Protests resume in Yerevan

[Sari Galin]

By Emil Danielyan, Ruben Meloyan and Karine Kalantarian

Police cordoned off major squares in downtown Yerevan and used force to stop about 2,000 opposition supporters marching through the city center following the lifting of a 20-day state of emergency on Friday.

The protest began spontaneously outside the city’s Liberty Square, the scene of post-election rallies held by opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian, and ended in scuffles between riot police and some demonstrators four hours later. At least two of them were detained.

The crowd was confronted and dispersed after silently marching past the site of the March 1 clashes between security forces and thousands of Ter-Petrosian supporters protesting against the official results of the disputed February 19 presidential election. At least eight people were killed in the violent confrontation, leading outgoing President Robert Kocharian to declare emergency rule and order troops into the Armenian capital.

Some protesters lit candles and held carnations in memory of the dead, while others carried pictures of some of more than 100 people arrested in the ongoing government crackdown on the Ter-Petrosian-led opposition. Several dozen activists stood silently in a candlelight vigil outside the Armenian ministries of foreign affairs and energy.

“We are mourning the deaths of innocent people and also want to express our discontent with what is happening in our country,” Ani, a young university lecturer, told RFE/RL. “The state did not even express condolences to the victims’ families.”

“These criminal authorities did not even call a day of national mourning for the victims, and so we decided to remember them with this action,” said Narek, a university student.

The 19-year-old said he took part in the March 1 unrest and is ready to attend more street protests planned by Ter-Petrosian. “I can’t stop thinking about the events of March 1,” he said. “A few bullets flew over my head on that day. I stayed alive miraculously.”

Liberty Square, guarded by army soldiers throughout the state of emergency, was occupied by busloads of police and interior troops as pockets of opposition supporters, most of them women, began gathering just outside it at around 3 p.m. local time. Senior police officers told them to leave the sprawling area and cross the streets surrounding it, citing a continuing government ban on rallies.

“Ten people standing together means a rally, and I have the right to disperse a rally,” Major-General Sasha Afian, deputy chief of Armenia’s Police Service, told a group of angry women. “So please go to Northern Avenue [opposite the square.] Nobody will touch you there.”

“You’ve suppressed the people for 20 days,” one of them complained to Afian. “When will you stop doing that?”

“We have come here to light candles for the dead,” said another. “Why don’t they let us do that?”

The women chanted “Freedom!” and “Shame!” as police officers wearing riot gear slowly pushed them away. Similar scenes could be observed on other approaches to the square.

A scuffle broke out when several police officers armed with rubber truncheons and electric-shock guns chased and tried to arrest a young man. Several women stood in the policemen’s way and enabled the man to escape. One woman was toppled to the ground as a result.

The violence ended after the personal intervention of Major-General Nerses Nazarian, chief of the Yerevan police who also at the scene. “Please, calm down,” Nazarian told the protesters mostly grouped in Northern Avenue. He also asked them to move further away from the square.

Shortly afterwards, the crowd, lacking any visible organizers, walked down the newly built boulevard to the city’s main Republic Square and on to the street junction outside the Yerevan municipality, the site of the March 1 clashes. A granite pedestal from which opposition leaders spoke on that day was surrounded by riot police.

The protesters then marched back towards Liberty Square via another Yerevan thoroughfare only to be confronted by more numerous police units. They dispersed after a brief clash with security forces using truncheons and electric-shock guns.

It was not clear how many opposition supporters were detained in the process. One passerby told RFE/RL that she saw more than a dozen men forced into a police van and driven away. Police spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment.

An RFE/RL correspondent witnessed one man forcibly brought into the police headquarters of Yerevan’s central Kentron district shortly afterwards. The police confirmed that they also detained another man earlier in the day. The man, Arakel Semirjian, is a nephew of Ter-Petrosian and one of a dozen Armenian Foreign Ministry officials who were fired last month for condemning their government’s conduct of the presidential election.

Eyewitnesses said Semirjian was spotted and called up by a senior police officer as he sat in a café adjacent to Liberty Square with several friends. They said he obeyed the order and was bundled into a police truck moments later. The reasons for the arrest were not immediately clear.

“If people provoke something, they will be punished,” Nazarian, the Yerevan police chief, told RFE/RL when asked about the incident. “There is no way he could be taken away from the café.”

<http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniareport/report/en/2008/03/6B313019-A13B-430A-A03E-EB19AC9C7C29.ASP>

[Sari Galin]

Armenia: Skirmishes Taint First Day After State Of Emergency

Authorities in the Armenian capital have lifted a 20-day state of emergency declared in the wake of deadly street battles between police and opposition supporters alleging fraud in the February presidential election.

Scattered skirmishes broke out when hundreds of people gathered in downtown Yerevan to mark the end of emergency rule.

RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported that a heavy police presence greeted people who turned out to honor eight people killed when security forces dispersed opposition-led protests three weeks ago.

RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau said opposition figure Arakel Semerjian -- a relative of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrossian, who claims his presidential bid was thwarted by official fraud in the February 19 election -- was detained by police in one of the confrontations.

Ter-Petrossian remains under de facto house arrest, his movements restricted by security forces around his home.

A senior U.S. official, speaking ahead of the lifting of the state of emergency, highlighted international concern over the risk of a collapse in that country's political dialogue, warning that Armenia still has work to do to "get back on the democratic path."

Outgoing President Robert Kocharian declared emergency rule on March 1, when fatal clashes left at least seven civilians and one policeman dead in the worst civil violence in Armenia's post-Soviet history.

Kocharian announced at a news conference hours before the clampdown was lifted overnight that there was "no reason to extend the state of emergency" and that "normal life" would return to the capital on March 21.

A new law that was passed this week, however, gives authorities the right to ban demonstrations if they pose a threat to public order.

Kocharian defended his decision to declare emergency rule and looked ahead to the upcoming transfer of power to President-elect Serzh Sarkisian.

"My task now is the stabilization of the entire situation. It should be brought back, in terms of manageability, to the condition that we had before the elections," Kocharian said. "The question here, of course, is not about the psychological factor, which will require more time. [There is a] need to transfer power to the newly elected president under manageable conditions. And this is how it will be."

Official results showed Sarkisian, the current prime minister, defeating opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian by a wide margin in the February 19 poll that critics say was marked by widespread falsification.

The opposition has claimed the civilian death toll when security forces dispersed protesters on March 1 was much higher and that police initiated the violence.

International Concern

Watchdog groups such as Human Rights Watch and Freedom House have condemned the violence and called on authorities to investigate the use of force.

Some international observers have warned that the fissure between the Armenian government and the opposition appears deeper and the danger of further violence much higher than in neighboring Georgia -- where street protests and a state of emergency preceded President Mikheil Saakashvili's reelection in the face of fractured opposition in January.

In an interview with RFE/RL on March 20, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried urged Armenia to "pull itself together and get back on a democratic path."

"We welcome the lifting of the state of emergency, but there are other problems and these need to be addressed," Fried said. "People who have been arrested for rioting and violent actions, that's one thing. But people who have been arrested for more questionable reasons need to be let go -- there needs to be normalization; there needs to be a dialogue with the opposition. Look, this is a troubling situation for all of Armenia's friends."

Coup Allegations

Armenian prosecutors announced on March 19 that they had arrested 106 people for allegedly plotting to stage a coup during the postelection protests. Some 800 more have been brought in for questioning.

Opposition leaders dismiss the coup allegations and say that many of those arrested were supporters of Ter-Petrossian whose arrests were politically motivated. Detainees include members of parliament and a former foreign minister.

The state of emergency banned public gatherings and imposed press restrictions.

<http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/03/92f42ef9-4445-46b3-b42c-6c6e30fa5a5e.html>