Armenia marks 16 years since tragic March 1 events

PanARMENIAN.Net - 16 years have passed since the tragic events of March 1, 2008 in Armenia.

Following the presidential elections on February 2008, supporters of First President and then opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan took to the streets to reject the election results and demand a review. For 10 days, Freedom Square in Yerevan became the epicenter of round-the-clock rallies. However, the situation escalated on the morning of March 1 when police forcibly dispersed protesters. The confrontations culminated in violence, with clashes resulting in the death of 10 people, including two policemen, leaving another 200 injured.

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on Friday, March 1 laid flowers at a monument called “Influence and Counteraction” and paid tribute to the memory of the victims of the events of March 1, 2008.

The murders have not been solved to this day, and a number of opposition figures, including current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, were convicted on charges of organizing unrest and later released under an amnesty.

After the Velvet Revolution of April-May 2018 that brought Pashinyan to power, the case dubbed as the “March 1 case” was reopened.