Opposition Activists Detained

RFE/RL reports that “at least a dozen” opposition activists supportive of former president Levon Ter Petrosian have been detained. Their crime? In lieu of having access to the broadcast media to advertise Friday’s rally at which Ter Petrosian is due to speak, the activists used megaphones to announce the meeting on the streets of the Armenian capital, Yerevan. One of those detained is believed to be the outspoken editor of the pro-Ter Petrosian Haykakan Zhamank newspaper, Nikol Pashinian.

At least a dozen supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosian, among them two newspaper editors, were reportedly detained by police on Tuesday as they urged Yerevan residents to participate in a rally to be held by Armenia’s former president this week.

Representatives of the pro-Ter-Petrosian Aylentrank (Alternative) movement told RFE/RL that five of its leaders were detained after defying police orders to stop announcing Friday’s rally through a megaphone on a busy street intersection in the city center.

The five detainees were said to remain in police custody as of late evening. They reportedly included the outspoken editors of the “Haykakan Zhamanak” and “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” newspapers staunchly opposed to Armenia’s current leadership.

Another pro-Ter-Petrosian group, the former ruling Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh) party, said several of its youth activists were similarly detained by police officers while distributing leaflets in the city’s northern Nor Nork district earlier in the day. The HHSh chairman, Ararat Zurabian, told RFE/RL that some of them were released shortly afterwards. “All of this is not causing us to panic,” he said.

Given that the capital is full of people setting up loudspeakers at kiosks or even simple tables selling CDs on street corners even though they deafen passer-bys and local residents, as well as the dozens of entertainment complexes opened by corrupt officials and their relatives in public parks, the action does not appear at first glance to warrant such a response. It is unknown so far whether the activists obstructed traffic or otherwise “disturbed the peace.”

At any rate, with Friday’s rally looming ever closer, tensions seem to be rising. In part this is because however unpopular Ter Petrosian might have been, he is seen as the lesser of two evils by a significant number of people when quizzed about their voting preference for next year’s presidential election. Quite simply, they say, anyone is better than Serzh Sarkisian.

No wonder then, that the authorities and the ruling Republican party of the prime minister, presidential hopeful Serzh Sarkisian, are taking Friday’s rally very seriously indeed. Some would argue that they’re reacting in a manner that does not befit any country supposedly on the path towards democratization.

“Zhamanak Yerevan” claims that U.S. administration officials told Sarkisian that Washington may not support him in the upcoming presidential elections if former President Levon Ter-Petrosian decides to enter the fray. […]

“Haykakan Zhamanak” says the Armenian authorities are so “scared” of Friday’s rally by Levon Ter-Petrosian that they instructed police to locate and tear up leaflets advertising the event. The paper claims that police departments in Yerevan have already formed special “groups” tasked with doing the job. “There is now a competition of sorts between those posting and destroying leaflets,” it says.

“Taregir” says a free pop concert financed by the governing Republican Party (HHK) and scheduled for Friday is another government ploy aimed at minimizing turnout at the Ter-Petrosian rally. “For normal governments of normal countries, losing power is not a terrible thing,” says the paper. “Furthermore, is it a natural, normal phenomenon, one of the necessary components of democracy.” In Armenia, by contrast, power is a “matter of life and death” because its rulers are “scared of being held answerable for their deeds, scared of not being forgiven.”

According to “Hayk,” one of the organizers of that concert, HHK deputy and businessman Ashot Aghababian, and his bodyguards beat up on Saturday a 60-year-old taxi driver whose car allegedly stood in the way of their motorcade.

Simply put, Armenia has now well and truly entered the unofficial pre-election campaign period for next year’s presidential vote due to be held in February or March next year. Moreover, the manner in which the authorities are responding to Ter Petrosian’s likely nomination gives reason to suspect they are very worried indeed.

Update

A1 Plus posts a video of what looks to be about 100 people protesting outside the police station where the detainees were held last night. Among them was the former first human rights ombudsperson Heritage Party’s Larissa Alaverdian. Protesters chanted “Freedom.”