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Fresno-born Armenian Leader Ends Hunger Strike
John Hughes / Special to The Bee
Published: Mar 31, 2011
YEREVAN, Armenia -- A political leader here with family ties to Fresno
has just come off a 15-day public hunger strike in the center of the
city that has energized thousands.
Fresno-born Raffi K. Hovannisian, 51, who moved to Armenia in 1991, had
been on a fast since March 15 in demonstration against the government of
President Serzh Sargsyan. Hovannisian is calling for regime change of
authorities who Hovannisian's and other opposition parties say have held
illegitimate power since fraudulent elections in 2007 (parliamentary)
and 2008 (presidential).
Hovannisian camped out in Liberty Square in the nation's capital. He
spent the first nine days of his fast sitting and sleeping on a park
bench until being allowed to erect a tent -- a concession authorities
had earlier refused.
Members of Hovannisian's Heritage Party and supporters were surprised by
his fast; opponents derided it as a publicity stunt.
Hovannisian ended the strike Wednesday, a day after a doctor advised
that further lack of nourishment could result in liver and kidney
damage.
According to members of the Heritage Party, over the course of the 15
days of the hunger strike, more than 20,000 people signed a guest book
in support of Hovannisian's position.
Two days into his fast, an anti-government rally was allowed on the
grounds of Liberty Square, the first such event in three years. Although
led by the largest opposition party, the Armenian National Congress of
first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan (1991-96), many in the crowd of
about 20,000 (although reported at 9,000 by state authorities and
100,000 by organizers) rushed to the park to greet and thank Hovannisian
for "reclaiming" their revered square.
On March 1, 2008, a violent police raid of an opposition protest
encampment in Liberty Square sparked a day of clashes that left 10 dead,
hundreds wounded and dozens arrested. Since that day, Ter-Petrosyan's
party had filed more than 100 requests with City Hall for permission to
gather at Liberty Square. All had been rejected.
When demonstrators marched there March 17, they met a barricade of riot
police. After a few tense minutes and several cell phone conversations
between opposition leaders and authorities, police stood down and the
crowd flooded the square.
A request to hold another rally on April 8 has been denied.
Hovannisian had vowed to continue his fast until he is satisfied that
his party's call for early elections, among other demands, is seriously
considered -- "as long as my health allows." Regular elections are
slated for 2012 and 2013 for parliament and president, respectively.
Hovannisian, a descendant of genocide survivors and a 1980 graduate of
the University of California at Los Angeles, relinquished his American
citizenship for an Armenian passport in 2001, after moving his family of
seven there just before the former Soviet republic gained independence
in 1991.
He was named foreign minister when Ter-Petrosyan won the country's first
presidential election.
Hovannisian resigned after just over a year. He later founded Armenia's
first political "think tank" and in 2002 founded the Heritage Party,
which won seven seats in parliament in 2007.
Now, Hovannisian has become something of a folk hero for Armenia's
disenfranchised and a wedge dividing conflicting opposition camps.
He says that he is pleased with his role in re-invigorating a segment of
the population that has been muted by the dominance of the Sargsyan
coalition -- which holds 91 of the National Assembly's 131 seats, with
an additional 17 "independents" typically voting with the coalition --
and has been put off by Ter-Petrosyan's abrasive and unfulfilled
promises to unseat the current leaders. Hovannisian's future influence
rests on the yet-unknown size of that demographic.
"By my modest sacrifice, I did not seek a reaction, but sought to signal
an alarm of the state against the 'rule-lessness of law' by this
government, against the legacy of false elections and ultimately in the
face of these challenges to return power to the people," Hovannisian
said.
His protest comes as many in Armenia struggle against 10% inflation, a
12% rise in overall cost of living and an increase in the cost of
consumable goods of up to 40%. A result of the worsening economy has
been a new wave of emigration, most of it to Russia, where the number of
Armenians approaches the same unofficial estimate of 2.5 million left in
Armenia.
Hovannisian said Armenia is now living in "an emergency." He is
especially distressed by a recent memorandum of understanding signed by
the ruling coalition in which the three parties agreed to cooperate with
each other to expand even more their overwhelming majority in the coming
elections -- thus creating, Hovannisian said, an undemocratic "single
party state."
"There is a danger of re-investing the population with a sense of
fatalism that everything is pre-determined by the powers that be,"
Hovannisian said. "I wanted to raise an alarm to Armenian society with a
message and expectation that only through people's civic action and
their rights of public assembly would it be possible to expect any
transformation for the Republic of Armenia."
Hovannisian himself has experienced transformation, having last year
shed more than 80 pounds. And just before starting his fast, he shaved
his bushy mustache that had been a distinctive feature for decades --
which by strike's end had become a 15-day white beard.
His wife, Armenuhi, founder of Junior Achievement in Armenia and of
Orran, an aid center for Yerevan street orphans, sat with her husband
most days; relieved by their son Garin, a UCLA graduate who recently
wrote a memoir, "Family of Shadows," published by Harper. He stayed at
night while his father slept under an afghan knitted in the orange, red
and blue of the Armenian flag.
Throughout the days, supporters left random mementos on the bench -- a
candle, a biography of Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands, a 1980s-era
record album cover of favored son of Armenia, Charles Aznavour.
On Monday, he was visited by the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Marie L.
Yovanovitch.
Hovannisian said in jest that the welcomed but odd and continuous
gathering of the prominent and the unknown is "a bit like learning who
would attend your funeral." He was attended by war veterans and by old
women who scolded him when he didn't wear a stocking cap.
Last week, a group of university students gathered with guitar to
serenade in a scene Hovannisian likened to 1960s Haight-Ashbury.
From: A. Papazian
John Hughes / Special to The Bee
Published: Mar 31, 2011
YEREVAN, Armenia -- A political leader here with family ties to Fresno
has just come off a 15-day public hunger strike in the center of the
city that has energized thousands.
Fresno-born Raffi K. Hovannisian, 51, who moved to Armenia in 1991, had
been on a fast since March 15 in demonstration against the government of
President Serzh Sargsyan. Hovannisian is calling for regime change of
authorities who Hovannisian's and other opposition parties say have held
illegitimate power since fraudulent elections in 2007 (parliamentary)
and 2008 (presidential).
Hovannisian camped out in Liberty Square in the nation's capital. He
spent the first nine days of his fast sitting and sleeping on a park
bench until being allowed to erect a tent -- a concession authorities
had earlier refused.
Members of Hovannisian's Heritage Party and supporters were surprised by
his fast; opponents derided it as a publicity stunt.
Hovannisian ended the strike Wednesday, a day after a doctor advised
that further lack of nourishment could result in liver and kidney
damage.
According to members of the Heritage Party, over the course of the 15
days of the hunger strike, more than 20,000 people signed a guest book
in support of Hovannisian's position.
Two days into his fast, an anti-government rally was allowed on the
grounds of Liberty Square, the first such event in three years. Although
led by the largest opposition party, the Armenian National Congress of
first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan (1991-96), many in the crowd of
about 20,000 (although reported at 9,000 by state authorities and
100,000 by organizers) rushed to the park to greet and thank Hovannisian
for "reclaiming" their revered square.
On March 1, 2008, a violent police raid of an opposition protest
encampment in Liberty Square sparked a day of clashes that left 10 dead,
hundreds wounded and dozens arrested. Since that day, Ter-Petrosyan's
party had filed more than 100 requests with City Hall for permission to
gather at Liberty Square. All had been rejected.
When demonstrators marched there March 17, they met a barricade of riot
police. After a few tense minutes and several cell phone conversations
between opposition leaders and authorities, police stood down and the
crowd flooded the square.
A request to hold another rally on April 8 has been denied.
Hovannisian had vowed to continue his fast until he is satisfied that
his party's call for early elections, among other demands, is seriously
considered -- "as long as my health allows." Regular elections are
slated for 2012 and 2013 for parliament and president, respectively.
Hovannisian, a descendant of genocide survivors and a 1980 graduate of
the University of California at Los Angeles, relinquished his American
citizenship for an Armenian passport in 2001, after moving his family of
seven there just before the former Soviet republic gained independence
in 1991.
He was named foreign minister when Ter-Petrosyan won the country's first
presidential election.
Hovannisian resigned after just over a year. He later founded Armenia's
first political "think tank" and in 2002 founded the Heritage Party,
which won seven seats in parliament in 2007.
Now, Hovannisian has become something of a folk hero for Armenia's
disenfranchised and a wedge dividing conflicting opposition camps.
He says that he is pleased with his role in re-invigorating a segment of
the population that has been muted by the dominance of the Sargsyan
coalition -- which holds 91 of the National Assembly's 131 seats, with
an additional 17 "independents" typically voting with the coalition --
and has been put off by Ter-Petrosyan's abrasive and unfulfilled
promises to unseat the current leaders. Hovannisian's future influence
rests on the yet-unknown size of that demographic.
"By my modest sacrifice, I did not seek a reaction, but sought to signal
an alarm of the state against the 'rule-lessness of law' by this
government, against the legacy of false elections and ultimately in the
face of these challenges to return power to the people," Hovannisian
said.
His protest comes as many in Armenia struggle against 10% inflation, a
12% rise in overall cost of living and an increase in the cost of
consumable goods of up to 40%. A result of the worsening economy has
been a new wave of emigration, most of it to Russia, where the number of
Armenians approaches the same unofficial estimate of 2.5 million left in
Armenia.
Hovannisian said Armenia is now living in "an emergency." He is
especially distressed by a recent memorandum of understanding signed by
the ruling coalition in which the three parties agreed to cooperate with
each other to expand even more their overwhelming majority in the coming
elections -- thus creating, Hovannisian said, an undemocratic "single
party state."
"There is a danger of re-investing the population with a sense of
fatalism that everything is pre-determined by the powers that be,"
Hovannisian said. "I wanted to raise an alarm to Armenian society with a
message and expectation that only through people's civic action and
their rights of public assembly would it be possible to expect any
transformation for the Republic of Armenia."
Hovannisian himself has experienced transformation, having last year
shed more than 80 pounds. And just before starting his fast, he shaved
his bushy mustache that had been a distinctive feature for decades --
which by strike's end had become a 15-day white beard.
His wife, Armenuhi, founder of Junior Achievement in Armenia and of
Orran, an aid center for Yerevan street orphans, sat with her husband
most days; relieved by their son Garin, a UCLA graduate who recently
wrote a memoir, "Family of Shadows," published by Harper. He stayed at
night while his father slept under an afghan knitted in the orange, red
and blue of the Armenian flag.
Throughout the days, supporters left random mementos on the bench -- a
candle, a biography of Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands, a 1980s-era
record album cover of favored son of Armenia, Charles Aznavour.
On Monday, he was visited by the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Marie L.
Yovanovitch.
Hovannisian said in jest that the welcomed but odd and continuous
gathering of the prominent and the unknown is "a bit like learning who
would attend your funeral." He was attended by war veterans and by old
women who scolded him when he didn't wear a stocking cap.
Last week, a group of university students gathered with guitar to
serenade in a scene Hovannisian likened to 1960s Haight-Ashbury.
From: A. Papazian