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ARMENIA: IS THE GOVERNMENT TAKING AIM AT THE WRONG PEOPLE?
EurasiaNet.org
Oct 2 2013
October 2, 2013 - 2:13pm, by Gayane Abrahamyan
In what many local observers see as the latest in a series of pushbacks
against government critics in Armenia, military investigators have
filed criminal charges against Volodya Avetisian, a retired army
colonel who launched a series of protests this spring for better
benefits for Nagorno-Karabakh war veterans.
The protests led by Avetisian were not as large as this July's
public-transportation boycott, not as controversial as the outcry
against the Customs Union, and did not threaten to spill over into
the regions, as did opposition leader Raffi Hovhannisian's short-lived
Barevolution (Hello Revolution) this February.
But his case carries particular sensitivity, both political and
social. Karabakh war veterans enjoy an honored position within
Armenian society for their military success in the Karabakh conflict
against Azerbaijan. As such, trying to criticize or punish veterans
has been generally deemed risky, if not taboo. Both President Serzh
Sargsyan and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian are also veterans of the
1988-1994 conflict; Sargsyan himself served as a leader of Karabakh's
defense forces.
Fifty-year-old Avetisian and the hundreds of veterans who joined
his Yerevan protests argue that that the government should show
appreciation of their efforts with more than just words. Receiving
pensions of just 30,000 and 80,000 drams (around $73-$193) per month,
they argue that veteran benefits need to be codified in law. They also
contend that their benefits should be expanded; not only should they
receive more in pension payments, but they also deserve discounts on
utility bills, medical fees, public transportation fares and tuition
costs for their children.
Defense Ministry officials at first were solicitous toward Avetisian
and his fellow protesters. But their interest vanished, participants
say, when Avetisian was jailed on September 20, pending trial, on
charges of supposedly taking $2,000 from a man (identified only as H.
Zakarian) in return for a promise to obtain a military-service
exemption for the supposed "fee"-payer's grandson. The potential
penalty is a fine from between 500,000 ($1,230) to 1 million ($2,470)
drams, or a prison-term of up to five years.
Avetisian maintains his innocence and has refused to testify, said
his attorney, Ara Zakarian. He added that both Avetisian and he are
"trying to understand on what grounds they took him into custody,
because so far [the evidence] is rather vague and baseless."
Avetisian's wife, Margarita Baghramian, told EurasiaNet.org that her
husband was taken from his house late at night by military police
without the reason for his detention being given.
An amnesty bill now under consideration in parliament could secure
Avetisian's release from custody, but the charge would remain on the
ex-serviceman's record, according to Zakarian.
The news has done nothing to change his supporters' perceptions that
top government officials have simply run out of patience for protests,
and are not treating the protesting veterans fairly. That perception
is fueled in part by the fact that since August 22, nine activists
engaged in protests against an increase in city bus fares and against
Armenia's planned Customs Union with Russia have suffered injuries
from street attacks by unknown assailants.
Some argue that Avetisian should go to trial to prove he's the target
of a setup. "The authorities, seeing that we were not going to give
up, tried this way to discredit a person whose whole life, youth, and
health have been devoted to his motherland," argued Karen Melikbekian,
who, along with several fellow veterans, is continuing a sit-in protest
in the park near the government chancellery in Yerevan. "This is the
lowest thing they could have done."
"The refusal to release him on bail when he is not a dangerous criminal
or a murderer makes the motives behind Volodya's arrest obvious,"
said another protester, veteran Tigran Harutiunian. "He had to be
isolated; also, as a message that if we do not stop our protest,
they will cook up charges against all of us, one by one."
Another supporter, Zhirayr Sefilian, a former special division
commander, claims that he has information about government officials
who, allegedly, "were trying to bribe Avetisian to have him stop his
protest." He has threatened to disclose their names if the case against
Avetisian continues. He declined to elaborate to EurasiaNet.org.
The Defense Ministry's Investigative Service, which oversees the case,
has declined to comment on the charges against Avetisian, saying that
"The case is under preliminary investigation and any comment might
affect the process."
The veterans, though, are not alone in their suspicions about
the charges. "Looking at the general situation taking place in the
country, the recent beatings of activists, it is rather difficult to
observe Avetisian's case only in the legal context, " said political
analyst Edgar Vardanian of the Armenian Center for Strategic and
International Studies. "[I]t is obvious that this case is also
politically motivated."
One human-rights activist agrees. "Assaulting war veterans in the
street, as in the case with the activists, would have been too obscene
a deed; hence, they found another method to silence [a person], to
scare him off," alleged Avetik Ishkhanian, director of the non-profit
Armenian Helsinki Committee.
Neither representatives of the government nor the governing Republican
Party of Armenia have commented publicly on the allegations of a
political motivation to the case. A vexed Avetisian asserted on
September 30 that the veterans would now switch from social to
political demands. "I have realized that what today is called a
state is, in reality, a system robbing our people and destroying our
statehood," he wrote in a statement from prison. "It is like a man
cutting down the tree branch on which he is sitting. If he is not
restrained, all of us will collapse together."
Editor's note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a freelance reporter and editor
in Yerevan.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67578
From: A. Papazian
EurasiaNet.org
Oct 2 2013
October 2, 2013 - 2:13pm, by Gayane Abrahamyan
In what many local observers see as the latest in a series of pushbacks
against government critics in Armenia, military investigators have
filed criminal charges against Volodya Avetisian, a retired army
colonel who launched a series of protests this spring for better
benefits for Nagorno-Karabakh war veterans.
The protests led by Avetisian were not as large as this July's
public-transportation boycott, not as controversial as the outcry
against the Customs Union, and did not threaten to spill over into
the regions, as did opposition leader Raffi Hovhannisian's short-lived
Barevolution (Hello Revolution) this February.
But his case carries particular sensitivity, both political and
social. Karabakh war veterans enjoy an honored position within
Armenian society for their military success in the Karabakh conflict
against Azerbaijan. As such, trying to criticize or punish veterans
has been generally deemed risky, if not taboo. Both President Serzh
Sargsyan and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian are also veterans of the
1988-1994 conflict; Sargsyan himself served as a leader of Karabakh's
defense forces.
Fifty-year-old Avetisian and the hundreds of veterans who joined
his Yerevan protests argue that that the government should show
appreciation of their efforts with more than just words. Receiving
pensions of just 30,000 and 80,000 drams (around $73-$193) per month,
they argue that veteran benefits need to be codified in law. They also
contend that their benefits should be expanded; not only should they
receive more in pension payments, but they also deserve discounts on
utility bills, medical fees, public transportation fares and tuition
costs for their children.
Defense Ministry officials at first were solicitous toward Avetisian
and his fellow protesters. But their interest vanished, participants
say, when Avetisian was jailed on September 20, pending trial, on
charges of supposedly taking $2,000 from a man (identified only as H.
Zakarian) in return for a promise to obtain a military-service
exemption for the supposed "fee"-payer's grandson. The potential
penalty is a fine from between 500,000 ($1,230) to 1 million ($2,470)
drams, or a prison-term of up to five years.
Avetisian maintains his innocence and has refused to testify, said
his attorney, Ara Zakarian. He added that both Avetisian and he are
"trying to understand on what grounds they took him into custody,
because so far [the evidence] is rather vague and baseless."
Avetisian's wife, Margarita Baghramian, told EurasiaNet.org that her
husband was taken from his house late at night by military police
without the reason for his detention being given.
An amnesty bill now under consideration in parliament could secure
Avetisian's release from custody, but the charge would remain on the
ex-serviceman's record, according to Zakarian.
The news has done nothing to change his supporters' perceptions that
top government officials have simply run out of patience for protests,
and are not treating the protesting veterans fairly. That perception
is fueled in part by the fact that since August 22, nine activists
engaged in protests against an increase in city bus fares and against
Armenia's planned Customs Union with Russia have suffered injuries
from street attacks by unknown assailants.
Some argue that Avetisian should go to trial to prove he's the target
of a setup. "The authorities, seeing that we were not going to give
up, tried this way to discredit a person whose whole life, youth, and
health have been devoted to his motherland," argued Karen Melikbekian,
who, along with several fellow veterans, is continuing a sit-in protest
in the park near the government chancellery in Yerevan. "This is the
lowest thing they could have done."
"The refusal to release him on bail when he is not a dangerous criminal
or a murderer makes the motives behind Volodya's arrest obvious,"
said another protester, veteran Tigran Harutiunian. "He had to be
isolated; also, as a message that if we do not stop our protest,
they will cook up charges against all of us, one by one."
Another supporter, Zhirayr Sefilian, a former special division
commander, claims that he has information about government officials
who, allegedly, "were trying to bribe Avetisian to have him stop his
protest." He has threatened to disclose their names if the case against
Avetisian continues. He declined to elaborate to EurasiaNet.org.
The Defense Ministry's Investigative Service, which oversees the case,
has declined to comment on the charges against Avetisian, saying that
"The case is under preliminary investigation and any comment might
affect the process."
The veterans, though, are not alone in their suspicions about
the charges. "Looking at the general situation taking place in the
country, the recent beatings of activists, it is rather difficult to
observe Avetisian's case only in the legal context, " said political
analyst Edgar Vardanian of the Armenian Center for Strategic and
International Studies. "[I]t is obvious that this case is also
politically motivated."
One human-rights activist agrees. "Assaulting war veterans in the
street, as in the case with the activists, would have been too obscene
a deed; hence, they found another method to silence [a person], to
scare him off," alleged Avetik Ishkhanian, director of the non-profit
Armenian Helsinki Committee.
Neither representatives of the government nor the governing Republican
Party of Armenia have commented publicly on the allegations of a
political motivation to the case. A vexed Avetisian asserted on
September 30 that the veterans would now switch from social to
political demands. "I have realized that what today is called a
state is, in reality, a system robbing our people and destroying our
statehood," he wrote in a statement from prison. "It is like a man
cutting down the tree branch on which he is sitting. If he is not
restrained, all of us will collapse together."
Editor's note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a freelance reporter and editor
in Yerevan.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67578
From: A. Papazian