YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. The opposition Bargavatch Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia) party paid tribute to the 2008 March 1 victims today.

Lawmakers led by party chairman Gagik Tsarukyan laid flowers near the Myasnikyan statue in central Yerevan.

The area nearby the statue was one of the main gathering points of the 2008 post-election protests, where clashes took place.

“This is a day of pain and sorrow for us all”, he told reporters. “Everyone commemorates and pays homage to the memory of the victims, so that such days never get repeated,” Tsarukyan said.

Asked if he will personally participate in a procession later in the day which PM Pashinyan has called for, Tsarukyan said he has yet to decide.

The March 1 events colloquially refer to the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan, when clashes between security forces and protesters left 10 people, including two security officers dead. The unrest spanned from late February until late March. The events are known simply as March First because it was on this day when police troops violently dispersed protesters in downtown Yerevan.

The protests were led by First President of Armenia Levon-Ter Petrosyan, who according to official results of the election lost to Serzh Sargsyan. Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters believed the election was rigged.

Robert Kocharyan was the outgoing president at the time. He is currently jailed pending trial on coup-related charges in the March 1 investigation. Other former officials are also charged in the same case.

Incumbent PM Nikol Pashinyan was a senior member of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s political party at the time and was coordinating the protests.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan