ARMENIAN PARTY LEADER LINKS EX-COMMANDER’S ARREST TO FORTHCOMING POLLS
by Margarit Yesayan

Aravot, Armenia
Dec 12 2006

"’Terrorists’ are always found before elections"

Members of the opposition comment on Zhirayr Sefilyan’s arrest.

Yesterday [11 December] the press centre of the National Security
Service [NSS] issued a statement saying that Lebanese national Zhirayr
Sefilyan and a number of his supporters arrested on 10 December
"planned a forcible interference in future political processes in
Armenia".

The statement says: "As a result of a search we obtained evidence
that Lebanese national Zhirayr Sefilyan and the Union of Volunteers
of Armenia, which was established by a number of his supporters but
has not been registered as stipulated by the Armenian law, planned to
take illegal and forcible actions during future political processes
in Armenia, in particular to commit terrorist attacks during the
forthcoming parliamentary election in 2007."

The NSS said that at a closed sitting on 2 December some leaders of
the structure made public statements calling for an armed struggle in
order to replace the incumbent authorities and "presented their action
plans". It also said that the leaders of the Union of Volunteers of
Armenia planed to incite the opposition to civil disobedience.

Yesterday opposition members gathered in Armenia-Marriot Hotel to
defend Karabakh war commander Zhirayr Sefilyan and the leader of
the Ashtarak branch of the Motherland and Honour party, war veteran
Vardan Malkhasyan.

The former foreign minister, Aleksandr Arzumanyan, said that the
previous night employees of the NSS also "visited" activists of the
Civil Disobedience movement. The secretary of the Armenian Democratic
Party, MP Grigor Arutyunyan, said that the same night activists
of the party in Goris were searched. The commander of the Artsakh
regiment, Mikael Apresyan, said addressing the political forces that
were present at the meeting: "We should unite, otherwise we will lose
this state…" [ellipses as published]

MP Mayak Ovanesyan said that he was present at the meeting of the Union
of Volunteers of Armenia and that he fully shared responsibility:
"At the beginning of the emergency session of the parliament I am
going to ask the prosecutor-general to arrest me too.

I was present at the meeting and there was no call for a coup d’etat
or a forcible seizure of power. True, the atmosphere was emotional
as people were present at the meeting who paid a high price for their
victory [in the Karabakh war] and who worry about its destiny."

[Passage omitted: the leader of the New Times party, Aram Karapetyan,
gave details of Sefilyan’s arrest]

Yesterday representatives of political forces thought that they should
demand that the authorities release the arrested people. The leader of
the New Times party, Aram Karapetyan, said: "The Armenian political
field is aware of these kinds of actions when before elections or
some processes the authorities, especially security agencies and
criminals operating in Armenia, take steps to terrorize the political
field and the public. This time two important circumstances coincided:
one is the forthcoming [parliamentary] election and the other is the
processes connected with the NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh republic]. As
you see, it were the soldier-liberators who received the blow."

The deputy chairman of the public initiative For the Protection of
Liberated Territories, Armen Egyan, said that 32 of their friends
had already been searched and had given a written undertaking not to
leave the city.

[Zhirayr Sefilyan heads the organization For the Protection of
Liberated Territories.]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress