JAVAKHETI ACTIVIST DEPORTED FROM ARMENIA
By Satenik Vantsian in Gyumri

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 4 2006

An Armenian nationalist activist from Georgia’s restive Javakheti
region was deported from Armenia on Monday shortly after being
controversially handed a suspended one-year prison sentence in a
trial denounced as politically motivated by his supporters.

A court in Gyumri found Vahagn Chakhalian, a young leader of the United
Javakhk organization campaigning for the Armenian-populated region’s
greater autonomy, guilty of illegally entering Armenia, dismissing
his protestations of innocence. It backed prosecutors’ claim that he
crossed the Georgian-Armenian border without a valid Georgian passport.

The court ruled that Chakhalian must return to Yerevan, his temporary
place of residence, and stay there until the verdict’s formal entry
into force. But witnesses said that as Chakhalian left Gyumri for the
Armenian capital in a car he was apprehended by police and escorted
to the Georgian border. His defense lawyer, Tigran Hayrapetian, told
RFE/RL that local police officers showed him a written deportation
order signed by the chief of Armenia’s national Police Service,
Lieutenant-General Hayk Harutiunian.

Chakhalian, 24, was arrested on October 11 just hours after he,
his parents, brother and another United Javakhk activist arrived in
Armenia in a car and were reportedly stopped and beaten up by unknown
men outside Yerevan. The activist, Gurgen Shirinian, sustained severe
injuries and required hospitalization.

Chakhalian was released from custody two weeks later amid an outcry
from a number of Armenian non-governmental organizations and 16
members of Armenia’s parliament. In a joint statement, the mostly
opposition lawmakers accused the authorities in Yerevan of using the
case to please the Georgian government which has been at odds with
United Javakhk.

The violence and the ensued arrest also infuriated the radical group’s
supporters in Javakheti. Dozens of them marched to the Armenian border
to demand his release.

"I repeat that I never illegally crossed the border of the Republic
of Armenia," Chakhalian said in his concluding court remarks.

His mother Gayane also testified at the trial, challenging the
prosecutors to explain why they did not level the same accusations
against herself and the three other persons that entered Armenia with
Chakhalian. "Why is it that only one of us is guilty of breaking the
law?" she said. "Why don’t you try me as well?"

Hayrapetian, for his part, argued that they had no trouble passing
through the Armenian border and customs checkpoints.

Chakhalian’s sympathizers link the case with United Javakhk’s
rejection of the official results of the October 5 local elections in
Javakheti that gave victory to Georgia’s governing National Movement
Party. Alleging massive fraud, United Javakhk rallied hundreds of
supporters in the regional town of Akhalkalaki. The demonstration
turned violent, with the protesters seizing the local government
building before being dispersed by police.