TER-PETROSIAN LOYALISTS ‘DETAINED BY POLICE’
By Astghik Bedevian and Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 23 2007

At least a dozen supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosian, among them two
newspaper editors, were reportedly detained by police on Tuesday as
they urged Yerevan residents to participate in a rally to be held by
Armenia’s former president this week.

Representatives of the pro-Ter-Petrosian Aylentrank (Alternative)
movement told RFE/RL that five of its leaders were detained after
defying police orders to stop announcing Friday’s rally through a
megaphone on a busy street intersection in the city center.

The five detainees were said to remain in police custody as of
late evening. They reportedly included the outspoken editors of the
"Haykakan Zhamanak" and "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun" newspapers staunchly
opposed to Armenia’s current leadership.

Another pro-Ter-Petrosian group, the former ruling Armenian
Pan-National Movement (HHSh) party, said several of its youth activists
were similarly detained by police officers while distributing leaflets
in the city’s northern Nor Nork district earlier in the day. The HHSh
chairman, Ararat Zurabian, told RFE/RL that some of them were released
shortly afterwards. "All of this is not causing us to panic," he said.

The Armenian police could not be immediately reached for comment.

The planned rally is widely seen as a further indication that
Ter-Petrosian will contest next year’s presidential election in a
bid to scuttle a planned handover of power from President Robert
Kocharian to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. Ter-Petrosian loyalists
say the ruling regime is increasingly worried about Ter-Petrosian’s
participation in the vote.

In what may be a related development, reports from Armenia’s second
largest city of Gyumri said on Tuesday that tax officials raided the
offices of the local Gala TV station, which appears to have enraged
the authorities by broadcasting Ter-Petrosian’s September 21 speech
in Yerevan.

The Gala owner, Vahan Khachatrian, claimed on Monday that he aired the
speech, which contained harsh attacks on the authorities, as a paid
advertisement despite a serious warning from the Kocharian-controlled
National Commission on Television Radio.

Khachatrian also said that officers of the Gyumri branch of the
National Security Service visited him shortly afterwards and warned
Gala to stop covering Ter-Petrosian’s political activities.