Remembering March 1
#1
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:45 AM
Remembering March 1 – An ArmeniaNow Special Edition
Last March 1 defined Armenia’s future, yet unfolding. Recollections and reflections are the focus of this one-year anniversary.
The day brought power to some while crippling the aspirations of others. And while a nation convulsed from the poisonous ambitions of a few and the unrewarded loyalty of thousands, 10 families were shredded.
Ten Armenians were killed by Armenians in the capital of Armenia, for reasons that served no good. Some were oppositionists. Some supported the government. Some had no political bias.
These victims did not earn martyrdom. There were no Hrant Dinks or Gurgen Markaryans among them. No State honors. Only a nation disgraced.
The deaths were marked less by bravery than by ill fate. They were as common as your father or brother or son, and died absurd deaths. They should not be deified. But neither should they be forgotten.
Tigran Abgaryan
Armen Farmanyan
Grigor Gevorgyan
Samvel Harutyunyan
Hovhaness Hovhannisyan
Zackar Hovhannisyan
Tigran Khachatryan
Gor Kloyan
David Petrosyan
Hamlet Tadevosyan
#2
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:45 AM
March 1 Remembered: Opposition stages peaceful rally under careful guard
By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009
Opposition leader LevonTer-Petrosyan address his supporters in a rally Sunday, marking the one year anniversary of last March 1’s deadly conflict, telling a few thousand supporters that: “ “the authorities did nothing to punish the real trespassers” of last year’s deadly clashes.
Vowing that his followers are resolute, the first president of Armenia said: “People are no more afraid of prisons and violence, they will not retreat, they will not be disappointed... It is high time for the authorities to understand that their efforts to depress the nation, to make people speechless are destructive not only for people but also for themselves.”
Speaking to the masses since the first time since opposition meetings were suspended last October, Ter-Pertosyan vowed that current authorities will find it hard to “overcome the current crisis in contrast to the crisis in the beginning of 1990’s, because that time the world economy was able to supports states to overcome it, whereas now the world economy itself is paralyzed.”
The former president then led a march through central Yerevan, carefully watched by state authorities who had earlier vowed that all means would be implemented to assure that no disorder would be permitted.
#3
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:46 AM
Conscripted: Serviceman Tigran Abgaryan, 19
By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009
The are no more words for the grief, so a year after the worst day of their lives Rosa Haroutyunyan and her husband Edik Abgaryan just sit in silence and the vacuum their lives have become after losing their son Tigran in the madness of last March 1.
“My husband and I stopped talking to each other, we sit down like this, the grandma with us, we do not utter a single world, we cannot bear it, and again we fall into silence,” says Rosa. When she does speak the sentences are halted by weeping.
They try to find what they lost in this deep silence – their boy’s smile, his speech, laughing. He was 19.
“If my son died on a frontier line or in a war, I would again mourn, suffer, but I would understand that he died for the Homeland. I am getting crazy; my son was killed in the center of our capital city, without any reason; what for, whose post for? I sent my son to defend the Homeland and not someone’s position,” says the mother.
Tigran Abgaryan was a conscript. On the night of March 1 he was in the thick of violence on Leo Street where artillery fired tracer bullets for warning and snipers fired for real.
The cause of death is “gunshot wound within the neck, injuries in spine and spinal marrow.” However, this does not answer Tigran’s parent’s questions. They were told that Tigran was injured at 10:30 p.m. by a gunshot. After being injured Tigran lived 40 days with the help of artificial breathing. He turned 19 in hospital where he died on April 11.
“And they do not say what type of a gun. The preliminary investigation committee explains that Tigran was shot by a sub-machine gun. But what preliminary investigation is that,” his angry mother desperately asks no one in particular. “How did it happen that a sub-machine gunshot hit my son’s neck – just a 3-centimeter open space? That day his whole body was covered with military uniform, helmet and shield.”
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.She asks for answers. And she asks for the impossible . . .
“Give my son back to me, or at least say how it happened that he did not return,” she cries. “I gave a healthy boy, a sportsman, to this country; I did not want to get his corpse instead.”
Tigran’s relatives are angry especially at the fact that the soldiers who were serving only a few months were at the line of contact in Yerevan streets.
Tigran’s father enters the room, however, he does not join the conversation. Rosa says that his heart is not standing it anymore. Tigran’s photos are everywhere: handsome, tall, blue-eyed, fair-skinned.
He was a student at Yerevan State Pedagogic University, faculty of science of law when he was conscripted.
On March 1, 2008, at 10 a.m., Tigran was at the Opera House, among the soldiers surrounding the building. His mother managed to go there and see her son even at a distance. In the evening Rosa and her husband went there again to see him.
“He ran to us, with red face. I had cigarettes and Snickers chocolate with me, I put them into his pockets. And than I asked him to lean so that I could kiss him, he was very tall. At that time he said, “It seems that everything will stop now, as far as I understood, they are planning to take us back to the military unit.”
He turned back and went running, and then he stopped for a moment and looked back.
“Ok, good bye,” he said to the parents, then ran to await his last assignment.
#4
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:47 AM
The “Accomplice”: Armen Farmanyan, 33
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009
Seven-year old Irina hugs the clothes of her dead father and, leaning her head against them, says, “I miss my Daddy, my Daddy is in heaven.”
This is how Armen Farmanyan’s daughter deals with his loss – one of 10 who died on March 1, 2008.
Missing him is not the only hardship this small family has been forced to overcome since last spring. Social problems, injustice and scorn, all these make the grief more unbearable and fill the cup of patience.
“I had a job, and was at least capable of taking care of myself and my child, but after Armen’s death the owner of Malatia trading mall said that I was an oppositionist, and must not work at his trading mall, and that’s how I lost my job,” Farmanyan’s widow Anna Eloyan says.
Anna and her husband – who died at 33 -- had adopted their daughter and had been taking care of her since she was eight months old, but today she wonders how she will manage to care for the child.
“Instead of soothing this pain somehow, the authorities keep insulting and despising, paying no attention at all, expressing no condolences. But wasn’t it they, the authorities, who took away the man of our family, our breadwinner?”
She sends letters to the Prosecutor General’s Office and other bodies, complaining of how her husband’s death is being investigated. She gets responses that refer to “Your and your accomplice Armen Farmanyan . . . ”
“What does this mean? You have turned innocent victims into criminals without any proof. What was their fault – that they had come out to express their grievances? So should we all remain silent and they will be the only ones to talk?”
Anna found out about her husband’s death on the next day, when, having waited all night long, she realized that there was no more hope and started searching for him in the morning.
“I had an odd feeling, it’s strange how we did not look for him at the police station, or at a hospital, we went straight to the morgue,” Anna says and insists that on that day in the morgue there were not ten, but many bodies, “so many that it was hard to walk.”
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.That’s where she found her husband who had been shot. That’s where the doctor performing the autopsy was explaining in astonishment that he had taken three bullets – two metal and one plastic – out of the dead man’s head.
“He was astounded and said: ‘I have twenty years of experience, I have never seen anything like this – one shot releasing three separate bullets at the same time’,” says Anna and adds angrily, “That was their ‘Cheryomukha,’ the Russian’s invention that an Armenian used against another Armenian, and now they are saying they cannot find who is guilty.”
Three people became the victims of “Cheryomukha 7” – a special weapon used during the mass unrest (see "They Mock our Dead").
“They have not punished anyone and what’s more, on that day in the National Assembly the investigator announced very casually that those four policemen are still working in the system, I won’t be surprised if they have even been promoted,” says Anna.
This is another family that lives hoping for a fair investigation – they say it’s the only way to soothe and compensate for their grief.
“By punishing the guilty or admitting their fault they will not bring our relatives back, but they will at least respect their memory,” the widow says.
#5
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:47 AM
“Sacred”: Grigor Gevorgyan, 28
By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 Twenthy-eight-year-old Varduhi Baghdasaryan says almost voicelessly that she does not want to talk about anything related to her husband. She is the widow of Grigor Gevorgyan who became a chance victim of March 1 events.
“I apologize a thousand times, but I have no wish to talk about it. It has happened for about three times – I talked to reporters, my words were twisted and printed, and that’s why I don’t want it. Once again, I am sorry, but I don’t want to,” says Grigor’s wife and closes the door of the small one-room house in Kond, where she has been living with her two children and without her husband for a year.
One of her relatives – Lusine – also forbids her to talk about the difficulties of the year she’s spent without her husband.
“The newspapers don’t fill my children’s stomachs. We have a lot of troubles as it is, Varduhi is hardly capable of providing for her children, and remembering all this for one more time is too much for her,” Lusine told ArmeniaNow in a phone conversation.
“And in general our Grigor is sacred, may our boy’s name not be written anywhere, so that what we have said does not get distorted afterwards,” she added.
28-year-old Grigor Gevorgyan was the only breadwinner in the family of 6; he worked at a petrol station. On March 1 he left the house after 5 o’clock – to get his salary.
“It was around 8 – Grigor called, he was on Leo Street. He said, ‘Varduhi, the situation is awful, I am encircled, the cops are not letting me out, they are aiming their guns at me and saying – we’ll shoot you dead, back off.’ I began shouting; I said, ‘I am coming.’ He said, ‘Stay in the house.’ Around 9 the phone wasn’t answering any more. Then his phone switched off completely, and we didn’t have any news,” Varduhi had told ArmeniaNow in March 2008. (see Dead Innocent)
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.According to official data, he was wounded in front of a shoe-repair booth near the bridge adjacent to the intersection of Paronyan and Leo Streets.
According to the court doctor’s conclusion, on Grigor’s “corpse a gunshot inlet was found on the back of the nose, and an outlet in the left forehead-parietal area. The cause of death was the acute disturbance of the vital functions of the brain.”
#6
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:48 AM
The Tenth: Samvel Harutyunyan, 29
By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 The tenth victim of bloody March 1 was 29-year-old Samvel Harutyunyan, who lived in the village of Yeghegnavan village, Ararat Province, where a year later his parents cannot come to grips with the reality of what happened.
Through her grief Samvel’s mother, Zarik, recalls events . . .
“That day he left the house at about 5:30 p.m. He went to buy baby food for his six-month-old daughter. While leaving he said he would be back in an hour. He went and never came back,” says the mother. (Family members suppose that since he found himself in Yerevan he just decided to see what was going on.)
On the morning of March 2, Zarik saw her son for just a second on a television report.
“They were showing how the police was detaining six people. They were sitting at the wall of the French Embassy, and the wall was covered with blood spots. One of the men sitting there was Samvel. They were saying that those people are suspected to have participated in mass disorder. In that video material Samvel was holding his head in his hands. He was injured,” tells Edik, Samvel’s father.
For two days the parents were supposing that their son was in police custody. They did not manage to find him there, and started looking for him elsewhere. On March 4, Samvel was found in intensive care at the Armenia Medical Center.
“When I saw him, I did not recognize him. His face and hands were swollen. It was because of a tattoo he had that I figured out that the boy laying on the bed unconscious was my son,” says the father.
For 41 days doctors struggled to save the young man, operating on him four times. On March 20 he showed some progress and was able to communicate barely.
On April 11 Zarik visited Samvel and fed her son some fruit. While feeding him, her son started adjusting the bandage on his head. When she tried to help, Zarik saw a large hole in his skull.
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.“I was horrified. My son, in fact, wanted to let me understand that there is a hole opened in his head. I hugged him, and I was crying; he hugged my neck by one arm. And then I left to buy clothes and food for my Samvel. He even sent me something like an air kiss,” tells the mother.
Samvel’s parents are sure that their son was shot. And they were not told about it.
The same day, at about 5:30 p.m. Edik got a phone call from the hospital. He was told that Samvel’s state abruptly worsened. Samvel died before his parents managed to reach the hospital.
According to the forensic report Samvel Harutyunyan had an open, blunt, visible wound to the brain. He died due to infection and pneumonia resulting from the wound.
“We did not get a single letter of condolence from the authorities. Only Heritage Party sent us one. Already a year passed after my Samvel’s death: I cannot even put a gravestone for him. And up to now they are investigating, whereas they could have done it long before. They simply do not need to do it, and everybody knows why they do not need it,” says Edik.
#7
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:48 AM
“Golden Hands”: Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, 47
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 In the Hovhannisyan family of three it is forbidden to watch anything related to March 1 events on television. If she does, Lilia repeatedly remembers the evil day when her husband, 47-year-old Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, died because of the clash between the authorities and the opposition.
50-year-old Lilia says that sometimes, on his way home from work, her husband (he was a plumber) would stop by and listen to the oppositionists rallying after the 2008 presidential election.
“He was interested to hear what they were saying, but he was not intentionally participating in those rallies,” Lila says.
On March 1 as well Hovhannes was coming back, carrying his tools, but he never reached home.
“He had fought in Karabakh for so long, and nothing happened to him, and then he got killed right near our house,” says Hovhannes’s son, 26-year-old Artur.
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.According to the court doctor’s conclusion, Hovhannes died of acute internal bleeding caused by a blunt gunshot injury to the chest. He was wounded on the bridge, on the intersection of Mashtots and Grigor Lusavorich Streets, and died immediately. A 5.45 caliber bullet – as used in AK-47 machine guns -- was taken out of his body.
Lilia recalls a husband who “had golden hands”, saying how he used to fix things for neighbors. She says too that even now former clients call for service and only then learn that he was one of March 1’s 10 fatalities.
Artur now supports the family with a job at a construction site, while 18-year old Gayane studies to be a nurse.
“Dad was so kind, so hard-working, so quiet, I cannot remember if he had ever treated us rudely,” says Artur, and Lilia adds, “If there was one percent of good people in Armenia, my Hovik was definitely among them.”
Lilia remembers the small details of 21 years of life together.
“I always thought he needed care. He never went to the barber’s, and I used to trim his hair . . . ”
Lilia’s grief is mixed with resentment and disbelief. Authorities should have been more reserved in reaction to the opposition she says.
“No matter how angered the people were, they should not have shot at the people,” Lilia says.
On the first day of each month, Lilia visits Hovhannes’s grave in Yerevan.
“I was happy with my Hovik, but everything remains incomplete.”
#8
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:48 AM
“He Left Forever”: Zackar Hovhannisyan, 31
By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 The phone calls at Marine Hovhannisyan’s house are not answered. Marine is the sister of Zackar Hovhannisyan, a victim of March 1, 2008. Those who know this family, say that they do not want to talk to journalists.
Currently Zackar’s relatives live at his apartment in Malatia-Sebastia community. The only person, his father, who was taken care of by Zackar, died last year, too. Zackar’s sister is married. His mother died long ago. Zackar’s brother died in Kalbajar, during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“They do not communicate with journalists,” says Lilit Dalaloyan, the wife of David Petrosyan, who was also killed in the Yerevan melee.
Lilit was probably the last of his acquaintances to see Zackar. While she was rushing out late at night to look for her husband who had not been answering his phone calls, she bumped into Zackar a bus stop.
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.“He looked at me and asked where I was planning to go that late. I said, Zackar jan (dear), I am worried very much, I am going to find David. He said, ‘You’d better return home.’ I will never forget his glance: he looked at my son and said in a tough tone, ‘Varuj, I’m telling you, take your mom and go home, I will call him (your dad),’ and he left. He left forever,” tells Lilit.
According to the official statement, Zackar Hovhannisyan, 31, was injured during clashes near Mashtots Avenue.
Earlier Zackar’s relatives told ArmeniaNow that on March 1, 2008 he went to the center of the city to take his neighbor back home from an opposition rally.
Zackar was taken to the hospital; he was injured by a gunshot and did not recover from surgery. (see Why?: The dead left no answers).
According to the autopsy, “an injury caused by a gunshot is found on Zackar Hovhannisyan’s corpse, on the front surface of his abdomen. The reason of his death is the great loss of blood caused by the injury.”
To be more precise, the cause of his death was a gunshot from a 9 millimeter round (as issued to government forces).
His father, who was bedridden, found out about his son’s death when it was announced on television on March 2.
#9
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:49 AM
“Happy Spring”: Tigran Khachatryan, 23
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 On the morning of March 1, 2008, Tigran Khachatryan woke up in high mood – it was spring.
“He entered the kitchen and said: “Mom, happy first spring day!” He knew that I love spring,” tells Alla Hovhannisyan, mother of the 23-year-old who became a victim of March 1 tragedy.
Sunday’s first day of spring will have a very different meaning for the Khachatryan family.
Tigran Khachatryan was the first victim registered in the morgue on March 1, 2008, and he is among the three victims killed by means of the ‘special technique’ belonging to the Police.
The student at the Agricultural Academy was also a beginner businessman: Tigran was running his own taxi service, and he was planning to enlarge his business.
“He was not politically active, but he was worried that the demonstrators were dispersed by means of beatings. He said he would go to figure out what had happened,” says his mother.
“He was calling often saying that everything was fine. But at about 21:00 PM I started having a foreboding of something – Tigran’s mobile was not responding.”
After looking for him at hospitals and police stations they found their son at the morgue at 2:00 AM.
“My husband and younger son did not manage to find him anywhere. And on the way home they saw emergency machines at the morgue, they got out and asked to check, and they found my son in blood.”
The mother was looking for an answer at home:
“Did you find him? Where is he? At the police station? No? At the hospital? No? Where is he?”
“I got the answer to my questions in my husband’s and son’s tears; but I did not believe and now I do not believe and I do not understand why, due to which right did they take my son away?”
The questions were even more for Tigran’s 9-year-old sister – Evelina. The blue-eyed little girl was carefully cleaning her brother’s table full of his belongings; she looks at his photo and her endlessly crying mother, and she keeps silence.
The pain of her son’s loss was even doubled when she read in the Prosecutor’s document: “he was killed during participation in mass disorder.”
“How did you know, who proved that you labeled him that way?! How do you know that he was in the mass disorder, and may be you consider him to be guilty, too? That is why he was shot?” The mother says.
In the documents of the Prosecutor’s it is written that “Tigran Khachatryan, at about 20:00 along with several participants of the mass disorder, went to the Leo crossroad from Myasnikyan’s statue, and he died there at about 21:30”
Nevertheless, video material found in Tigran’s mobile phone provides other explanations.
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.The last video was shot by the victim at 21:19. He shot the demonstration held at the Myasnikyan’s statue for two minutes. It means that at 21:21 he was still at the Myasnikyan’s statue; so how could he be in the Leo Street since 20:00 and at the same time shoot the demonstration at the Myasnikyan’s statue? Or how could he manage to pass about a kilometer in 8 minutes and manage to appear in the Leo Street and ‘participate in the mass disorder’?! It is not clear till now. It is also not clear who out of the four police officers shot the young man. (see "They Mock our Dead").
“It is very hard when they kill your son and later do not even deign to commiserate. Moreover, they consider him to be guilty,” says the mother looking at her son’s smiling photo in tears. “Our children were treated as national betrayers.”
The first question the mother was asked at the examination at the Prosecutor’s was “who did you vote for?”
“What is the difference who I voted for? No matter who I voted for, you did not have the right to kill my child,” says the mother and continues, “I voted for Arthur Baghdasaryan, in fact.”
Alla Hovhannisyan says that she did not believe that her son had been killed by an Armenian: “I was thinking that they brought troops from Georgia or Russia, and they killed him. But when the Prosecutor’s said that the murderers are four Armenian policemen, I understood this is the end – an Armenian killed an Armenian. What else do we demand from Turks?!”
The only comfort for the son-lost mother is a just investigation and a punishment of those who are guilty for her son’s death. However, judging by the answers of the Prosecutor’s, the hope grows fainter day by day.
“It is evident that the case is being hidden, I mean we live in a country where anyone can kill the way he wants to, he can do whatever he wants to do, being sure that there will be no punishment.”
#10
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:50 AM
Serzh’s Proxy: Gor Kloyan, 28
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 Four year-old Sarkis often wakes with the same unanswerable question: “Hasn’t Dad come back? I want Gor…”
Gor Kloyan didn’t come back home to his two sons March 1 after he went to the center of Yerevan out of curiosity over what he’d been hearing. Gor, 28, was one of 10 who died from Armenia’s dark First Day of Spring.
“I don’t know what to say to this child, how to explain to him that his father is not coming back anymore, that some people retained their power at the cost of his father’s blood and other 9 innocent victims’ blood,” says Sarkis’ grandmother Azatuhi Manukyan.
“The time will come and he will understand, but what was these children’s sin that they will now have to grow up without a father?”
Gor’s father found his son in hospital on Proshyan Street, where almost all those wounded were taken that day. Recalling that day, the victim’s mother says that she had seen such terrifying scenes only in war films.
“The whole hospital was filled with wounded and beaten young people awash in blood, and then one person was given a piece of paper and told that their son was dead, I began screaming, shouting: “How could they kill him? He was so young.” Little did I know then that my own son was already dead in the next room,” Azatuhi says.
The parents were shown a 4cm by 2cm bullet casing by doctors explaining the cause of death. Doctors also said a gas cartridge lodged inside Gor’s groin exploded during surgery, filling the operating room with teargas and necessitating evacuation. Otherwise, he might have been saved, they said.
According to the father, the probability of saving his son was high, as, even though the main blood vessel was injured, he had been conscious for about 20 minutes and he was able to say his name and last name when he was taken to hospital.
Gor Kloyan was one of three civilians found to have been shot by police using a “Cheryomukha 7” riot weapon. Four police officers were issued those guns, but none has been identified as the shooter. (See "They Mock our Dead").
“What do they mean they cannot verify whose fault it is? They have the names, the military unit number. And who gave the order to use that outdated weapon, who gave the order to shoot – not into the air, but straight at the people?” asks the father, who, like his grandson, gets no answer . . .
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.For the parents, the greatest insult is that they received no condolences from authorities. Only the Heritage Party offered sympathy, whereas Gor had been a member of Prosperous Armenia (pro-government) party and had worked as a proxy for Serzh Sargsyan during the election.
“After the election he was very disappointed, he would say – You can’t imagine what happened, what anarchy there was, how they stuffed the ballot boxes,” the mother says and adds:
“Don’t they realize he was the only breadwinner in the family, don’t they wonder what the family is doing without their parent, how these two children live, what they eat, perhaps they need help? Is there not even a single person with conscience in the government to put sense into the others’ heads?” the mother asks, her eyes reddened.
Then she answers her own question, “There is none. Because if there were, they wouldn’t have killed the children.”
#11
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:50 AM
Parted: David Petrosyan, 33
By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 “I get terrified by the idea that March 1 is approaching, I don’t want it, because on March 1 I will relive this same pain and suffering.”
A year of pain and suffering began for 33-year old Lilit Dalaloyan when a 10 p.m. phone call was the last she heard of her husband, David Petrosyan.
As the black anniversary approaches, the widow recalls going into the night in search of her husband who had said he was on his way home. After he hadn’t shown for more than an hour Lilit and 13-year old son Varuzhan caught a taxi and went looking. . .
In the center of Yerevan, on the intersection of Kievyan and Baghramyan streets, they were sobered by military cars and policemen, and Lilit’s anxiety worsened.
“It looked like a battlefield. I came round for an instant, and I thought I shouldn’t be taking my child along. I phoned my aunt’s daughter, and she asked me if I’d come over to her. I asked if anything was wrong with David. She said no, that he just got hit in the leg with a club.”
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.Arriving at the uncle’s house Lilit learned the truth that her husband had been taken to hospital and the injury was a gunshot.
“The husband of my uncle’s daughter took us to the hospital. I said – take me to my David – they made us wait for half an hour on the ground floor, my heart was sinking. I was pacing back and forth frantically, until a girl came after us and we went upstairs. The doctors entered the room one by one, closed the door and said – he had a kidney surgery – and I said – I’m ready to be a donor, take my kidney, quick – they shook their heads. I looked into the eyes of one of the doctors and I said – My David is no longer alive? – the doctor nodded…everything blackened before my eyes . . .”
According to David’s wife Lilit, David, 33, appeared in the center of events, because he was coming home from work. He was a goldsmith and worked at the gold market on Khorenatsi Street. As usual, he walked from work to Mashtots Avenue, from where there are more mini-buses going to the bus stop near their house at late hours.
She sits near the TV David bought for the family two days before his death, surrounded by photos that are her last images of the man she was married with and loved.
“We were very happy,” she says. “Words fail me to describe how much. He used to say ‘It’s you I live and breathe by’.”
Lilit says her grief was overwhelming and that for eight months she locked herself at home until she realized that his death was killing her, too, and that she had to think of her son.
“When I went out I saw that people don’t want to communicate with me any longer, because I looked so miserable. I decided to wear a mask, to act, so that they would stop avoiding me. I put on my ‘mask’ and go out, I talk to everybody, and sometimes I laugh, then I come home, take the mask off and lock myself out in my house again,” Lilit says, crying.
“Until now I cannot believe that he is no longer alive, I make coffee – two cups, because I think he is sitting on the sofa waiting for coffee, the door opens and I say – Dav? – every time I think he’s coming. He used to say to me: ‘Lilit, swear that only death will part us’.’
“And it did.”
#12
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:51 AM
Duty Called: Police Captain Hamlet Tadevosyan, 31
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 On March 1 last year, Republic of Armenia Police Captain Hamlet Tadevosyan called his wife, Christine and mother Gohar to say he’d be home about 10 p.m.
The time passed and with it news that trouble had come to the streets where Captain Tadevosyan and his comrades were in a war against kinsmen, neighbors, countrymen, that would end in victory for none and death for 10.
Phone calls – more than 100 says Christine now, her eyes wet above the mourning dress the 25-year old widow she still wears – went unanswered.
As commander of 1st Infantry Batallion 1032, 31-year old Tadevosyan was in charge of 70 policemen. At home he was the father of two – Aghasi and Gohar, ages 4 and 2.
According to forensics, Hamlet Tadevosyan died from injuries from an explosive while on duty near Mashtots Boulevard and Lusavorich Street.
A year of mourning has not produced blame for the bereaved. Neither the wife nor the mother blame authorities or opposition radicals. Still: “What was my son guilty of,” asks Gohar. “I have taken care of him very well, I brought him up, and now he is not with us.”
Tadevosyan’s family does not know many things about the circumstances of Hamlet’s death. His life, though, is recalled with bitter pleasure.
“He had very nice way of speaking, and he convinced me very fast,” says Christine with a sad smile on her face, recalling how he proposed to her only a month after they’d met at a relative’s wedding.
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.Christine and the kids live with Hamlet’s parents, pensioners, now in the Yeghvard village of Kotayk province. The State Budget pays her about $280. The Ministry of Defense recently provided her with an apartment in the Davtashen district of Yerevan, where the family lived until Hamlet’s death.
“Now we try to renovate the apartment, because it does not have basic living conveniences,” says Christine. Mother Gohar says she and her husband try to help, and her conversation is interrupted by the sound of a baby crying in another room -- one-month old Hamlet Tadevosyan, named for his uncle.
Gohar continues, but she is crying along with the baby and for a horribly different reason: “. . . a child needs a father to be brought up, doesn’t he?”
#13
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:51 AM
Legacy of Discontent: Assessing the Impact of March 1st
Richard Giragosian
Published: 01 March, 2009 As tragic and disturbing as were the violence and deaths from March 1, 2008 for Armenia, the implications from the day are much deeper and more profound.
Specifically, the implications on Armenia from March 1st are two-fold. First, March 1st revealed that the political reality in the country has changed, irrevocably. Second, it also exposed the government as much less popular and more distrusted than ever before.
Since last March, it is increasingly obvious that there is no way to return to the pre-election status quo. The political reality has moved on, making the parliamentary and all other political institutions less and less relevant, as they no longer reflect Armenia’s political landscape.
This changed political reality is also exacerbated by the fact that the Sargsyan government differs from all previous Armenian governments in two crucial aspects: a lack of legitimacy and a lack of popular support. These two major deficiencies combine to deny the government of any real mandate to lead. Such internal weakness further exposes that the authorities are much more willing to intimidate the population than to serve the people.
A “crisis of confidence”
One year after March 1st, it is also clear that President Sargsyan has inherited a dangerous legacy of distrust and discontent, culminating in a crisis of confidence that has eroded trust in the government and faces a further challenge in the form of public demands for change.
Ironically, for much of the last decade, the Armenian population had seemed to have grown accustomed to flawed elections, economic inequality and a lack of democratic governance. Over time, the population became increasingly disengaged from politics; a pronounced general state of apathy took hold in Armenia. From such widespread apathy, and the related onset of public mistrust, emerged the most significant obstacles to meaningful political change and economic development. The apathy was sustained by the promise of a more prosperous future. Most of the population realized, however, that the mirage is attainable for only the small, few and corrupt. In other words, the overwhelming tendency was to share from the corrupt system, not to change it. But with March 1st, there has been a vibrant reawakening.
A lingering political crisis
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.Three crucial new developments have contributed to a political crisis unprecedented in Armenia's recent history. In this way, the Armenian government’s most basic impediment stems from a distinctly new political context, insofar as the population has emerged from years of apathy to voice fresh and strident demands for change. This is, at least in part, rooted in the opaque nature of the Armenian political system, where dissent is seen as a direct threat to the state rather than as characteristic of a healthy democracy. Within such a closed political system, there is no mechanism for expressing political discontent, a lack that exacerbates underlying tensions. This means there can be no return to the pre-election status quo, as the Armenian people have expressed a new sense of civic empowerment.
Just as importantly, the impact of March 1st also centers on the reality that Armenian society has changed, whereby people are no longer content to witness yet another round of flawed and fixed elections. While frustration over the February 19, 2008 presidential election simmered, the real outrage erupted once the Armenian authorities decided to forcibly disperse the unarmed demonstrators who had gathered for several weeks in a peaceful and generally well-organized public protest.
But the roots of that anger and frustration were not only in the politics of selection over election or from being denied any choice or voice in politics. The eruption of public anger and outrage was equally tied to years of widening disparities in wealth and income, and a pronounced lack of economic opportunity, or even hope for the future. And unlike other countries, the division between the small wealthy oligarchic elite and the much larger, much poorer general population is all too obvious, seen every day, every where and in every way.
This economic undercurrent of discontent is only increasing, especially as the Armenian authorities are now facing the onset of the effects from the global financial and economic crisis. And although the record of economic reform in recent years has been fairly impressive, it is not enough to save the situation, as one of the more negative aspects of Armenia’s economic reality is the “paradox” of economic growth, whereby several years of double-digit economic growth have resulted in an uneven or partial sharing of wealth and higher living standards among the overall population. Moreover, widening disparities in wealth and income have only led to a serious socioeconomic divide.
There is also a geographic aspect of this socioeconomic divide, along urban-rural lines and marked by an over-concentration of economic activity and opportunity in urban centers and the capital. This division has fostered more pronounced regional and rural income inequalities and has been exacerbated by a wide variance in quality and access of essential public services such as health, education and other social services.
The infrastructural divide between regions and urban centers has also encouraged greater migration to urban capitals from the countries’ outlying rural areas. This geographic rural-urban divide is also reflected in the course of political development and democratization, as power is overwhelmingly concentrated in the capital.
Armenia’s political polarization
Over the past year, Armenia has also witnessed a widening polarization in politics, defined by a newly united political opposition and an increasingly unpopular government, and worsened by the socio-economic divide between a small wealthy ruling elite and a much larger population inhibited by limited economic opportunity and even less political power.
But the government’s traditional reliance on a record of statistical economic growth as a source for legitimacy, both externally and domestically, seems to be running short of utility. Crippled by a lack of popular support and hindered by a record of tainted elections, the Armenian authorities have used economic growth to obscure its lack of a mandate to govern. But the combination of structural fragility, entrenched corruption and incomplete reform is now posing a threat to the economic system itself, questioning whether it can sustain itself in the face of mounting challenges.
The Armenian government must now learn to govern -- not just rule -- the country. Yet it is disabled by its weakness and undermined by a lack of legitimacy and an absence of any real popular mandate. This not only calls into question the authority of the state, but also seriously erodes the government's capacity to implement the difficult policies needed to satisfy mounting demands for change and expectations for reform. Thus, as the political crisis remains far from resolved and is likely only to continue, there is still a very real chance for a potentially unprecedented period of change, possibly marking the last page of this chapter of Armenian politics.
#14
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:52 AM
Lessons from Chaos: How has a year changed the opposition?
A newly-unified opposition emerged to find a country divided Analysis by Aris Ghazinyan
Published: 01 March, 2009 Today few people remember the date of the last presidential election in Armenia. February 19 has been lost in the void of March 1.
Of course, everybody has his or her own way of remembering and analyzing what happened. From the very beginning conflicting opinions were expressed concerning the nature of the events, but today, when a whole year has passed, all these opinions sound equally fresh and emotional. Some people still think that it was a failed foreign attempt to make a “color revolution” in the country; some view the events as a domestic case (attempts of avenging circles to usurp power); some others view them against the background of the general dissatisfaction of the masses concerning the situation in the country.
One way or another, exactly a year ago the first president of Armenia was able to unite more than 350,000 people around him ( according to official voting data) and make an ultimatum demanding to conduct new presidential elections. It should be particularly pointed out that it was the first president, not the opposition, who was able to that. The domestic policy developments in Armenia have for a long time been personified, and this is what explains the phenomenon of the second political advent of both Karen Demirchyan (1998) and Levon Ter-Petrosyan (2008).
The attitude to Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan is also based on the personal factor: a purely “physiological rejection” of their personas is typical of the overwhelming majority of their most radical opponents.
Thus, talking about the current state of the opposition is the same as talking about the current state of Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Today it is much weaker than a year ago, and it can be explained by several reasons at once. First of all, during the past year the acting power has grown noticeably stronger, whereas a year ago it basically did not exist at all. The responsibly for making particular decisions was then shared by the exiting administration of Robert Kocharyan and the new one that was “taking the baton”. The shares were almost equal.
In February-March of last year there was something like “double-power” in the country, and this is exactly why during the two explosive rally weeks after the presidential election none of the presidents shouldered the final responsibility for taking decisive action. It was in this situation that the first president decided to take on these functions. Today, the “three parallel presidents” game is over, and the acting power is the only one.
Another reason for weakening Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s positions is the more solid structure of the power pyramid. By the time Robert Kocharyan left, the power pyramid he had created began to fall apart in front of one’s eyes, and many representatives of the state machine, quite unexpectedly, supported Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Among them there were both heads of administrations and diplomats, including ambassadors. Virtually each day in February 2008
testified to the destruction of Robert Kocharyan’s pyramid, moreover, among those who switched to the first president’s side were not only the representatives of large businesses, but also the members of the Republican Party of Armenia.
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.The third reason for the relative weakness of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s current positions is the comparative scarcity of material resources. At the beginning of last year his political activity was financially supported by the representatives of large businesses, who no longer own their production today. Within the past period the property of “oligarchs who turned their coats” was redistributed, the latest manifestation of which was the auction of the mineral water plant Bjni, whose owner was Khachatur Sukiasyan, who had supported Levon Ter-Petrosyan. The famous plant was bought by Ruben Hayrapetyan – the proxy of the acting president, a member of the Republican Party of Armenia and the Head of the Football Federation of Armenia.
The weakness of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s positions, which, by the way, was apparent last year as well, is the absence of politicians associated in the public consciousness with such notions as “decency,” “professionalism,” “devotion to the national and state interests” among his supporters.
In August of last year 16 opposition parties and social movements (Peoples’ Party of Armenia, “Republic,” “Liberty,” “Democratic Way,” The Liberal Party, The Social-Democratic Party “Gnchakyan”, The Conservative Party of Armenia, “The Alternative” movement, and others) signed a declaration creating the Armenian National Congress. However, it is obvious that the charisma and influence of one such politician as Vazgen Manukyan will outweigh in the public consciousness all the 16 leaders of the Armenian National Congress parties taken together. However, neither he nor other experienced oppositionists (Hrant Khachatryan, Paruyr Hayrikyan, and others) even consider the idea of joining the first president.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan has no outside support either. Of course, both Ankara and Baku would have liked to see him in the position of Armenia’s president, but even they will hardly provide him with material support, if need be. The first president has for a long time been perceived as “a burned card,” and nobody is going to make any bets. In the first place, he has already been a resigned head of the country, and in the second place, he was incapable of properly using the “double-power” that was created in February of last year, and instead, he led his electorate to an apparent slaughter.
However, the paradox of the situation is that it is just this state of things that can give strength to Ter-Petrosyan. The state of despair in which the radical opposition in his person has found itself, is capable of steering its actions along the most unpredictable direction, as there is nothing else to lose. Taking into account that the first president never burdened himself with extra care of those he was in charge of, one can expect anything from him. Especially now, on the threshold of the first anniversary of the tragic events.
The rally planned for March 1, in which, according to analysts, no less than 20,000 people may take part, is capable of clarifying a lot in this respect. The participants of the rally will be given instructions, which will allow avoiding possible provocations from the representatives of power. It has been announced already that a march has been planned after the rally. As it has already been stated by the Armenian National Congress, the rally and the following march should “facilitate the creation of a healthier political system in the country.” During these days one will be able to witness and compare the current state of the radical opposition with last year’s state. Sadly, judging by the external manifestations, no significant lessons have been learned since a year ago.
#15
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:53 AM
Law Makers Turned Peace Seekers on March 1: Heritage MPs earned right to be angry
Bakhshyan was a rare lawmaker on hand on a lawless day By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 Of 131 parliamentarians and 5 parties, only those from Heritage were on the scene and in the middle – between police and protestors – in the heated air of March 1 near the French Embassy to Armenia and Alexander Myasnikyan statue.
MP Anahit Bakhshyan remembers how at 7:30 AM on March 1, 2008, she was called and told that people were being beaten at the Opera House.
“I did not manage to contact the other members of our party, and I did not know who was where at that moment. I left the house at 10:30 AM to go to the party’s office, but when I reached the French Embassy, I saw people gathered there. I got out of the car. People approached me and told that they came to ask for political asylum from the embassy,” Bakhshyan recalls.
During those hours it was only Bakhshyan -- a former teacher and widow of Yuri Bakshyan one of the October 27 1999 parliament slaying victims -- from the opposition factually present there, and she was invited to participate in negotiations. Representatives of the Police told Bakhshyan to tell people to move towards the ‘Dinamo’ stadium.
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.“I said immediately, “Are we taking people there to bludgeon them?” The boy standing next to me cried that we could not beat people, and he was immediately beaten. And then he was taken to somewhere. Little by little our deputies, the Ombudsman, people from the Congress arrived. It was a terrible situation,” says Bakhshyan.
According to her, it was possible to evade bloodshed that day, if the police, in the name of the authorities, managed to pacify the public carefully and impassively instead of infuriating the crowd.
When in the evening people were having a peaceful meeting, the police, the MP says, should have simply stood there and controlled the situation rather than inciting it.
Bakhshyan maintains that police provoked the outbreak of violence.
“What was that sniper doing there? Why did those soldiers appear there? How did they manage to take a group of protestors with them and organize a local clash there?” Bakhshyan asks, referring to the original flare-up that led mass violence.
Heritage deputy Vardan Khachatryan, who witnessed how people died there, says, “I said yet during the special session (of the National Assembly) called that day that, unfortunately, our life was divided into two parts by the March 1 events – before March 1 and after it. The impressions about the State, the Homeland, and other things changed that day. We do not have an alternative except for reaching justice.”
Khachatryan was at the scene until another deputy from their Party – Armen Martirosyan was knifed (while trying to protect a policeman). And then Khachatryan returned at about 6 p.m. He is sure that there were some instigators “imported” into the crowd.
“They were the same people among the public who, at the beginning were using bad language about the police officers. It was a specific group, very well seen. Later they climbed the unfinished building near the French Embassy, and they started throwing stones at both the policemen and people. Even Armen’s knifing was planned,” Khachatryan claims.
Bakhshyan is convinced the authorities’ actions were premeditated.
“Even if the public were dispersed after 8 p.m., it does not matter. These disorders were planned, so that they could have video material to show the world and say, ‘Look what our opposition is doing’,” says Bakhshyan. “They must have an argument for declaring an emergency, and they declared an emergency much later than they started those disgraces.”
Khachatryan says that it was necessary to leave people alone that day, and hence, it would be possible to evade bloodshed. According to him, there was no need for police to surround the people and for military forces to be sent. Nor, he claims, were weapons necessary.
“What do they mean saying that they shot into the air, leaving alone that people died in the streets? Who gave the order to shoot by military weapons even into the air? It was as dangerous as to shoot directly at people. It means that if a bullet should rise up to 500-600 meters and then fall somewhere, it is the same to shoot at people directly, which, in fact, happened,” he says.
Deputies share the concerns of the ten victims’ relatives, saying that currently justice is not implemented.
“They (the relatives) did not have a reason to believe. The authorities are hiding and concealing everything; it is evident. Last week the fifth anniversary of Gurgen Margaryan’s death was commemorated. (The officer murdered in Hungary by an Azeri officer while attending English courses in the frames of NATO program.) They were blaming the Azeri murderer. And I want to ask, “Who killed my husband in the tribune of the National Assembly, who beheaded the State, who shot at people on March 1, who gave the order? It is the same ‘handwriting,’” says Bakhshyan.
Khachatryan believes that maybe it would be possible to ‘say good bye’ to March 1, if there were normal treatment.
“They could have announced a mourning day, they could have held a just investigation, they could have held a high level preliminary examination under exclusively transparent conditions, so that the public could get satisfaction for their own demands and for the striving for justice,” he says.
#16
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:54 AM
Umpire to Conflict: A year of lessons for Armenia’s Ombudsman
By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 Republic of Armenia Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan stood where most public officials dared not go last March 1, in the middle of angry mobs whose discontent erupted into death and the splitting apart of a society yet disjoined.
The Human Rights Defender went into the streets near the French Embassy while opposition radicals planned their defense and authorities planned their strategy and faced danger that would only later be measured.
“I can only say that I, as an ombudsman, tried to be sincere,” says Harutyunyan.The mediator went there looking for answers. A year later, he is still looking.
“The questions concerning the legality of the acts taken by the police on March 1, in Freedom Square, as well as the questions connected with the events taken place in front the French Embassy followed by the murders of ten people, remain unanswered. The report is still actual, and it is not answered yet,” says the Ombudsman.
Harutyunyan is confident he did everything possible to discourage bloodshed on March 1, 2008. He still does not understand why the events developed that way.
“I was worrying that the police did not take steps against people. We were trying to do everything possible to avoid a clash. Fortunately, we managed to do that in the afternoon, but then I did not understand myself how everything happened, because when in the evening I left the area leaving my employees there, everything was quite calm then,” says Harutyunyan.
That very day, at the French Embassy and at the territory near Miasnikyan’s statue the RA Ombudsman was accompanied by the members of the only NA oppositional party – Heritage. After the events taken place in the morning, the desperate and hot-tempered crowd was left alone. No Member of Parliament – from either side – except for deputies of the Heritage party tried to reason with the mobs.
“During the sessions our deputies were asking many questions, whereas none of them (pro-government) were present at the March 1 events in order to stand between people and the police. It’s a pity. It should not be done only by representatives of an oppositional party. It was a problem concerning all of us. And it shows that there is no parliamentarism in our country,” says Harutyunyan.
After March 1 events the Ombudsman presented his special report in April, where he touched upon the postelection situation in Armenia raising many sharp questions that people are worried about. After the report then-President Robert Kocharyan chided Harutyunyan, telling a press conference that as a citizen of Armenia, Harutyunyan should not “work for Strasbourg” – alluding to the home of the European Court of Human Rights.
“Anyone has his/her own opinion. I can only say that I, as an ombudsman, tried to be sincere. However, I did not know what they where expecting me to do. And they did not sign a contract with me beforehand, stating how I should behave in such cases as an ombudsman,” says Harutyunyan.
The Ombudsman confesses that he has hard times for managing the Institute of Human Rights Defense in Armenia.
“It is difficult just humanely, because it is always hard during such intolerance in the country. On the one hand the authorities criticize me, saying that I work for foreign structures, on the other hand the opposition is criticizing me, saying that I present the project of the authorities,” says Harutyunyan. “And it is hard to act under the mutually intolerant conditions. It is important to be able not to get assimilated neither into the authorities nor the opposition, but rather to remain objective.”
The Ombudsman believes that it is necessary to criticize the authorities in order to remain objective, because, nevertheless, it is the authorities who are responsible for both good and bad in the country.
It is an unenviable position that tries the patience.
“A legal country is not created within two days,” says Harutyunyan. “The shortcomings of the Soviet system are still within us. We are waiting for a good king to come and govern us, forgetting that we are the owners of our fortunes. It is necessary to change that psychology,” says Harutyunyan.
About 6,000 RA citizens turn to the Ombudsman annually. The problems of about 500 are being settled.
Harutyunyan says that it is a very high index for such a small country as Armenia is which, in its turn, shows that Armenia’s system of justice is flawed.
Harutyunyan’s predecessor, Armenia’s first Ombudsman Larisa Alaverdyan, became a Heritage party MP after her term. Does Armen Harutyunyan expect to enter politics?
“I have never thought about entering politics. I believe that the Institute of Ombudsman is functioning out of politics, yet in the epicenter of politics. The difficulty is that being, in fact, in the epicenter it is hard to act out of the platform of politics. Thus serious juridical professionalism is needed here.”
#17
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:54 AM
Mascot: American wife of March 1 prisoner is the face of “the struggle”
By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 01 March, 2009 Beef, cut into pieces and boiled. Potatoes, boiled and cut into pieces. This is Melissa Brown’s Wednesday.
“People in jail are not allowed any other food,” Brown explains, preparing her weekly visit to her husband. He’s a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, but Alexander Arzumanyan is more recently one of the “Case of 7” – jailed on charges of trying to overthrow the government last March 1.
“It’s like I’m getting ready for a birthday party each time. When I know that besides my husband, the four other guys who are in prison with him are going to eat what I’ve cooked, I think I should make it tasty, but one is not allowed to take tasty things to prison,” the wife says.
“..we give each other strength,” says Melissa Brown.A member of the Armenian National Movement administration, former Foreign Minister Arzumanyan is charged with organizing mass disorders accompanied with murders, and for seizing state power by violence according to Article 225.3 and Article 300.1 of the RA Criminal Code.
Arzumanyan was arrested on March 10, 2008. The charges against him have been under investigation in court since the beginning of December of last year, in connection with the so-called “Case of 7,” the hearings of which have been regularly postponed.
The former Foreign Minister’s American wife, who, within the period she lived in Armenia (since 1996), learned to speak broken Armenian and make eastern coffee, takes food to the prison for her husband every Wednesday. Relatives of his cellmates bring food on the other days.
A sticker that says, “My husband is a political prisoner”, is attached right next to the doorbell, so that every person visiting them knows “who is and where is” Melissa’s husband.
“I have already got used to searches, to my husband being away; there is one thing we definitely learned in the past two years – patience,” says Brown, who has taught the wives of those arrested in connection with the 2008 presidential elections and March 1 events to protest diligently.
Every Friday groups supporting those arrested last spring gather near the Prosecutor’s Office. Other occasional demonstrations are held near different embassies or by the Government Building. And there still are routine “walks” along Northern Avenue.
“Each protest action received distinctive feedback, the issues were not solved, of course, but if the women, children, the public did not perform such actions, if they did not stand up and protest, it would have been much worse. Very often people say impatiently – we should do something immediately to change the situation – but this is not right, and if we do not do this small thing, the situation can change for the worse,” she explains. “And it seems to me that if we place our whole struggle on the scales, it outweighs the rest, that is, it is taking us towards something better.”
And this is how the “Wives of Armenia’s Political Prisoners” group is shaping up.
“Frankly speaking, our group formed and grew in a very natural way. Many of us hadn’t known each other before. Of course, our husbands’ activity was related to the elections and the movement, all of us participated in the post-election rallies and we were friends with some people, and others were just acquaintances, but there were also people we did not know at all. So, all this began after the falsified elections,” Brown says.
The active members of the group met for the first time on March 21 last year – a day after a State of Emergency was lifted.
Not knowing each other, they formed the group spontaneously during the meetings and “political walks” that took place almost every day on Northern Avenue.
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events.“Our group is open, whoever wants to help, to work, can come here,” says Brown, who has been married to Arzumanyan 15 years. “But this is not a club, nobody wants to be a member, it just happened so that here it’s the wives of the political prisoners and our supporters.”
“For us the fight is very important, it’s important to communicate with each other, we communicate when we drink coffee or eat khash, and we communicate when we work for our cause. We feel more comfortable communicating with each other, we understand each other well, we give each other strength,” Melissa says.
She always uses the plural when talking about “the struggle”. Her situation may be different, her being a US Citizen and her husband being a former minister, but none of “the struggle” that has gone on nearly a year could be achieved only by her.
“Since I was active the year before last as well, when my husband was arrested for the first time on charge of money laundering, many people associate me with the struggle. But now it is not like that, now there are 10-15 active members, who, like me, work on this case every day,” she says.
“I am rather the mascot of our struggle, not more. My friends say, because you are American, you know how to fight, but this year’s experience has demonstrated that the Armenian woman is also capable of struggling with the same spirit, same freedom, same strength.”
#18
Posted 02 March 2009 - 11:55 AM
Armenia: Skewed Prosecution Over 2008 Clashes
Published: 01 March, 2009 Ensure Impartial Investigation and Justice in Use of Force Against Protesters
(New York) - Armenia has yet to hold the police accountable for their excessive use of force a year after a day of clashes with protesters that led to at least 10 deaths, Human Rights Watch said in a comprehensive report today.
The 64-page report, "Democracy on Rocky Ground: Armenia's Disputed 2008 Presidential Election, Post-Election Violence, and the One-Sided Pursuit of Accountability," details the clashes between police and protesters in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, on March 1, 2008, in the wake of the disputed February 2008 presidential polls. It also documents the ill-treatment of individuals detained in connection with the violence, and lack of comprehensive investigation and accountability for excessive use of force on March 1 and in its aftermath. The report is based on more than 80 interviews carried out over three research missions in Armenia in 2008 and 2009.
"The full picture of what happened almost a year ago in Yerevan has yet to emerge," said Giorgi Gogia, researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. "This much is clear: at various times on March 1, security forces used excessive force against demonstrators."
On March 1, 2008, police clashed with protesters in downtown Yerevan, demonstrating against disputed results of the presidential election. In several episodes in different parts of the city, police variously set upon protesters without warning or resistance, negotiated, withdrew, and returned to the offensive and finally fought a pitched battle with a small group of protesters. As a result, at least 10 people died - eight protesters and two police officers - and scores were injured.
While the Armenian authorities have investigated, prosecuted, and convicted dozens of opposition members, sometimes in flawed and politically motivated trials, in connection with the demonstration and violence, they have not prosecuted a single representative of the law enforcement agencies for excessive use of force.
Serj Sargsyan, the prime minister, was declared the winner of the February 19, 2008, presidential election over the opposition candidate, Levon Ter-Petrossian. A group of protesters contending that Sargsyan's victory was the result of fraud established a continuous protest on Yerevan's Freedom Square immediately after the election, with daily rallies; some camped out overnight in tents set up on the square.
Human Rights Watch research indicated that police used excessive force in a pre-dawn raid on the tents on March 1, justified as a search for weapons. This led to a much larger demonstration in front of the French Embassy in downtown Yerevan. By evening, with a major, violent confrontation unfolding on the streets of the capital, the outgoing president, Robert Kocharyan, declared a 20-day state of emergency during which public gatherings and strikes were banned and media freedoms were significantly curtailed.
How Bloody Saturday unfolded. Click here for a timeline of events."The authorities' response to the March 1 events has been one-sided," said Gogia. "The fact that police were themselves under attack at times by no means excuses them for incidents when they used excessive force."
The report also documents ill-treatment of detainees and other violations of due process rights following the March 1 events. Human Rights Watch spoke to people who had been beaten during arrest, and assaulted, verbally abused, and threatened while in police custody. Many detainees were denied the right to inform their families of their whereabouts, and were refused access to lawyers of their own choosing.
Human Rights Watch urged the government to investigate the use of police force in the March 1 clashes, emphasizing that each distinct police action during the day should be assessed separately. Where there was evidence that the use of force went outside the boundaries of legitimate policing, all the perpetrators (including those who gave the orders) should be prosecuted. Human Rights Watch also urged an investigation into all allegations of ill-treatment of people detained in connection with March 1 events, also leading to identification and prosecution of those responsible.
#19
Posted 02 March 2009 - 03:05 PM
#20
Posted 02 March 2009 - 03:28 PM
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