Silent Protest in Yerevan

Related posts:

• British Embassy Warden Message
• Armenia: Silent Demonstrations
• State of Emergency Ends
• Opposition Demonstration Dispersed
• Armenia: Peaceful Protest & Tightening the Bolts
• Fears of Clashes Increases
• H1 Cameraman Attacked, Ter-Petrossian Speaks
• Political Traffic Violation

1. Onnik 03.23.08 / 4am

   Armenia state of emergency lifted, hundreds gather to protest arrests

   The Associated Press
   Published: March 21, 2008

   YEREVAN, Armenia: Several hundred opposition supporters rallied across the Armenian capital on Friday after authorities lifted a 20-day state of emergency.

   Friday’s demonstrators protested the March 1 arrests of dozens of opposition activists after clashes between police and protesters. Eight people were killed and dozens were injured in those clashes.

   That was followed by the state of emergency, banning public gatherings, which ended at midnight Thursday.

   The latest demonstrators lit candles and held pictures of those arrested March 1. Police officers approached the protesters, who formed a chain across downtown Yerevan, urging them to disperse but not using force.

   Several protesters yelled curses at the police, but there were no clashes.

   The violence March 1 broke out after police forcibly dispersed protesters who claimed the government rigged the Feb. 19 presidential election and demanded a new vote.

   According to the official results, the favored candidate of outgoing President Robert Kocharian, Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian, won nearly 53 percent of the vote, while opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian received about 21 percent. Sarkisian is scheduled to be inaugurated April 9.

   The opposition has alleged the election was affected by widespread fraud and sometimes violent pressure on its supporters.

   Sarkisian said Thursday that 106 of the scores of opposition supporters who were detained remain under arrest, including some of Ter-Petrosian’s former allies.

   “We are demanding that the authorities explain to us why these 106 people have been arrested,” said one protester, Armen Martirosian, 38.

   The opposition has capitalized on widespread public anger over poverty, which remains endemic in Armenia despite an economic growth of recent years.

   “We have nothing to eat,” said another protester, Alla Arutyunian. “I’m wondering whether Sarkisian and his family could survive on the money they give me.”

   Western countries have expressed concern about the government’s crackdown, while Russia — which has close ties with Armenia and maintains a military base in the ex-Soviet republic — expressed support for law and order.
2. Onnik 03.23.08 / 11am

   Incidentally, talking of Soros, I’m told that OSI also funded the translation of a book considered to be the “manual” of “colored revolutions” by Gene Sharp.

   If the source is correct, the translator was wife of Ter-Petrossian’s last foreign minister, Alexander Arzumanian, currently under arrest.

   Arzumanian was also arrested last year for receiving money from abroad transferred in smaller amounts reportedly less than $20,000 to circumvent legislation requiring banks to report large wire transactions.

   Arzumanian was the main figure behind attempts to organize a civil disobedience movement ahead of the 12 May parliamentary election. Regardless, there’s not much on allegations that Soros was funding the opposition, but there is reference to Sharp and colored revolutions in the Caucasus.

   Armenia: ‘Color’ Revolt Turns Deadly

   [Whatever the degree of Western involvement may be in current developments in Armenia, what former president Ter-Petrosyan and his followers are enacting appears to be right out of the handbook of ‘color revolutions’ authored and funded by the US’s Gene Sharp, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Heritage Foundation and numerous Western-based ‘NGOs.’

   […]

   http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read/message.html?sort=d&mid=914109912

   The COLOR of REVOLUTION : Orange Revolution in Iran

   We are two weeks away from elections in Iran. Many events happening on the streets in Iran show similarity with steps in a “Orange Revolution”. Are we witnessing an Orange Revolution in Iran? Actually Orange Revolution did happen in Armenia just last week with thousands of people arrested and Orange Revolution ended in failure. A Russian spokesman officially announced the failure of the “Orange Revolution” and stated the US had backed off in Armenia.

   What is an “Orange Revolution”?? It is a scheme by George Soros and Liberals in US to bring pro-western elite to power in target countries. “Orange Revolution” has been tried in Ukraine, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgistan and other countries. Some have led to failure and some has succeeded such as in Ukraine and Georgia.

   Orange Revolution is a combination of “civil disobediance” “youth generation” and “pro-western elite in the state apparatus” and extensive use of “internet and cell phone technology” to remove the old elite and bring a fully pro-western elite into power.

   […]

   Mob rule, what the Greeks called ochlocracy, is the essence of the color revolution or people power coup. The modern theoretical basis of these mob coups has been provided by the writings of a certain Gene Sharp. In order to carry out a color revolution, large sums of money are required to pay bribes and buy support. […]

   http://www.topix.com/forum/world/iran/T6PQ3UBSH5L58KNFP

   Color Revolutions, Geopolitics and the Baku Pipeline

   […]

   The BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) Oil Pipeline was begun in 2002 after four years of intense international dispute. It cost some $3.6 billion, making it one of the most expensive oil projects ever. The main backer was BP, whose chairman Lord Browne is a close adviser to Britain’s Tony Blair. BP built it in a consortium including Unocal of the US and Turkish Petroleum Inc., and other partners.

   […]

   As the political makeup of the Central Asia Caspian region is complex, especially since the decomposition of the Soviet Union opened up a scramble in the oil-rich region of the Caspian from the outside, above all from the United States, it is important to bear in mind the major power blocs which have emerged.

   They are two. On the one side is an alliance of US-Turkey-Azerbaijan and, since the Rose Revolution, Georgia, that small but critical country directly on the pipeline route. Opposed to it, in terms of where the pipeline route carrying the Caspian oil should go, is Russia, which until 1990 held control over the entire Caspian outside the Iran littoral. Today, Russia has cultivated an uneasy but definite alliance with Iran and with Armenia, in opposition to the US group. This two-camp grouping is essential to understand developments in the region since 1991.

   […]

   A geopolitical pattern has become clear over the past months. One-by-one, with documented overt and covert Washington backing and financing, new US-friendly regimes have been put in place in former Soviet states which are in a strategic relation to possible pipeline routes from the Caspian Sea.

   http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=518

   George Soros Meets With Armenian Non-Profits in New York

   On Wednesday, September 19, 2007, world-renowned philanthropist and financier George Soros met with six leading Armenian American non-profit organizations to exchange opinions on new innovative ways to build civil society in Armenia. The roundtable luncheon and discussion was organized by the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) and was hosted by AGBU President Berge Setrakian. The event took place at Manhattan’s University Club and included representatives from the Armenian American Wellness Center, Armenia Fund USA, Children of Armenia Fund, Fund for Armenian Relief, the Izmirlian Fund, and philanthropist Jeffrey Acopian.

   […]

   Soros introduced the Executive Director of OSI Armenia, Larisa Minasyan, who elaborated on the media, arts, education and justice programs that the organization has been able to successfully implement. She explained that the organization received funding from the British and Dutch governments, in addition to annual funds from Soros’ Armenian foundation. “Our goal is to establish democracy in a diverse way,” Minasian said. “We are trying to bring systematic change in the various fields and we are achieving success in different ways.”

   OSI Armenia board member, Lucig Danielian outlined some of the objectives of the organization and their approach to the problems facing Armenia, “We feel it is about empowering people and giving them the skills and the jumpstart, and the funding when required, encouraging change from below.”

   http://www.agbu.org/pressoffice/article.asp?ID=444

   Incidentally, just before last year’s parliamentary election, OSI also funded a visit by the head of the Albanian Mjaft! to Armenia at the request of a local OSI-grantee, the Center for Regional Development / Transparency International Armenia, to work with its Armenian counterpart, Sksela.

   Interestingly, I ran into the Mjaft! head at a local rock club one evening. With him were the head of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Yerevan, Sksela activists and the political officer from the British Embassy, Naira Sultanyan.

   The latter has recently funded Ter-Petrossian activists for democracy-related activities and is alleged to have been present among opposition supporters near the French Embassy on 1 March. All a little too conspiratorial perhaps, but food for thought.
3. Armenia Election Monitor 2008 » Blog Archive » Demonstration Dispersed 03.23.08 / 11am

   […] early afternoon tip-off alerted me to the probable repeat of yesterday’s action to mark the lifting of the state of emergency. However, few people had gathered by Liberty Square […]
4. Onnik 03.23.08 / 12pm

   Correction. Lragir put the number at several hundred at the beginning of the event and later reported three thousand.

   Along the Square of Freedom, North Avenue, Square of Republic and Square of Shahumyan to Square of Miasnikyan. On March 21 the march of mourn took place along this route, about which people were informed through e-mail and sms. About three thousand people carrying candles and photos of people arrested before and after March 1 set out from the Square of Freedom and moved to the Square of Miasnikyan, where the tragedy happened.

   The march the end of which passed calmly began with a clash between the citizens and the police. Around 15 o’clock the police did not allow women who gathered at the Square of Freedom with candles and photos to lit candles in memory of the victims. The Square of Freedom was full of police force. As the number of people increased, there was a lot of noise, and not only the police barred citizens from walking into the Square of Freedom but also pushed them toward North Avenue. Witnesses said the police also used electric stun guns.

   Afterwards the citizens moved toward the statue of Miasnikyan along North Avenue. Many stood along the pavements with candles and photos of prisoners from the Square of Republic to the statue of Miasnikyan, and most citizens walked this length in a march, reached the statue of Miasnikyan surrounded by police and left not to crowd. The officers who stood beside the police force advised citizens not to crowd the pavement and cause tension.
5. Observer 03.23.08 / 1pm

   Right! So I’m issuing statements because I’m an OSI grantee? Well - I’m also a UNDP, Eurasia, EC grantee… maybe it’s because of that? Or maybe it is only because I care about this country and am not afraid to say it? And maybe donor organizations have seen long enough of all different NGOs, to understand who is genuinely pro-democracy, and who is not - and maybe now they only fund those, who are really pro-democracy?
6. Onnik 03.23.08 / 1pm

   Like I said:

   Perhaps that’s a little too conspiratorial and it just so happens that the types of NGOs supporting such actions happen to also be OSI grantees, but of late it has been these organizations which have issued statements and taken part in actions. On the other hand, Raffi Hovannisian’s wife and son also took part in the action as did others who do not support Ter-Petrossian.

   Also, my response to the allegation mentioned you and said I didn’t believe that you were part of some “conspiracy.” I also don’t consider Internews Armenia to be the same and not least because most people there reportedly supported the ARF-D yet kept their own personal preferences out of their reporting.

   On the other hand, I don’t consider that some of the other organizations care about democracy. One, for example, spend most of their time pushing Haykakan Zhamanak articles as fact, attended Impeachment rallies as supporters last year, and openly stated they would do anything to stop Serge Sargsyan from becoming president.

   “Even if the electorate vote for him?” I asked. There was no response. Anyway, I consider most of those other names as being directly or indirectly linked to Ter-Petrossian’s team and the radical opposition. That isn’t democracy. That’s partisan politics.

   However, I suspect that this is just personal connections rather than some external conspiracy. OSI in Armenia seem to fund a lot of their own relatives and friends. Generally, if you’re not part of that circle you don’t get funded. Actually, that’s pretty much how all of the funding bodies work in Armenia.
7. varto 03.23.08 / 10pm

   Samvel Farmanyan, head of the pro-Serzh party MIAK worked in OSI as a civil society programs coordinator for several years.
   Levon Martirosyan, Serzh’s top aid, had been a UK government grantee.
   Many of the government officials have been OSI grantees in the past, for ex. the ex-justice minister David Harutyunyan.
   And political scientist Armen Ayvazyan who’s calling all these protests a foreign conspiracy has been receiving grants from US government.
   The gov-t allegations are double standards at their best
8. Aram 03.23.08 / 11pm

   Varto - I don’t necessarily see a double standard. There are lots of different western interests, and it is (now) obvious (if it wasn’t already) that there are foreign interests who can exploit a situation in a fragile proto-democracy like Armenia. And not just exploit, but create, if necessary/possible.

   For example, I don’t think that receiving $ from the US to translate a book on 6th century Armenian Military Code precludes Armen from rightfully identifying where the support (financial/organizational/media) for the failed coup came from.

   Various agendas, various interests. But it is important to call a spade a spade. Glad that “independent media” (what it used to be referred to) is now opposition media (like A1+) and that “objective media” is now plain-as-day apparent as State Dept Media (RFE/RL), strongly pro-LTP. Not that these are not valuable sources, but they are what they are.
9. Aram 03.23.08 / 11pm

   By “glad” above I meant glad that they are no longer masquerading as something else. I am not “glad” that they are often obfuscating the truth and adding to the media distortion present in Armenia.
10. Armenian News, Analysis & Photography — Oneworld Multimedia :: Silent Protest in Yerevan :: March :: 2008 03.23.08 / 11pm

    […] full post accompanied by photographs is on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008. Posted by Onnik @ 10:25 pm. Filed under: Armenia, Politics, Blogging, Caucasus, Photography, […]
11. melissa brown 03.26.08 / 10pm

    “Incidentally, talking of Soros, I’m told that OSI also funded the translation of a book considered to be the “manual” of “colored revolutions” by Gene Sharp.

    If the source is correct, the translator was wife of Ter-Petrossian’s last foreign minister, Alexander Arzumanian, currently under arrest. ”

    Onnik- I usually don’t bother to respond to your mean-spirited and ill-informed posts, though I love your photos, but in this case I have to say your source was wrong, I did not translate the book. Melissa
12. Onnik 03.26.08 / 11pm

    mean-spirited and ill-informed

    That was the whole of Ter-Petrossian’s campaign wasn’t it?

    Anyway, unlike Haykakan Zhamanak and the rest of the lies, rumor and gossip that the people around you spread, I at least identified what is rumor and what is not. Unlike much of your propaganda, you also have the ability to respond and confirm or deny the rumors which you’ve done.

    If the source is correct, the translator was wife of Ter-Petrossian’s last foreign minister, Alexander Arzumanian, currently under arrest.

    The source reads this blog so will see your response and I will also pass it on to him just in case.

    Meanwhile, in the interests of not being “mean-spirited and ill-informed,” perhaps your whole campaign could have set an example. This is what I find particularly concerning given accusations that I’m in the pay of Serge or an “agent” and so on. Add to that the intimidating emails I’d receive multiple times in the day.

    You could have just given your response without making it personal, but you didn’t. So this is my response. Nevertheless, I apologize for the mistake and again stress that you had the right to reply which you have done. I’ve also passed on your response and so that should clear up matters there as well.
13. Armen Filadelfiatsi 03.27.08 / 10am

    In other words, you were wrong, Onnik. Melissa Brown did not translate that manual. I’ve seen a Persian version of that manual. A better title for what it teaches would be: How to Start Riots.

    Every human being in the end is sustained by their dignity. If you loose everything and still have your dignity, you still have a chance. If you sell your dignity for comfort, then you are at the mercy of comfort.

    There’s still time to come back to the Light side, Onnik.
14. Onnik 03.27.08 / 11am

    Armen, as I clearly identified, it was alleged. The source was likely wrong although I think he’s checking this information now.

    As for the light side, I’m not on the dark side because neither Serge or Levon represent anything “light.” Again, I wish people understood that this is not a battle of good against evil.

    For Levon’s people it is, with their candidate representing the “light.” For Serge’s people too, although he represents the “light.”

    For many more of us, however, we’re stuck in between, see neither as “light,” but both try to coerce us into moving to their side.

    However, they try not to convince us with reasoned arguments, but usually through intimidation, threats, accusations, gossip and lies.

    That is neither democratic or “light.”
15. Aram 03.29.08 / 12am

    Onnik - It is sad that the defenders of LTP’s aborted coup attempt cannot rationalize their position except with personal attacks, double standards, and outright hypocrasy.

    When convenient,lie (Pashinyan, A1+); when convenient attack others for lying (H1, state media)

    When convenient attack the oligarchical structure (Gagik Tsarukyan, Lfik et al); when convenient defend them as honorable (Manvel, Grzo, Telman, et al.).

    When convenient quote from the international democracy builders (Human Rights watch et al); when convenient state that they were paid off by the authorities (OSCE, CIS observers stating the elections were a step forward).

    When convenient attack the authorities for being discredited; yet, rally around the most discredited and morally bankrupt politicians in modern Armenian history (LTP, invoking Vano’s name at rallies, Jahangiryan, etc.) in the name of democracy building, human rights, with a cherry on top.

    Can’t have it both ways, guys.

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