Today, at the continuing trial of “Haykakan Zhamanak” editor Nikol Pashinyan, officers of the Armavir Police Department were questioned as witnesses to the scene that unfolded on March 1, 2008. One of the witnesses, Tornik Poghosyan, said the officers were directed to head for the Yerevan Municipality to keep the peace. The officers said that the crowd assembled at Myasnikyan Square was directed to set off to the Matenadaran by Davit Shahnazaryan, one of the demo speakers, but the crowd stood their ground since Pashinyan told them not to move. “Don’t go anywhere, Pashinyan told them. Arm yourselves with whatever’s available,” witness Poghosyan stated. He added that they took refuge in the municipal building since the crowd had started to pelt them with stones. They stayed in the building all night. “I remember Pashinyan approaching Myasnikyan Square from the direction of the Russian Embassy. He was accompanied by a group of young men. He was shouting ‘struggle, struggle till victory’.” The next witness was Zaven Ohanyan who testified that Nikol Pashinyan told the crowd not to leave the area and to erect barricades. He said that he saw no violence on the part of the cops and that they only carried a rubber baton and shield. When asked by defense attorney Lusineh Sahakyan what he saw taking place at the time, the witness replied “mass public disorder”, but failed to explain what that expression signified. He too took refuge in the Municipal Builkding and said that what he saw happening on the streets was “indescribable”. “I haven’t seen anything like that in my entire life,” the witness said. A third police witness, Zaven Ohanyan, had also sought safety in the Municipal Building but testified that Nikol Pashinyan had been escorted to Myasnikyan Statue from the direction of Republic Square. “Nikol Pashinyan was shouting ‘get wooden bats and build barricades’,” the witness stated, but confessed that he didn’t understand the reason why at the time. The trial session was recessed to process other witnesses.