Your trusted source

The Armenian government will allocate 720 million drams from the reserve fund to the Ministry of Justice to assist those citizens affected by the March 1-2, 2008 post-election unrest in capital Yerevan.

At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, Justice Minister Rustam Badasyan said the successors of those citizens who died in the wake of the post-election clashes will receive 30 million drams, those who suffered severe injuries – 15 million drams and the persons who sustained minor injuries – 5 million drams.

According to the data published by the Investigative Committee, 10 citizens were killed,10 persons were affected seriously, while 54 others were affected slightly in the clashes.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan once again stated that this is not compensation, but assistance.

“My position is that given the well-known circumstances we should make decisions on the compensation issue based on the decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights. It’s very important to make maximally objective decisions on this matter,” he said.

“But since we don’t know when the ECHR will make decisions on these matters, it shouldn’t seem as if our government doesn’t take any measures to render help to the March 1 casualties, thus we make this decision based on the law passed by the National Assembly. In the end, we will close the matter of compensation for damages based on the ECHR decisions. In fact, this is an interim decision,” he added.

The justice minister noted while making a decision the ECHR might also take into account the Armenian government’s decision.