being dragged aside. A panic began in our rows, and then a bullet hit another soldier penetrating his neck.”

“We began to retreat, retreat-attack, retreat-attack, but they [the people] were enraged. If you saw the blasts! Pushing, we reached the Leo Street and then, all of a sudden, they began to throw stones from behind, from the side of the Paronian Street.”

The officer says the police special detachment came at the hottest moment of the fight and began shooting in the air with tracer bullets. “They were shooting the tracer bullets on purpose to show the direction of the shots; so that they [the mob] see them [the police] shoot in the air. But the shooting did not calm them down, they were attacking fiercely.”

“A mad mob, I had never seen a thing like that, [they were] like a pack. What hatred they felt! They would heavily curse us saying ‘you Turks, you go to your Karabakh’. I must say they lie when they say troops were brought from Karabakh. There were only the police troops and its special detachment. And the Army has appeared only after the state of emergency was imposed.”

He insists the police fired no shots on the people, although the soldiers blamed them [the officers] for not giving them weapons to defend themselves: “They would say give weapons, why not give weapons, look they have hurt Mkho, and they hurt another one!”

He heard gunshots coming from the demonstrators: “They were attacking all the time, they knew we wouldn’t fire, they were coming close with metal bars, threw stones, threw something to make smoke and shoot. You want to see where did it come from, but the smoke closes the view and you see nothing. We were in a tough situation, they were calling to say stand it a bit more, the President will sign the order [on imposing state of emergency] soon.”

He saw demonstrators burn a bus that brought soldiers with the driver still inside: “He had the soldiers get down the bus and as soon as he started it they ran after him. He came to turn around on Leo Street, but the bus was already burning. I saw the driver, he was looking for something, I was shouting, telling him to get down and run away, then all of a sudden smoke came and closed view of the bus. When the smoke disappeared the driver was not there and we didn’t know where he disappeared. The bus was burnt so much that its license plates had turned into ashes.”