Return of the Dissenters

The Armenian opposition has resumed its struggle against the country's new president

Exactly two months after the presidential elections in Armenia, the opposition demonstrated that it was not going to give up. Let us remind you that according to official data, ex-Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan won the elections on February 19 in the first round. Supporters of his closest competitor, the country's first president in 1991-1998, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, believe that the voting results were grossly falsified. In an honest calculation, from their point of view, it was Mr. Ter-Petrosyan who should have won, and at least there were grounds for a second round. Immediately after the election, Mr. Ter-Petrosyan's supporters launched an open-ended mass rally in Yerevan, which at its peak was supported by up to 100,000 people. On March 1, an opposition rally was dispersed by the police, as a result of the clashes eight people were killed, several hundred demonstrators and police were hospitalized with injuries.

After a series of arrests that took place in Armenia in March and April of this year, the impression arose that the entire opposition activist was detained and there was simply no one to take people out into the streets. However, last Saturday, from 7 to 10 thousand citizens gathered in the park near the monument to Alexander Myasnikyan - approximately where clashes with the police took place on March 1. According to the participants, for half an hour the chairman of the People's Party of Armenia Stepan Demirchyan and the leader of the Republic party Aram Sargsyan were deprived of the word - the sound amplification equipment was de-energized. Then the electricity was finally connected, and the rally “worked” according to the pattern that became familiar during the days of permanent action at the end of February - energetic speeches of speakers alternated with music and polyphonic chants: “Levon is the president!” and “Fight to the end!”

The police vigilantly watched the clock and immediately after the two hours allotted by the mayor's office had expired, they asked the crowd to disperse. The rally participants expressed their indignation at the fact that the police refused to take into account the half-hour “electrical” delay, for which, according to the opposition, the city authorities were also to blame. But the police were adamant. The protesters nevertheless managed, literally maintaining their formation, to march through the city center to the fashionable Northern Avenue. And only here the police were able to persuade them to disperse.

Following the dispersal of the March 1 rally, a state of emergency was declared in Yerevan and mass events were banned. However, already on the day of the inauguration of President Serzh Sargsyan, April 9, which coincided with the 40-day commemoration of those killed during clashes with the police, about 10 thousand people came out to the memorial rally. Against the background of the inauguration celebrations, this action went almost unnoticed.

The Armenian opposition intends to continue protests. Chairman of the Armenian Helsinki Association Mikael Danielyan told a Vremya Novostei correspondent that the house arrest under which Levon Ter-Petrosyan is actually under will not hinder the activity of his supporters - especially now that trials of the detainees are beginning. Mr. Danielyan and other Armenian human rights activists are preparing, if possible, to take part in these processes and draw international attention to them: whatever their attitude to the political program of the opposition, people who have been arrested (and there are more than a hundred of them) can be considered political prisoners.

This circumstance was brought to the attention of Armenia last week at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. MEPs decided to separate questions about the quality of presidential elections and the observance of human rights in Armenia. And if their opinion about the elections remained generally satisfactory, although with much greater reservations than two months ago, then the situation with human rights, from the point of view of PACE, calls into question Armenia’s very membership in the Council of Europe and at least the right to vote. The Assembly promised to return to the Armenian issue at the summer session. Meanwhile, very critical hearings on Armenia took place at the end of the week in the US Congress - in a country where one of the most influential Armenian diasporas exists.

Ivan SUKHOV