20 Years Later or from Sumgait to Shengavit

Referring to the second session of the trial of the “Case of the Seven” when the policemen “occupied” the court room led by Edik Galstyan, the deputy head of Nork-Marash police department, Arthur Sakunts, the coordinator of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, being also the legal representative of Davit Petrosyan’s assignee, who died on March 1, remembered an incident that took place 20 years ago.

“I remembered the trial of mass killing of Armenians in Sumgait that was held in Moscow, in November 1988. The ordinary citizens weren’t allowed to participate in the trial, but after our protest we were allowed and on entering the court room, we noticed that policemen in ordinary clothing took 90% of the seats. In fact, a soviet technology of restricting lawsuit publicity was used in Shengavit court. This is a typical example of restoring Soviet traditions. There is one difference and I’m sorry for that. The Soviet tradition is restored in an Asian model, Asian values. The issue of the Soviet policemen was to fill the room, they were sitting silently and were listening. Nowadays the policemen have got a second function in Armenia - to start incidents with citizens and to bring a case on that basis, as it happened on March 1”,-announced Arthur Sakunts.
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