Gagik Jahangiryan: I shall persuade Levon Ter-Petrosyan to attend committee sittings

The National Assembly today continued discussing the opposition’s initiative on creating an ad-hoc committee to look into the events of March 1, 2008. “Will the events of March 1, 2008, be referred to as a stigma in textbooks? What conclusions should the opposition and the authorities draw to exclude the repetition of the deadly events in the future?” Republican MP Samvel Farmanyan asked Gagik Jahangiryan, an MP from the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), the main rapporteur on the issue, who was at the podium to present the initiative. Gagik Jahangiryan said he did not mind if the ruling coalition forms a majority at the ad hoc committee.  “I advise future generations to solve political problems through political means, rather than by arms,” he said. Hayk Babukhanyan, another Republican lawmaker, reminded Gagik Jahangiryan of the October 27 parliamentary carnage and asked the then Military Prosecutor [Gagik Jahangiryan] whether he did not feel responsibility for the shootout. “Don’t you think that it is necessary to create a committee to investigate the October 27 events, as well? Don’t you and the leader of your party feel responsibility for the shootout and the dead people?” said Babukhanyan. The HAK MP did not object to creating an interim committee to study the October 27 events and added that it was one of the election pledges of his party. “I would like to leave political assessments on the National Assembly and let us avoid blaming the crime on this or that political force,” said Jahangiryan. Babukhanyan’s next question referred to Levon Ter-Petrosyan. In particular, the HHK MP wondered why the first president did not show up at the sittings of the previous committee or at the investigative bodies. “I officially announce that Levon Ter-Petrosyan was not summoned by the Investigative Body.  If the ad hoc committee is formed and there is a need to invite Ter-Petrosyan,  I shall go and persuade him to come, I promise you,” said Gagik Jahangiryan.