Two differing viewpoints‏

EVENTS IN YEREVAN WERE JUST A CRIME - KOCHARIAN Interfax News Agency Russia & CIS March 4, 2008 Russia Armenian President Robert Kocharian discussed with European Union Special Representative in the South Caucasus Peter Semnebi the situation that formed in Yerevan following mass riots, Armenian president's press service told Interfax. The authorities hope for quick normalization of the situation, he said. The events in Yerevan "have nothing to do with politics, they were simply a crime that should be investigated in detail, and all the guilty should bear legal responsibility," he said as cited by the press service. Semnebi said he hoped that investigation of the event will be unbiased and multilateral and everything will be done to mitigate the current situation. The people who ordered, orchestrated and took part in recent mass unrest in Yerevan will be punished, presidential press secretary Viktor Sogomonian said at a press conference on Tuesday. "Levon Ter-Petrosian and his team, and all those who provoked and organized mass unrest and called for overthrowing the incumbent authorities will be punished," Sogomonian said. "Especially those who provoked unrest," he added. The situation in the city is returning to normal, he said. Asked about the possibility of a dialogue with the radical opposition and a possible format of such dialogue, Sogomonian said he did not see a possibility for such dialogue now. "Before those events took place, there were chances for dialogue. The opposition said more than once that it ruled out the possibility of dialogue with the authorities. I do not see such an opportunity now. Can anything really be discussed after what happened?" Sogomonian said. The unsanctioned opposition rallies had lasted for ten days, he said. There were armed people among those who incited the unrest, while police were unarmed, Sogomonian said. "International institutions should know that there was no excessive use of force. The Armenian political leadership ordered that violence be avoided as much as possible and that the use of force be minimized," he said. Armenian radical opposition headed by former President Levon Ter- Petrosian held rallies on the Liberty square in the center of Yerevan protesting the results of the February 19 election which Prime Minister Serzh Sagsyan won. On March 1, Armenian police dispersed the rally on the Liberty square. The rally participants moved to the territory adjacent to the French and Italian embassies, near to the Yerevan Mayor's Office. Up to 10,000 demonstrators gathered there. The police said that in the evening the situation went out of control, the crowd began to rob nearby state facilities, private shops and set fire to cars. In the riots, eight people were killed and 131 were wounded. Meanwhile in last Monday the European Commission has insistently called on the Armenian authorities to cancel the state of emergency in Yerevan introduced on March 1 and urged all political forces to abstain from the use of force and to begin a dialogue in order to overcome the existing differences. "I also call on the Armenian authorities to lift all restrictions on the free movement of former candidate for the presidency Levon Ter- Petrosian and to release all citizens detained for the execution of their right to the freedom of assemblies," European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy Benita Ferrero- Waldner said in a statement. Thirty people were apprehended within the framework of the investigation of a criminal case into March riots in Yerevan, the press service of the Armenian Prosecutor General's Office told Interfax, adding that the case is probed by the special investigative service. These people were detained "for using violence against police officers, appeals to resist the decision to terminate public actions organized in violation of the law, as well as inciting and staging mass riots," the press service said. "There are people with earlier convictions, including with six previous convictions, among those detained," the press service said. The special investigative service, takes measures to expose all those who used force against police officers, who were ensuring and maintaining order in Yerevan, as well as to expose those who incited and staged the riots, the press service said. SILENCE ON ARMENIA, BY LEVON TER-PETROSSIAN Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/04/AR2008030402329.html March 5 2008 United States YEREVAN, Armenia -- In Armenia's presidential election last month, I stood as the main opposition candidate against incumbent Prime Minister Serzh Sarkissian. The election followed a sadly familiar script: The regime harassed the opposition's representatives, bribed and intimidated voters, stuffed ballot boxes, and systematically miscounted votes. Indeed, the rigging of the outcome did not begin on Feb. 19. For the duration of the campaign the country's main medium of communication, television, which is tightly controlled by the regime, churned out propaganda that would have made Brezhnev-era Soviet propagandists blush in shame. We in the opposition were angered by all of this but not surprised. What surprised and dismayed us was the deafening silence from the West. What dismayed us even more was the technical report of the observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which rubber-stamped Sarkissian's farcical claim of victory. The people of Armenia, unlike the OSCE monitors, chose to see what happened at the polling stations. Naturally, they discounted Sarkissian's claim and gathered to demand annulment of the results. They staged a continuous protest at Opera Square that became the most wonderful celebration of freedom and one that should be studied as an example of nonviolent, lawful resistance against illegitimate rule. Deeply concerned that the ranks of protesters were swelling by the day, the regime decided early Saturday to resort to force. Riot police were ordered to disperse the crowd, detain the opposition leaders and put me under house arrest. After several hours, citizens reassembled at another site, demanding to see their leaders, but instead they encountered more riot police, later reinforced by units of the Armenian army, which was ordered to crush the protest. At least eight people were killed this weekend, and emergency rule has been declared. How did we come to this? Why did the regime headed by outgoing President Robert Kocharian and "president-elect" Sarkissian think it could get away with using force against its own people? Surely the two men had their reasons, but the West's signal, even if unintentional, that they did not have to worry about a strong international reaction was the most important one. We in Armenia have been trying to understand the roots of such indifference to the rape of our democracy by the Kocharian-Sarkissian regime. The available evidence suggests two explanations: First, some influential organizations and actors in the West, and in Europe in particular, are naively wedded to the notion of positive reinforcement. They seem to think that praising small improvements, instead of criticizing major flaws, creates an incentive for good behavior. Anyone who has studied this regime closely, however, understands the absurdity of such an approach. Second, and perhaps more important, is the oft-stated claim that the only people able to settle Armenia's long-standing conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region will be leaders who are themselves from Nagorno-Karabakh -- as Kocharian and Sarkissian are -- and who are perceived domestically as hard-liners. This is analogous to the "only Nixon could go to China" logic. The problem is that despite being in power for the past 10 years, Kocharian and Sarkissian have done little to move the negotiating process forward. More important, any leader who must make consequential and difficult choices must have the trust of his people. Sarkissian does not have that trust. After what he and Kocharian did on March 1, he will not be able to govern here, let alone make difficult choices. So what should be done? What do the people of Armenia expect from the West, and the United States in particular? At the very least, we expect a strong and unequivocal condemnation of the violence that occurred March 1 and a recognition that the government, not the opposition, bears responsibility. This condemnation should accompany a stern warning against continued persecution of the opposition and its leaders -- mistreatment that is reaching unprecedented levels -- as well as a demand to lift the restrictions on the media and restore the people's rights to free assembly and unbiased information. We also expect a reassessment of the conduct of the election. Any serious reassessment will inevitably lead to the conclusion that a new election must be held. If these steps are not taken, Armenians will draw two very undesirable conclusions: that peaceful and lawful means of political struggle are ineffective and pointless, and that the West cares about democracy only when it is politically expedient to do so. The West must do everything possible to dissuade Armenia's citizens from reaching those conclusions. The writer was president of Armenia from 1991 to 1998 and was the main opposition candidate for president this year. He is under house arrest.

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