Catch up on Internal Armenian News

Friday, 25 April, 2008

Armenian Ombudsman Again Questions Official Version Of Unrest
By Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia's top state official in charge of human rights protection on
Friday again challenged the official version of deadly post-election
violence in Yerevan and, in particular, government claims that
opposition protesters carried weapons and fired at security forces.

Ombudsman Armen Harutiunian also echoed international calls for an
independent investigation into the March 1 clashes that left at least
ten people dead and more than 160 others injured.

The Armenian authorities have defended the use of lethal force against
thousands of supporters of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian who
barricaded themselves on a street junction outside the Yerevan mayor's
office hours after the break-up of their 10-day sit-in in the city's
Liberty Square. They say security forces that tried to disperse the
angry crowd were not only pelted with stones and Molotov cocktails but
also came under gunfire. They also point to the looting of several shops
and burning of dozens of cars that followed the police retreat from one
of the streets leading to the vast area.

Harutiunian questioned the official theory in the immediate aftermath of
the worst street violence in Armenia's history, prompting harsh
criticism from then President Robert Kocharian. The latter ordered
troops into the capital and declared a 20-day state of emergency to
quell the opposition campaign for a re-run of last February's disputed
presidential election.

Harutiunian stood by and elaborated on his critical statements in a
80-page report that detailed the dramatic events of March 1. The report
says that the Armenian police have so far failed to publicize any
evidence of the use of firearms by the protesters.

Law-enforcement authorities say two of the victims, both of them
interior troops servicemen, died of severe wounds caused by an explosive
device and a bullet allegedly fired from the crowd. They say dozens of
other soldiers and police officers were also shot and wounded in pitched
battles with Ter-Petrosian supporters.

The ombudsman said that investigators have not yet explained the precise
circumstances of the death of at least eight civilians, most of whom had
fractured skulls. The authorities insist that security forces fired only
into the air. Harutiunian pointed in that regard to an amateur video
clip that shows a group of heavily armed and masked troops firing in
front of them. He also described as `suspicious' the fact that the
looting occurred hundreds of meters away from the epicenter of the
protest and that shops and other businesses located within the
barricaded area were left intact.

The ombudsman's report stresses that the deadly clashes were sparked by
the early-morning dispersal of some 2,000 Ter-Petrosian supporters
camped out in Liberty Square. The police say that they had to break up
the non-stop sit-in only after the protesters refused to allow them to
search the square for weapons. They claim to have found pistols and hand
grenades there. Those have been repeatedly shown on state television.

Harutiunian cast doubt on the credibility of these claims. `If, as was
presented by Public Television, fleeing demonstrators left guns behind
them, then why is it that during their dispersal, which was accompanied
by beatings and resistance, not a single gunshot was fired?' he asks in
the report. The report says the purported search also violated Armenia's
Code of Procedural Justice that requires court warrants and the presence
of witnesses in such cases.

The report further concludes that contrary to police assurances, the
campers led by Ter-Petrosian were not warned to disperse before being
attacked by scores of police and interior troops. `Furthermore, the
protesters were not given any time to stop the rally,' it says.
`According to witnesses, demonstrators were not even able to get out of
the [police] cordon unharmed.'

Armenia's law on rallies and demonstrations stipulates that riot police
can use force to stop an unsanctioned street protest only twice warning
its organizers and participants. In Harutiunian's words, the police also
failed to issue such warnings later in the morning of March 1 as they
tried unsuccessfully to stop opposition supporters gathering outside the
mayor's office. The police left the area in the afternoon after the
crowd rapidly grew in size.

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Sarkisian Pledges To Meet Council Of Europe Demands
By Hovannes Shoghikian and Emil Danielyan

President Serzh Sarkisian pledged to comply with Council of Europe
demands for an end to his government's crackdown on the opposition
Friday as Armenian courts continued to imprison opposition activists who
protested against his disputed victory in the February 19 election.

The presidential press service said Sarkisian formed a working group
tasked with implement a relevant resolution passed by the Council of
Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on April 17.

The resolution demanded an `independent, transparent and credible
inquiry' into the March 1 deadly clashes in Yerevan between security
forces and opposition supporters and `the urgent release of the persons
detained on seemingly artificial and politically motivated charges.' It
also said that the recently enacted legal amendments which effectively
banned opposition rallies should be repealed `with immediate effect.'
The Strasbourg-based assembly threatened to suspend the voting rights of
its Armenian members if these measures are not taken before its next
session due in June.

A statement by Sarkisian's press service said the ad hoc group is to
propose concrete steps stemming from the resolution within the next two
weeks. The group will be headed by the chief of Sarkisian's staff, Hovik
Abrahamian, and will comprise members of the Armenian delegation at the
PACE, deputy ministers of justice and foreign affairs, a senior
prosecutor as well as the head of state television.

The Armenian authorities have so far declined to drop charges against
any of more than 100 supporters of opposition presidential candidate
Levon Ter-Petrosian arrested since the launch of the crackdown in late
February. Most of them are prosecuted in connection with the March 1
clashes and the break-up of Ter-Petrosian's sit-in in Yerevan's Liberty
Square which preceded them. Some have already been given prison
sentences by local courts.

A district court in Yerevan sentenced on Friday yet another participant
of the Liberty Square protest to 18 moths' imprisonment. Armen Avagian,
who worked as a Ter-Petrosian proxy on election day, was found guilty of
assaulting police officers during the break-up of the protest.

Avagian pleaded not guilty to the accusations during and before the
trial. `I am asking you to be reasonable and just,' he told the judge
shortly before the announcement of the verdict. `Don't be tools in the
hands of someone else. I did not commit any crime and do not accept the
accusations brought against me.'

Earlier in the day, the same court began the trial of two other
opposition activists arrested for allegedly exposing two undercover
agents of Armenia's National Security Service (NSS) present at
Ter-Petrosian's non-stop rally in Liberty Square on February 27.
Ter-Petrosian and his associates claimed that the NSS officers were
caught red-handed while urging protesters camped in the square to take
violent actions against the government.

According to the Office of the Prosecutor-General, they were recognized
and exposed by Tigran Melkonian and Levon Khachatrian, former officers
of the Armenian successor to the Soviet KGB who took part in
Ter-Petrosian rallies. It says Melkonian and Khachatrian thereby broke a
written pledge not to reveal the identity of undercover NSS operatives
which they had signed while quitting the security agency several years
ago.

The two opposition supporters deny the charges. `My clients have nothing
to do with the disclosure of those state secrets,' their lawyer, Karapet
Aghajanian, told RFE/RL.

Meanwhile, Ter-Petrosian's office said on Friday that the former
Armenian president will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to
invalidate the official results of the February 19 ballot that gave
victory to Sarkisian. Armenia's Constitutional Court already rejected on
March 8 a similar lawsuit filed by Ter-Petrosian in late February. The
court found credible only some of the purported evidence of election
fraud presented by Ter-Petrosian, ordering the Office of the
Prosecutor-General to investigate it. But it made clear that the alleged
violations could not have affected the election outcome.

The PACE resolution urged Ter-Petrosian and his allies to recognize the
ruling. `This should not be interpreted as the obligation to agree with
the merits of the court's decision,' it said. `All electoral contestants
have the right to challenge this decision by the legal means available
to them, including the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.'

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Another `Pro-Opposition' General Sacked
By Emil Danielyan

President Serzh Sarkisian sacked on Friday another top army general who
is thought to have backed his main challenger, Levon Ter-Petrosian, in
the recent presidential election.

Sarkisian's office said Lieutenant-General Gurgen (Gagik) Melkonian was
dismissed as deputy defense minister but gave no reasons for the move.
The presidential decree came three weeks after the sacking of Manvel
Grigorian, another general and deputy defense minister presumably
sympathetic to Ter-Petrosian.

Ter-Petrosian claimed to have secured the backing of the two men as he
began on February 21 a campaign of non-stop rallies against the official
results of the disputed election. `Manvel Grigorian and Gagik Melkonian
are saying that they will not allow the army to meddle in politics and
be used against their people,' Ter-Petrosian told tens of thousands of
supporters in Yerevan.

The two generals were conspicuously absent from Sarkisian's and outgoing
President Robert Kocharian's meeting two days later with the top brass
of Armenia's Armed Forces. Kocharian told the army command that he `will
not allow anyone to play a shadowy role' in the post-election
developments in Armenia. `No structure can place itself beyond law and
engage in illegal activities,' he said in an apparent reference to the
Yerkrapah Union of Armenian veterans of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh
headed by Grigorian.

Most members of the once influential group, of which Melkonian is also a
leading member, backed Ter-Petrosian's presidential bid and actively
participated in his post-election demonstrations. Grigorian is believed
to have approved of their stance, even though he has never publicly
commented on the presidential race.

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NEW ARMENIAN CABINET UNVEILS STRATEGY
by Natalia Leshchenko
Global Insight
April 29, 2008

The Armenian parliament is discussing today the five-year
development strategy proposed by the newly formed government of
Tigran Sarkisian. The programme pledges the strengthening the rule
of law, improving the business environment and implementing other
"second-generation" reforms. Economy Minister Nerses Yeritsian said
that the programme aims to sustain Armenia's economic growth by
guaranteeing fair business competition and taking other measures to
improve the overall investment climate. The main locus of such reforms,
the Prime Minister pointed out, will be the improvement of the work of
the tax and customs agencies that are still often accused of arbitrary
action. The parliament is highly likely to pass the strategy since it
is worked out with the representatives of all parliamentary factions,
and the government controls the parliament to a nearly full extent.

Significance:The governmental programme is a predictable continuation
of the policies of President Serzh Sargsyan, who had stepped into
the position from having been prime minister. Anti-corruption
reforms are much needed, as well as the streamlining of the fiscal
and customs policies implementation. The governmental commitment to
the declared goals of improving the investment climate, however, will
need to be verified by action, as corruption will be hard to root out
given its strong penetration into the administrative bodies of the
country. Finding social peace will also be a major task, after the
bloody crack-down on post-election protests this March. The programme
put forward to the parliament by Armenian government has all the right
words in it--the question is whether the government will prove able
to sing to its own hymn sheet.

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ARMENIAN BORDER GUARDS TO REPLACE RUSSIANS AT RA FRONTIERS
PanARMENIAN.Net
28.04.2008 18:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Russian conscripts guarding some segments of
Armenia's borders will be transferred to the reserve in May and will
be replaced by Armenian servicemen, in compliance with the agreement
signed by Armenia and Russia in 1992.

The RF Federal Security Service's press unit said Russian border
guards will henceforth serve under contract, Vesti reports.

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ARMENIAN RAILWAYS TO BE PLACED UNDER CONCESSION

MANAGEMENT OF RUSSIAN RAILWAYS

SKRIN Market & Corporate News

April 28, 2008 Monday

On June 1, 2008, Armenian Railways (AZD) will be placed under

concession management of the Russian Railways (RZD) monopoly. The

Russian company has won the tender for the AZD concession and declared

its readiness to invest USD570mn in the Armenian company. Of that

sum, USD230mn is to be invested within the next five years. South

Caucasus Railway, a 100% subsidiary of RZD set up for this purpose,

will run Armenian Railways. AZD has 805 km (500 miles) of railway

lines, including 748 km (465 miles) of electrified lines. Its rolling

stock consists of 3000 freight and 50 passenger cars, 55 locomotives,

and 30 electric train units. Since 2001, AZD has been earning stable

profit. In 2007, it transported 3mn metric tons of cargo compared

with 2.7mn metric tons in 2006, the DARS Consulting information

agency reported.

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THE STAGES OF EMIGRATION FROM ARMENIA

Hayots Ashkhar Daily

Published on April 30, 2008

Armenia

International conference under the title "Emigration Tendencies from

Armenia to the Russian Federation: the role of the civil society,

network cooperation and a dialogue between the state and the society"

launched in Yerevan yesterday.

Massive emigration from Armenia started from 1988 and the first huge

flow has been recorded in 1988-1992: this was the first stage of

the massive resettlement. According to the Head of Migration Agency

under the Ministry of the Territorial Governance Gagik Yeganyan the

first stage of the massive emigration was conditioned by certain

extraordinary factors. The first factor was the deportation of 360

thousand Armenians from the territory of Azerbaijan, part of them

left for different post-soviet countries.

Ecological emigrants - who left Armenia after the disastrous earthquake

of 1988. And the third flow - the internal emigrants, deported from

the frontier zones, because of bombings. Those were 72 thousand people.

1992-1995 was the second stage of the massive emigration from Armenia,

which, according to G. Yeganyan, was conditioned by economic, social,

political, and moral-psychological factors, due to the economic

crises in the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Around

800 thousand people left Armenia at the third stage of the massive

emigration, from which 400 thousand people returned. In general,

from 1988 to 1995 1,2 million people left Armenia, that is to say

the 1/3 of the population.

The third stage of massive emigration was from 1995 to

2001, which stands out by the reduction of the volumes of

passenger-circulation. Though certain volumes of emigration were

maintained, linked with the fact that routine-social problems were

replaced by social-psychological, the process of the reunion of the

families took place.

The period of 2001 to 2008 is peculiar with the continual growth of

the passenger-circulation. According to Gagik Yeganyan every year

those volumes used to grow by two-digit number, both the entry and

the departure.

Assessing the situation Gagik Yeganyan underscored that from 1988 to

2003, from 800 thousand to 1 million people, that is to say 28-31

% of the population left Armenia. The key vector of the migration

flow has been directed to the post-soviet countries, mainly Russian

Federation - 75%, European countries - 15%, and the USA - 10%.

Most of the emigrants were aged 20-44, 60% of them were males: "They

were mostly employment emigrants and they didn't keep entry rules, that

is why their stay in those countries was illegal." Gagik Yeganyan said.

Speaking about the emigration policy in Armenia G. Yeganyan

noticed that the first comprehensive document in this regard was

"The Conception on the State Regulation of the Emigration of the

Population" adopted in 2000.

"For the first time on the state level a policy on emigration was

elaborated, the helpful and the harmful aspects of the emigration were

separated. The document underscored certain versions of promoting

emigration flows deriving from the interests of the state, as well

as the reduction of the negative influence of separate types of

emigration." Head of the Migration Agency underscored.

The conception was reviewed in 2004, when new problems linked with

emigration flow emerged. A new state emigration policy was elaborated,

where 10 priority issues were underscored. The document envisaged

certain goals and means to solve them. But at present, connected

with the adoption of the European Neighborhood Action Plan, there

is a necessity to review this conception, because an imperative of

elaborating a comprehensive national migration program has appeared:

"The new policy must contain the standards accepted in the EU

countries, which implies assisting issues linked with employment

migration. 14 new supremacies are proposed and in June we will

get the assistance of the EU experts for the new national program,

with whom we will elaborate the structure and the contents of the

program. After which working groups will be established, to create

the program, within 1,5-2 years." Gagik Yeganyan underscored.

Speaking about the present state of emigration in Armenia and the

emigration policy G. Yeganyan underscored that the main problem is

linked with the former emigrants who are returning at present. "They

are in an illegal state in different countries, and one day they will

face the problem of deportation. Some people return of their own will

and the state must assist this process. Many Armenians are willing to

return but very small part of these people realize this intention. We

must take measures to assist those who have intentions to return to

their motherland." Gagik Yeganyan said.

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