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Hovannisian Forced Out Of Party Headquarters

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  • Hovannisian Forced Out Of Party Headquarters

    HOVANNISIAN FORCED OUT OF PARTY HEADQUARTERS
    By Anna Saghabalian and Ruzanna Stepanian

    Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
    May 30 2006

    Law-enforcement officials forced opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian
    to leave the headquarters of his Zharangutyun (Heritage) party
    on Tuesday less than 24 hours after allowing him to re-enter the
    premises controversially sealed off by the Armenian authorities three
    months ago.

    Hovannisian and a group of his close associates locked themselves
    in the Zharangutyun offices in downtown Yerevan late Monday, defying
    eviction orders from the Service for Mandatory Execution of Judicial
    Acts of the Armenian Ministry of Justice. They denounced the orders
    as illegal, citing an injunction issued by a Yerevan court on April 14.

    The injunction effectively annulled a March 4 decision by a state-run
    theater, from which Hovannisian has leased the offices for over 15
    years, to lock Zharangutyun out of its headquarters. It said that no
    restrictive action can be taken against the property until the court
    rules on a lawsuit filed by Hovannisian against the theater management.

    According to the Zharangutyun leadership, this means the party
    can regain control of the premises at least until the end of the
    litigation. The Justice Ministry bailiffs, who took more than 40 days
    to enforce the court order, did not object to this interpretation as
    they reopened the Zharangutyun offices on Monday.

    But they returned to the scene several hours later, claiming that the
    party leaders were only supposed to briefly inspect their offices and
    then leave them. They managed to force Hovannisian and his loyalists
    out after two-hour negotiations the next morning.

    "We let the plaintiff in yesterday to see if their property is
    intact. But after that they illegally entered [the offices] and
    refused to leave," a senior bailiff, Vahram Yenokian, told RFE/RL.

    Hovannisian insisted, however, that the bailiffs' actions are illegal
    and politically motivated. "Six hours after diligently implementing
    the court order, the bailiffs received an order from another body,"
    he said. "With their about-turn, they showed that justice in this
    country is still a bubble."

    Hovannisian, who had served as Armenia's first foreign minister
    in 1992, regards the eviction as a government retaliation for his
    December open letter to President Robert Kocharian which effectively
    implicated the latter in high-profile political murders and electoral
    fraud. Zharangutyun, which is expected to be a major opposition
    contender in next year's parliamentary election, has accused the
    authorities of systematically harassing and bullying its activists
    across the country in recent months.

    Hovannisian sent on Tuesday a letter to Armenia's top law-enforcement
    officials demanding a criminal investigation into his claims that
    government agents illegally accessed Zharangutyun computers and
    stole confidential data shortly after the party was locked out of
    its offices.

    "It now becomes evident as to how the 'national security' bodies and
    the local lackeys of the incumbent presidency were able to obtain
    relevant information about the party's support base nationwide,"
    the party said in a separate statement. "As is widely known, the
    persecution and pressure upon the local divisions of the Zharangutyun
    Party have increased since the middle of March, with party members
    being threatened and ordered to leave the party."

    A spokesman for the Armenian police told RFE/RL later in the day
    that Hayk Harutiunian, chief of the national Police Service, has
    received Hovannisian's letter and ordered a police division to look
    into the allegations.

    Armenia's human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutiunian, also pledged to
    "examine these reports in detail." "If what you are telling me is true,
    then there was a violation [of the law] and we will react to that,"
    he told RFE/RL. "But there needs to be a forensic examination to
    determine whether somebody used that computer and other details."

    Harutiunian reacted extremely cautiously to the allegations about
    a nationwide persecution of Zharangutyun activists, saying that he
    can only comment on "concrete facts." "Frankly, I always avoid making
    generalized evaluations because I believe that is wrong as very often
    there are subjective approaches involved," said the former presidential
    adviser. "I have to try to look at the issue more objectively."
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