Armenian News

Armenian `Coup' Trial Starts
By Karine Kalantarian and Hovannes Shoghikian

Seven leading members of the Armenian opposition went on a politically
charged trial Friday, accused of provoking deadly street clashes and
attempting to topple the government following last February's
presidential election.

A district court in Yerevan opened hearings on the case amid tight
security in and around it and growing Western demands for the release of
dozens of associates and supporters of former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian arrested in the wake of the vote. Hundreds of opposition
supporters gathered outside the court building to protest against what
they see as a travesty of justice.

The seven defendants include former Foreign Minister Aleksandr
Arzumanian, who managed Ter-Petrosian's election campaign, and three
influential opposition parliamentarians. They all stand accused of
organizing `mass riots accompanied by murders' and attempting to `usurp
state authority by force.' One of the opposition lawmakers, Miasnik
Malkhasian, is also charged with personally leading angry opposition
supporters that clashed with security forces in Yerevan on March 1.

At least eight civilians and two police servicemen were killed in what
the Armenian authorities say was a botched opposition attempt to stage a
coup d'etat. Ter-Petrosian and his allies strongly deny the coup
allegation, saying that the authorities deliberately used lethal force
to enforce official vote results that gave victory to the establishment
candidate Serzh Sarkisian.

The trial got off to a tense start, with some of the defendants and
their lawyers demanding the resignation of the presiding judge,
Mnatsakan Martirosian. Arzumanian poured scorn on Martirosian, saying
that he should throw out the case, apologize to the defendants and set
them free.

`There is no justice here, there is only repression,' charged another
defendant, Shant Harutiunian. He said that the trial is inherently
unfair and that he will therefore be making only `political statements'
in the courtroom.

Another, less prominent defendant, Suren Sirunian, threatened to boycott
court sessions unless `equal conditions' are put in place for all
parties to the trial. Sirunian is primarily known as a former top
bodyguard of Vano Siradeghian, a fugitive former interior minister and
key member of the Ter-Petrosian administration that governed Armenia
from 1991-1998.

Martirosian twice refused to abandon the case but still received another
petition from defense lawyers demanding his replacement by another
judge. He agreed to consider it before adjourning the trial until
Tuesday.

The court proceedings were watched by several dozen supporters and
relatives of the accused as well as other opposition leaders and
journalists. The spectators' were separated from the trial participants
by a glass wall that cut the courtroom in half.

Stepan Demirchian, the leader of the opposition People's Party of
Armenia, dismissed the accusations leveled against fellow oppositionists
as `fabricated.' `The authorities had an opportunity to take real and
adequate steps to ease tension in the country,' he said. `The issue of
political prisoners should have long been resolved.'

Ararat Zurabian, who leads another opposition party and spent four
months in detention, was confident that his comrades' release from
prison is imminent. `I think that the authorities will have to free
everyone very soon,' he told RFE/RL.

Tension also ran high outside the court building in Yerevan's southern
Shengavit district where several hundred opposition supporters gathered
to voice their solidarity with the defendants and chant opposition
slogans. They faced scores of riot police guarding the building.

A brief scuffle erupted when some of the protesters tried to get in.
`There is no more space in the courtroom,' a court guard shouted as the
police pushed back the crowd.

The high-profile trial got underway two days after a key panel of the
Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) described the jailed
Armenian oppositionists as political prisoners and urged the PACE to
impose sanctions on Yerevan. The United States has also been pressing
for the release of most of the detainees. The authorities maintain that
none of them is a political prisoner.

Judge Martirosian set a date for the trial on December 10, just nine
days after receiving the criminal case from state prosecutors. The
defendants' lawyers say that he could not have read and familiarized
himself with the 12,000-page case within such a short period. They have
suggested that the authorities artificially sped up judicial proceedings
to make sure that the trial starts well before the next session of the
PACE due in late January.



PRESS RELEASE
ARMENIA AND CAUCASUS AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

The Union’s new Eastern Partnership initiative opens the doors of economic and
social Europe to the three Caucasian countries, to the Ukraine and to Moldavia.

The European Armenian Federation warmly welcomes the decision of the European

Council to establish an “Eastern Partnership” (EaP) with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia,

Moldavia and Ukraine.

Last Friday, the Council adopted the European Commission’s proposal which aims at

setting up such a partnership to extend the dispositions of the current European

Neighbourhood Policy to the countries located to the East of the European Union. This

new Eastern Partnership, based on a “differentiated approach” will respect each partner

country’s “own way forward and speed” and will provide practically almost all of the economic

a nd social advantages of the European Union to the five States with the exception of opening

the doors to the Union’s political institutions. Nevertheless, the Commission’s proposal does

not “prejudice to individual countries' aspirations for their future relationship with the EU”

“At the current stage of EU integration, the Eastern Partnership constitutes certainly the most

advanced level of relations which could be hoped for these countries. We warmly commend

this courageous step forward which shows voluntarism and offers to Armenia and to the

Caucasus a real opportunity of peaceful and balanced development” declared Laurent

Leylekian, the executive director of the European Armenian Federation.

In fact, the Eastern Partnership proposes a deepening of bilateral engagements with the

Non-member States and the establishment of a multilateral co-operation framework. The

bilateral engagements will progressively include a “deep and comprehensive free trade area”,

a visas facilitation policy – then later on abandonment of visa requirements for the nationals of

these countries – police and judicial co-operations, the integration of Ukraine and Moldavia in

European Energy Community and the signing memoranda of understandings with Armenia,

Georgia and Moldavia on Energy transit and security and also on regional policies, regional

programmes of development and participation to transnational programmes in South-Eastern,

Central and Northern Europe.

The multilateral co-operation framework in its turn considers four “thematic platforms”

(“democracy, good governance and stability”, “economic integration and convergence with

the EU policies”, “energy security” and “contact between people”), emblematic “flagship”

initiatives and increased participation of the civil society through ad hoc forums, parliamentary

initiative EuroNest – associating the European Parliament with the related national Parliaments

– the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee.

“This is an extremely ambitious program which, in particular, recognizes and gives an appropriate

place to the civil society. In this context, Armenia and Europe have a particular card in their favour,

that of the European Armenian Diaspora” continued Laurent Leylekian. “This Diaspora constitutes

the natural bond, the facilitator of the Eastern Partnership with Armenia. In this perspective, the

European Armenian Federation which is ready to remain the privileged interlocutor with the

European institutions as well as the Armenian government will play its role” concluded Leylekian.
The financial instrument of the Neighbourhood Policy had planned a billion Euros of support for

the period 2007 – 2010 and the Eastern Partnership will increase this amount by 600 million

Euros for 2010 – 2013.
This new Eastern Policy will be inaugurated during a summit, envisaged in spring 2009, in the

presence of all the leaders of the 27 States and those of the countries concerned.

armradio.am
22.12.2008 13:43

President Abdullah Gul released a statement yesterday about his
family's ethnic origins in response to a Republican People's Party
(CHP) deputy's attempt to link the president's attitude toward a
recently launched apology campaign for the Armenian killings at
the hands of the late Ottoman Empire in 1915 to his ethnic roots,
Today's Zaman reported.

As CHP deputy Canan Arıtman who claimed that President Gul's mother is
of Armenian origin, continued to attack the president in an interview
published in the Milliyet daily yesterday, saying that she would like
to throw a shoe at the president when she sees him in the same way
an Iraqi journalist last week hurled a shoe at visiting US President
George W. Bush. Gul released a statement denying claims that his
family has Armenian roots.

In his statement yesterday, Gul announced that his mother's side,
the Satoglu family from Kayseri, and his father's side, the Gul family
also from Kayseri, are Muslim and Turkish, according to centuries of
written genealogy records.

"I respect the ethnic background, different beliefs and family ties of
all my citizens and see this as a reality and also the wealth of our
country with its imperial history. I also would like to emphasize
that all my citizens are equal to one another regardless of any
differences. No one has any superiority whatsoever over another
one. Everybody has the equal and same rights under the guarantee of
our Constitution," the statement read. "I am proud of our country,
which has reached this level of understanding."

When Gul was asked for his opinion on the campaign, he said the
state's stance is to improve relations with its neighbors. "We
believe dialogue to be the solution for problems we have with our
neighbors. Perpetuating problems is not useful to anyone," he said.

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