Levon Ter-Petrossian: Vote for Vano Siradeghian

E-Channel reports that during his pre-election campaign in the Tavoush region, former president and candidate in the 19 February election, Levon Ter-Petrossian, has urged voters to “cast their votes” for his notorious minister of interior, Vano Siradeghian.

The elusive former official is still wanted by Interpol for organizing a series of political and economic killings and assassinations in the 1990s and while largely credited for cutting down crime, is also considered to have been responsible for the “criminalization” of the police in Armenia.

His inlaw, Khachatur Sukiasian (Grzo), is one of Ter-Petrosian’s main backers for the presidency. Sukiasian is also an MP and still has extensive business interests which were initially established through connections with the Ter-Petrosian regime.

Levon Ter-Petrossian said that the characteristic feature of Koti was that Vano Siradeghyan had been born there, and that there was no writer equal to Siradeghyan in modern Armenian literature after Aghasi Ayvazyan and Hrant Matevosyan.

“Koti has a special place and significance. Serzh Sargsyan visited you months ago, and it was the biggest expression of sadism. A person that has exiled the greatest person from Koti – Vano Siradeghyan – had no right to come to your village,” the presidential candidate said. The villagers responded to it by shouting, “Va-no, Va-no.”

Ter-Petrossian noted it was his second visit to Koti – for the first time he had been there on funerals of the mother of Vano Siradeghyan.

[…]

The meeting lasted about 20 minutes, after which Levon Ter-Petrossian departed for Noyemberyan, urging the people from Koti to vote for Vano Siradeghyan on February 19.

Ter-Petrossian’s mention of Vano Siradeghian must surely raise questions as to what alternative the former leader is actually offering the electorate ahead of the imminent presidential election. The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) covered the mysterious case of Siradeghian’s disappearance in 2000.

A close ally of Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrosian, Siradeghian made his first court appearance last November. His trial has been hailed as the final exorcism of the old regime which many believe was synonymous with repression, arbitrary killings and flagrant abuse of power.

[…]

[…] Marina Kurkchiyan, an expert on post-Soviet transitions at Oxford, argues that the former interior minister was part of a corrupt and immoral regime. “Those who created the present system should be standing trial with Vano. They all believed that power was more important than any moral values.

“One should remember that Vano was not alone. His close associates included Vazgen Sarkisian, Levon Ter-Petrosian, parliamentary speaker Babken Ararktsian, security minister David Shahnazarian and others.”

[…]

Michael Danielyan, chairman of the Helsinki Association in Armenia, is even more outspoken, “Vano was one of the most odious figures of the Ter-Petrosian regime. People believe that all the worst elements of the previous government emanated from Vano.”

Photo: © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007