YEREVAN POLICE DOWNPLAY FIRST PRE-ELECTION VIOLENCE
By Karine Kalantarian and Hovannes Shoghikian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
March 19 2007
Police in Yerevan on Monday confirmed reports about a violent dispute
between activists of Armenia’s two main establishment parties, but
claimed that none of their senior figures was involved in it.
Armenian newspapers reported over the weekend that the incident
occurred in the city’s southern Erebuni district on Thursday
and involved the local leaders of the governing Republican Party
(HHK) and the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) of businessman Gagik
Tsarukian. Citing unnamed government sources, they said the district’s
Republican prefect, Mher Sedrakian, and a group of his loyalists
attacked and beat up the head of the local BHK chapter, Harutiun
Karapoghosian, after he refused to stop his party’s aggressive
campaigning in the blue-collar area.
The row reportedly degenerated into a mass fight between local HHK
and BHK activists and ended only after police intervention. President
Robert Kocharian, who is believed to control the BHK, was said to
have held an emergency meeting with the top HHK leader, Defense
Minister Serzh Sarkisian, and the chief of the Armenian police,
Hayk Harutiunian, later on Thursday.
But according to the chief of Yerevan’s police department,
Major-General Nerses Nazarian, what happened was a mere "dispute of
friendly character" in which neither Sedrakian nor Karapoghosian had
any role. "There was really a dispute between local young people,"
Nazarian told a news conference. "They have differing views on
elections and other minor differences, but they are neighbors and
friends."
"But we managed to settle that minor dispute. They were warned against
causing more such incidents," he said.
Nazarian added that four men were detained and taken to the local
police station for questioning. "They asked us not to turn their
friendly relationship into criminal prosecution," he said. "Their
parents were invited to the police station, and they also talked to
each other … In the end, they shook hands, hugged each other and
were allowed to go."
Launching criminal proceedings against them would therefore be a
"very bad thing," reasoned the police general.
Erebuni has for years been considered a de facto fiefdom of Sedrakian,
who has extensive business interests in the district and is regarded
as a crime figure by some media and opposition leaders.
Sedrakian, who is better known to locals as Tokhmakhi Mher, actively
campaigned for the HHK’s and Kocharian’s victory in the 2003
parliamentary and presidential elections.
Sedrakian narrowly survived an apparent assassination attempt in July
2003 when his car was rocked by a bomb. Nobody was ever prosecuted
in connection with the blast.
The latest Erebuni incident was the first reported instance of violence
between representatives of the HHK and the BHK. It will stoke lingering
speculation about a potentially bitter rivalry between the two parties
that are likely to grab the largest number of seats in Armenia’s
next parliament.
Neither party officially commented on the incident on Monday. But one
senior Republican described it as a "provocation against both parties"
which he said was organized by the opposition Orinats Yerkir Party
of former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian. Gagik Melikian did
not elaborate.
Mher Shahgeldian, Orinats Yerkir’s deputy chairman, laughed off the
allegation. "This is an absurd statement," he told RFE/RL. "What is
Orinats Yerkir to do with their relations?"
Many local commentators are convinced that the leaders of the HHK
and the BHK will agree on a mutually acceptable outcome of the May 12
parliamentary elections despite their somewhat frosty rapport. Some
suggest that such an agreement has already been reached.
"I don’t see a confrontation between us," noted Melikian. "What I
see is a honest and open competition."
Nazarian was also asked to comment on another brawl that reportedly
took place at a private Yerevan college last week between two groups
of young men led by sons of Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian and
Minister for Local Government Hovik Abrahamian. He insisted that none
of the participants of the "dispute over a girl" is related to either
influential official.
"Two guys were in love with the same girl," said the Yerevan police
chief. "A dispute broke out between them. The university management
tried to separate them, but they threw chairs at each other and one
accidentally hit the pro-rector."