Mon 10 Mar 2008 - Armenia - aftermath of the 19 February 2008 presidential elections

Will Armenians Be Helped in Their Struggle for Freedom?

By Armen Grigoryan

Before 21 September 2007, the day Dr Levon Ter-Petrossian said he might run for presidency, it had seemed to many Armenians that the corrupt regime of Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkissian might exist for some more decades. There was an atmosphere of fear and desperation; it seemed that after the rigged parliamentary election on 12 May 2007 the opposition that had been atomised for a long time would not be able to consolidate and challenge the incumbent regime. Then, on 21 September 2007, during an Independence Day reception, the first President of Armenia Dr Ter-Petrossian said he might run for presidency. Within a few weeks, an unprecedented process followed: all principled opponents of the incumbent regime declared their support to Dr Ter-Petrossian, although many of them had strongly opposed him during his presidency in 1991-1998. The opposition reached a consensus based on a common understanding that preservation of the incumbent regime would be disastrous for the country’s economy and social development, as well as for the international reputation.

The nature of Dr Ter-Petrossian’s campaign that would follow was shaped by the authorities themselves. The incumbent regime, which keeps all the television networks under control, did not permit the opposition virtually any TV appearance; at the same time, the state propaganda machine launched a libel campaign against Dr Ter-Petrossian and blackmailing of his supporters. So, Dr Ter-Petrossian’s campaign was organised in form of mass gatherings supplemented with distribution of brochures and DVDs. That attempt to break the information vacuum proved very effective. Dr Ter-Petrossian’s campaign was concluded on 16 February by a demonstration in which near 300,000 citizens participated.

The post-election protests

On 19 February, one still might have a feeling that what we had been used to during the recent years was going on. Already at 8 AM, once the voting began, people free of virtue were bussed to the polling stations and paid 5000 AMD (11 Euros) each for casting their ballots in favour of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkissian. It is rather symbolic that the initial noticeable fraud was organised with the help of that part of our society: it was therefore emphasised that Serzh Sarkissian might not count for vote of any moral person. Afterwards, all the dirty tricks were employed – open voting; denial of lawful demands for recording of observed violations of law; violence and brutality towards candidate proxies, observers and journalists (in many cases, such crimes were committed by police commissioners, heads of municipalities and so-called oligarchs – nouveau riches of criminal origin); cutting the electricity at the polling stations and ballot-box stuffing; substituting the result reports with false ones and so forth. As a result, Serzh Sarkissian would be declared winner with near 53 percent of votes – ‘in accordance with European standards.’

However, the developments that occurred in Armenia during the week following the election day were so intense that it could seem a whole era came to its end on 19 February – and then a brand new, bright era began. On 20 February, citizens of Armenia led by Levon Ter-Petrossian repeated the slogan: ‘We will win.’ Within four hours, between 11 AM and 3 PM, over 100,000 persons gathered to protest against the election fraud. At the same time, Serzh Sarkissian was unable to get any spectators willing to participate in celebration of his fake ‘victory.’ Very soon, the Freedom Square welcomed the real winners. Round-the-clock protest campaign was begun.

As youth’s state of mind is especially important, it should be noted that persons under thirty years of age, who could not remember the struggle for independence from the Soviet Union in 1988-1991, constituted a large part of protesters. Special attention should be paid to a statement about freedom made by Dr Ter-Petrossian on 22 February, after the youth’s protest march. It was very important for the formation of new set of values of Armenian society that freedom was called a value ‘that is even above independence, above all victories, even above state sovereignty. Those are worth nothing if they do not secure freedom. Who needs a state, an authority, independence, or victory that does not bring freedom?’ That statement, inspired by the spirit of classical liberalism, became a revelation for many people.

Another important characteristic of the post-election week was the expression of support to the people’s struggle by some high-ranked officials (including diplomats and officers of the National Security Service) and MPs. The arrests of some of Ter-Petrossian’s supporters on 24 February, as well as official publication of falsified election results two days before the 26 February deadline were, most probably, aimed to prevention of the state officials’ movement towards Dr Ter-Petrossian.

The 1 March crackdown against peaceful protesters and the state of emergency

It is noteworthy that there was no violence during ten days of mass protests in Yerevan following the fraudulent elections on 19 February, even when one day up to 500,000 people marched in the streets; not a single glass was broken. Surely, the authorities tried to plant some provocateurs and discredit the protesters, but without success. At the same time, it was becoming harder for the authorities to keep the situation under control: students went on strike; some high-ranked officials and MPs publicly declared their support to the opposition candidate, Dr Levon Ter-Petrossian; in addition to protests in Yerevan spontaneous demonstrations of concerned citizens, without participation of any public figure, began in other cities. Most importantly, President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkissian, who was declared winner of the 19 February elections, might not be sure that in presence of enormous mass protests their influence on the Constitutional Court would be enough for getting the verdict they desire; the Constitutional Court has power to overrule the decision of Central Electoral Commission controlled by the authorities. Dr Ter-Petrossian filed an appeal to the court on 29 February, and the case was to be heard before 10 March. True, since 1998, during Kocharian’s presidency, the Constitutional Court, in fact, became a rubber-stamping institution. However, unprecedented electoral fraud and violence against the opposition, mass protests and presence of a few principled members in the Constitutional Court might lead to a ruling in favour of Ter-Petrossian’s appeal. That would mean cancelling the election results and scheduling new elections. Now the hearing at the Constitutional Court was held during the state of emergency; the court has rubber-stamped the election results according to the wish of Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkissian and the people are not able to gather and express their protest.

Why was early morning of Saturday, 1 March chosen for the police attack against the demonstrators on Freedom Square in Yerevan? There could be several factors but the most important one was, most probably, the authorities’ wish to minimise dissemination of information about the event: Saturday’s newspapers were already printed and distributed to retail vendors, and there would be no newspapers printed on Sunday and Monday; Radio Liberty, the only non-state-controlled station, does not broadcast on weekend mornings; besides, demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday could be expected to gather more participants than usually gathered during the week. It should be noted that the police did not make a warning before the attack and did not leave a corridor for possible retreat. Violence was not only aimed against demonstrators on Freedom Square: there have been reports about passers-by beaten in the streets a few hundred metres away. There are reasons to believe that on Saturday morning there already were some people killed and quite many were wounded. Number of opposition activists were arrested. It should be emphasised that Levon Ter-Petrossian was put under house arrest illegally, as Armenia has no law providing for such a measure.

On Saturday afternoon tens of thousands gathered in a quarter where French, Italian and Russian embassies, as well as Yerevan city hall are located. It was clear that use of force against unarmed people at dawn on 1 March, while many were sleeping, had not been proportional. Quite naturally, when number of protesters gathered again they attempted to prepare for self-defence – barricades were built, metal bars were collected from a nearby construction site and Molotov cocktails were prepared. It should be emphasised that none of the demonstrators was carrying weapons; this was observed, in particular, by an RFE/RL reporter. Two of opposition activists – former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratian and board member of the Armenian National Movement party Aram Manukian – arrived to the demonstration site and informed the protesters about a meeting they had with ambassadors of EU states and representatives of number of international institutions on the premises of German Embassy. It was emphasised that the diplomats said they would expect non-violent way of action from both authorities and opposition. The rally went on with chanting slogans and demands for permitting Levon Ter-Petrossian to leave his house and join the protesters.

However, as it was already noted, it was very inconvenient for the authorities to wait for a Constitutional Court verdict while mass protests would be going on. As the police action in the morning did not produce the desired result – people were not scared and went on protesting – the authorities decided to use more violence. So, about 9 PM on Saturday, the riot police supplemented with armed gangs of so-called oligarchs in police uniform attacked the demonstrators. The order to use machine guns, supposedly, might be issued only by President Kocharian. The official memoranda mention only eight deaths, including a policeman (in all cases, bullet wounds were the cause of death; the policeman was shot in the back). Some well-informed sources that may not be named at the moment say that the death toll exceeds the officially stated number of eight. As the riot police which perpetrated attacks against the demonstrators were supplemented with members of armed gangs of so-called oligarchs, quite many of those criminals were wounded or killed in the action, large part of them – by ‘friendly fire.’ The number of deaths is being kept secret, for which there may be two reasons. First, the larger number of deaths admitted, the stronger would be the international community’s reaction. Second, very important reason is that if the real number of deaths is made known, identification of corpses and publication of names must follow; but once the names are published it will be just a technical issue to find out to whose gangs those persons belonged. The authorities, obviously, would do anything to prevent spreading of such information. Concerning four shops that were looted, it should be noted that one of those belongs to President Kocharian’s son and the others – to so-called oligarchs, who are tied to President Kocharian and Prime Minister Sarkissian. Supposedly, those shop owners will not insist on an independent investigation of the incidents; moreover, there are some witnesses, who recognised those who looted one of the shops as bodyguards of the shop owner.

It should also be noted that deploying troops in Yerevan (that occurred even before declaration of state of emergency) was anti-constitutional: the Constitution forbids using the army for solution of any internal trouble. Although official propaganda says the demonstrators were armed and planned a riot, President Kocharian and his entourage may not explain in logical terms why supposed rioters would wait for armoured vehicles to arrive before starting their actions. The authorities just needed an excuse for declaring state of emergency and stopping the protests; so they set up a situation in which their plan could be employed. The state of emergency declared on Saturday evening means that mass gatherings are banned; strikes are banned; freedom of movement is restricted; the police may search the suspects without a court order; de facto censorship is imposed on the media, as they may not publish any information about domestic affairs except official communiqués; distribution of leaflets and other materials is banned; activity of political parties and NGOs may be suspended. From 2 March till now it may be observed that broadcasting of CNN and Euronews TV channels in Yerevan is being jammed at the moments when there are reports about Armenia. There was an intention to print some newspapers on 4 March with blank pages as an expression of protest. However, such attempts were forbidden by officers of the National Security Service, so five most popular newspapers were not printed at all. As a matter of fact, those newspapers have been forbidden till now. Besides, the website of an independent news agency, www.a1plus.am, has been shut down although on 2 March the agency declared that during the state of emergency it would publish only information about cultural and sports events. Number of other websites have been shut down as well, and access to websites of RFE/RL has been restricted for clients of most Armenian internet providers. Still, in spite of information blockade, in spite of police brutality, in spite of number of arrests and continuous threats the authorities have not reached their goal – to wipe out social awareness and opposition activity. Protest demonstrations continue in different places throughout the country, as the state of emergency was declared only in Yerevan.

Electoral fraud and violence must be condemned unequivocally

These days, following the declaration of state of emergency, Armenian TV stations have been repeating official statements time after time. The authorities complain continuously about some international organisations’ assessment of the 1 March events. Indeed, some noteworthy opinions have been expressed. On 2 March, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour stated that ‘she was particularly concerned that force was used against peaceful demonstrators yesterday and that opposition protesters have been detained.’ On same day, Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis suggested that there had been excessive use of force and called on the authorities to review the restrictions imposed by the state of emergency, especially restriction of the freedom of speech. In a Human Rights Watch report published on 2 March it was stated that ‘Armenian police on March 1 used excessive force and violence to disperse demonstrators protesting peacefully against recent election results.’ On 4 March, the EU Presidency issued a declaration, which, in particular, says: ‘The EU calls upon the Armenian authorities to release any citizens detained for exercising their right to peaceful assembly and to lift the state of emergency, which imposes restrictions on media freedom, the freedom to assembly, and on political parties.’ On same day, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner urged the Armenian government to lift the state of emergency, to lift any restrictions on free movement for Levon Ter-Petrossian and to release any citizens detained for exercising their right to peaceful assembly. It may be summarised that there is a general understanding of the fact that protests in Yerevan were peaceful and use of force by the authorities was excessive. This understanding makes the incumbent authorities feel uncomfortable, so they have been repeating ad nauseam that foreigners have not been informed adequately about the 1 March events.

It may be remembered that back in 2003, when election fraud during the previous presidential election was strongly condemned, then defence minister Serzh Sarkissian talked nonsense about ‘different mentalities, different perceptions of democracy’ in Armenia and in the West. There are different mentalities, indeed, but the difference is not between Armenians and Westerners. There is mentality of people wishing to live free and safe lives, on one side, and mentality of roguish tyrants and their criminal entourage, on the other. The present generation of those living in the West is lucky – it did not need to fight against tyranny, as it inherited freedom won by the ancestors. Most of those living in Central and Eastern Europe remember their own quest for freedom and democracy. Now citizens of Armenia are trying to reclaim their stolen rights, and this process will not be stopped by barbed wire, truncheons, set-up criminal charges or even bullets.

On 24 February, when Central Electoral Commission declared Serzh Sarkissian president-elect, Levon Ter-Petrossian warned that ‘a new Saddam Hussein was born.’ It was said that the international community has a choice – to support peaceful democratisation of Armenia now or wait until there will be need to bring democracy to this country by tanks. While the latter assumption may be a hyperbole, the international community should feel a moral obligation to support freedom. Dr Ter-Petrossian is supported by the majority of Armenians, notwithstanding the official election results. Robert Kocharian and Serge Sarkissian, two former petty communist bureaucrats, are not able to terrify the participants of our movement. They just demonstrate that they do not remember the events of 1988-1991 well and they cannot understand the meaning of the processes that have been developing in the recent five months. They do not understand that the revolution that scares them so much is not a future issue: it has already happened. The word ‘revolution’ has different meanings. It does not only mean some changes achieved by force. ‘Revolution’ means also fundamental change in any sphere, like in expression ‘industrial revolution.’ The term ‘revolution’ may also be applied to a fundamental change of way of thinking. Armenian society has managed to overcome apathy, indifference, desperation and fear. From 21 September 2007, the day Dr Ter-Petrossian said he might run for presidency, we have been living in new reality that must be concluded achieving freedom and democracy.

In present situation, principled attitude of the European Union, Council of Europe, OSCE and USA may work as a constraint for the incumbent Armenian authorities willing to stay in power by means of force. International community must not recognise the results of fraudulent presidential election, so the criminalised regime would not be legitimised.

Let me conclude by a quotation from Levon Ter-Petrossian’s essay published in Washington Post on 5 March:

‘What do the people of Armenia expect from the West and the United States in particular? At the very least, we expect a strong and unequivocal condemnation of the violence that occurred March 1 and a recognition that the government, not the opposition, bears responsibility. This condemnation should accompany a stern warning against continued persecution of the opposition and its leaders – mistreatment that is reaching unprecedented levels – as well as a demand to lift the restrictions on the media and restore the people’s rights to free assembly and unbiased information. We also expect a reassessment of the conduct of the election. Any serious reassessment will inevitably lead to the conclusion that a new election must be held. If these steps are not taken, Armenians will draw two very undesirable conclusions: that peaceful and lawful means of political struggle are ineffective and pointless, and that the West cares about democracy only when it is politically expedient to do so. The West must do everything possible to dissuade Armenia’s citizens from reaching those conclusions.’

Posted by Armen Grigoryan on 10-03-2008 - 10:49:09

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