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  • Another Attack On Journalists Reported In Armenia

    Another Attack On Journalists Reported In Armenia
    By Armine Geghamian 14/10/2004 10:44

    Radio Free Europe, Czech republic
    Oct 14 2004

    The editor of an independent newspaper in southeastern Armenia said on
    Wednesday that a group of local loyalists of Prime Minister Andranik
    Markarian attacked him and ransacked his office after it ran articles
    questioning government policies.

    Samvel Aleksanian of the "Syuniats Yerkir" weekly based in Kapan,
    the administrative center of the Syunik region, said the attack was
    carried out in the morning by three young men led by the head of the
    local branch of Markarian's Republican Party (HHK). He claimed that
    they hit and injured him with wooden clubs. "Right after that they
    told me that the newspaper must not write anything about the country's
    prime minister and the Syunik governor anymore," Aleksanian told RFE/RL
    from Kapan. "Otherwise, they said, the newspaper offices and car would
    be burned down. As they left they shouted more threats and insults.

    "I replied that the newspaper will now be more consistent in its
    work. From now on, we will provide an even better coverage of issues
    which they don't want to be highlighted."

    The editor appealed to President Robert Kocharian and Armenian
    law-enforcement agencies to investigate the incident. "If they
    don't punish those thugs we will be forced to take measures for
    self-defense," he said

    An officer at the Syunik police headquarters told RFE/RL that they
    have already launched an investigation. According to Aleksanian, the
    police found and returned to the newspaper a mobile phone stolen by
    the attackers. It was not clear if anyone was detained or questioned
    in the process, however.

    In Yerevan, meanwhile, Markarian said he is not aware of the reported
    incident. "I hear about that for the first time. I will try to
    clear things up," he said. "In any case, I consider the beating of
    journalists inadmissible."

    At issue, according to Kapan journalists, is an article in a September
    issue of "Syuniats Yerkir" that questioned government motives for the
    recent closure of two regional secondary schools as part of massive
    nationwide lay-offs of teachers.

    "We directed that question to the country's prime minister and
    education minister," Aleksanian said. He added that the local
    authorities responded on September 28 by evicting the newspaper staff
    from offices which they rented in the Kapan building that houses the
    regional administration. But the paper again addressed the issue in
    its next edition, he said.

    Syunik's governor, Surik Khachatrian, has close ties with the HHK. He
    was based in the regional town of Goris before his appointment by
    the central government last March. Goris and the surrounding villages
    have long been considered a de facto fiefdom of Khachatrian and his
    extended family.

    The "Syuniats Yerkir" editor said Khachatrian, better known with his
    "Liska" nickname, and other regional officials are extremely intolerant
    of dissent. "They think that there must be no other opinion in the
    Syunik region," he said. "You are not supposed to question anything."

    The reported violence in Kapan is the latest in a series of attacks
    on Armenian journalists which have raised domestic and international
    concerns about the state of press freedom in Armenia. It came just
    two days after a court in another part of the country sentenced to
    six months a man who reportedly beat up a photojournalist for taking
    pictures of expensive houses belonging to senior government officials.
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