YEREVAN. - Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan assured that the army wasn’t used for inter-political purposes on 1 March  2008.

“According to the adopted decision, the army only carried out defense of the most important objects,”Ohanyan told the journalists today after the meeting with academics in the National Academy of Sciences.

According to Ohanyan, the issues of March 1 must be raised in the legal area.

Following the presidential elections on 18 February 2008, the then opposition leader, first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, held a round-the-clock rally at Yerevan’s Liberty Square for 10 days, demanding to cancel the official election results.

In the morning of 1 March, the police forcefully dispersed the tent camp at the square, this being ensued by mass arrests of the opposition activists. The same evening the authorities used force against the unarmed protestors, as a result of which 10 citizens, including two policemen were killed. No one has so far been held liable for the deaths of 10 victims.