OPEN LETTER TO THE ARMENIAN PUBLIC

Panorama.am
15:13 30/10/06

The forcible March closure of the Heritage Party’s headquarters, the
subsequent surreptitious and illegal break-in at the already-sealed
office, the criminal theft of information from its main computer,
and the campaign of political pressure and persecution unleashed
against members, supporters, and local chapters of a duly-registered
political organization compelled Raffi Hovannisian and the leadership
of Heritage to seek justice amid the tribunes of the legal system.

In spite of incontrovertible evidence attesting to the commission
of criminal acts, the multiple levels of the judicial branch have
repeatedly rendered capricious rejections of the legal claim to
reopen the offices. This series of unfounded judgments supports the
conviction that we have come up against different links in a single
chain of criminal conduct that is guided by the highest echelon of
executive authority.

As for the scandalous reproduction of the "Watergate" precedent-the
unlawful break-in to party headquarters and the presidential theft
of information therefrom-the Armenian police department and then
Yerevan’s prosecutor have refused our legitimate demand to file
criminal charges, evidently in an ill-disguised attempt to cover up
the crimes in question. Accordingly, as a measure of final recourse,
we have petitioned-and expect a just determination from-the Republic’s
prosecutor general to institute criminal proceedings and commence a
full investigation by November 10, the deadline set by law.

All this is taking place against the backdrop of the administration’s
recently repeated "oaths" to guarantee the absolute fairness of the
parliamentary elections scheduled for Spring 2007. Without further
interpreting Heritage’s recent "experiences," we submit that the
party enters the pre-election season-which de facto has already been
launched and is overflowing upon the country’s television screens-(a)
locked out of its central offices, (b) with its database broken into
and compromised, (c) being systematically and unlawfully deprived
by relevant state bodies of the right to rent meeting space and
thus to exercise the freedoms of speech and association, and (d)
on a presidentially-conceived "black list" wholly forbidding access
for Heritage, its founder and officials to the electronic media,
which all are under strict supervision and vertical control.

We appeal to the Armenian public with these key queries for the
national agenda: ~U Can this constant course of illegalities and
blatant violations of civil rights assume, under any circumstance,
the mantle of fundamental legitimacy for the upcoming elections?

~U Is it possible that the failure to launch court proceedings-or
their dismissal once instituted-against individuals, both officials
and others, who have committed or commissioned crimes will serve to
rein in the perpetrators of thousands of instances of electoral fraud?

~U Does Armenia’s leadership have, in the first place, the moral right
and legal standing to speak in the name of democracy and justice? ~U In
the sum total of the foregoing, isn’t the prospect of the parliamentary
elections already prejudiced, and its fairness breached in advance?