ARMENIAN OPPOSITION PARTY LOCKED OUT
By Vahan Ishkhanian in Yerevan

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
April 6 2006

Popular ex-foreign minister blames the president for shutting down
his office.

A month after his party’s office was abruptly sealed, prominent
Armenian opposition politician Raffi Hovhannisian says he is no nearer
to regaining entry to the premises.

Hovhannisian, chairman of the Zharangutiun (Heritage) Party, blames
Armenian president Robert Kocharian personally for the standoff,
but says being locked out is “not the end of the world”.

The doors of the Heritage Party’s office were sealed on March 4, while
Hovhannisian was out of the country. Since then all its documents
and its official stamp have remained locked inside. Party officials
say its activities are effectively suspended so long as it has no
access to its documents, electronic data, communications equipment
and other property.

The official explanation is that the Paronian Theatre, in whose
building the office is located, now belongs to the government
department for state property, so the premises have to be vacated.

Heritage Party officials say they did receive a note to that effect
from the theatre’s director a week before March 4, but were given
assurances that they would be allowed time to resolve the matter.

“He said, ‘Yes, we will wait’ – and then this happened,” Gevorg
Kalenchian, the director of the party’s central office, told IWPR.

Theatre manager Karo Shahbazian denied that there was any political
motivation behind the lockout.

“The building has been transferred to the department for state
property management and I am obliged to hand the property over to the
government,” Shahbazian told IWPR. “I told them [Heritage] to vacate
the building but they refused. That is why I have put another lock on.”

However, Hovhannisian says he is in no doubt that this is part of an
officially-inspired campaign to stifle his party. He said his appeal
to Prime Minister Andranik Margarian to intervene in the dispute had
been met with silence.

“This is the latest mean-spirited order… that reflects the essence
of the regime, and that we got instead of an honest answer,” said
Hovhannisian.

Responding to Hovhannisian’s accusations, presidential spokesman Viktor
Soghomonian told IWPR, “The president and his administration have not,
are not, and will never be interested in Raffi Hovhannisian.”

Hovhannisian, 47, is the only major politician from the Armenian
diaspora. The son of famous historian Richard Hovhannisian, he was born
in the United States city of Fresno, and was the first foreign minister
of independent Armenia in 1991-92. The year after he left office,
he founded the Armenian Centre for Strategic and National Studies.

Many experts believe the office closure is a preventive strike against
the party ahead of next year’s parliamentary election.

Hovhannisian is also widely expected to stand in the 2008 presidential
ballot.

“It is clear that this is not a property dispute, and that it’s a
political rather than legal struggle, linked to the parliamentary
election,” said Alexander Iskandarian, political analyst and director
of the Caucasus Media Institute.

Another political analyst, Yervand Bozoian, added, “The opposition has
not been a problem for the authorities so far, but everyone understands
that it could become a problem under certain circumstances. Something
similar could happen to any opposition figure tomorrow.”

Hovhannisian has been in conflict with the authorities since 2003,
and especially enraged them by actively campaigning against last
year’s constitutional referendum.

He tried to stand for president in 2003, but the central electoral
commission refused to register him as a candidate. The constitution
says that presidential contenders have to have been Armenian citizens
for at least ten years, but Hovhannisian was granted citizenship only
in 2001.

Denied a chance to stand, Hovhannisian took part in protests against
what the opposition said was election fraud, and founded the Heritage
Party in 2002.

In November last year, security officers searched Hovhannisian at
Yerevan airport, claiming they were looking for documents containing
state secrets. The following month, Heritage member Edgar Hakobian was
among 30 participants in a protest rally who were arrested by police.

At an opposition rally on December 9, Hovhannisian read out
21 questions addressed to President Kocharian. He asked whether
Kocharian had been involved in contract killings, suggesting there were
unanswered questions about his involvement in an attack on parliament
in October 1998, when the then prime minister and parliamentary speaker
were killed. He also asked what property, businesses and funds the
president, his wife and other members family members possessed.

Kocharian’s spokesman Soghomonian told the Haiots Ashkharh newspaper
that “this scrap of paper” from Hovhannisian was not worthy of the
president’s attention. But the accusation triggered a media campaign
against the opposition leader, with one newspaper article suggesting
that the questions had been written by the US security services.

In a country with no reliable opinion polls, it is hard to judge
the true level of support for Hovhannisian, but he has an unusually
positive image in Armenia. The closure of Heritage’s office led to an
open letter from 18 parties and non-government organisations demanding
that the party be allowed to resume work immediately.

Iskandarian believes that Heritage’s clash with the authorities is
a symptom of the struggle between a weak governing regime and an
equally weak opposition.

“The authorities’ weakness lies in the fact that they become nervous
for no reason, and fear things they should not be afraid of,” said
Iskandarian. “They take forceful steps for which there is no need.

When an opponent’s office is closed down in this manner, it’s a sign
of weakness, not strength.”

Hovhannisian says he has not decided yet whether to take part in the
2007 parliamentary election, but insisted that “a tent is enough”
for him to carry on in politics.

“We have paid the rent and all the rest meticulously. There are no
grounds for evicting us. We will fight to the end,” he said.

“However, if we are deprived of these premises that were given to us
in 1994, it won’t be a problem. We will continue to work at home.”

Vahan Ishkhanian is a reporter for the Armenianow online weekly
in Yerevan.