POLICE PRESS CHARGES AGAINST TER-PETROSIAN SUPPORTERS
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 30 2007

The Armenian police on Tuesday formally charged two newspaper editors
and three other opposition activists who were detained last week
while urging Yerevan residents to attend former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian’s landmark rally.

The activists were summoned to the police department of Yerevan’s
central Kentron district for questioning. Only one of them, Shogher
Matevosian of the pro-opposition "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun’ newspaper,
promptly went there to find out that she has been charged with
assaulting a policeman during the incident.

Matevosian was among several dozen Ter-Petrosian loyalists who
marched through the city center on October 23 to publicize Friday’s
rally. Eleven of them, including another newspaper editor, were
detained on the spot after defying police orders to stop the action.

They were released the next morning after overnight negotiations
between Ter-Petrosian and senior police officers.

The oppositionists, most of them leaders of the radical Aylentrank
(Alternative) movement, say that the march was sanctioned by municipal
authorities and that the police actions were therefore illegal. The
police claim, however, that the marchers interfered with car traffic
and disrupted public order by littering the streets with leaflets and
disturbing residents. They also say that several police officers were
injured by demonstrators.

According to Matevosian’s lawyer Hovik Arsenian, the outspoken editor
is accused of hitting and injuring a police sergeant with a flag.

Arsenian said she refused to answer any questions from the police
investigators and will plead not guilty to the charge.

Matevosian had told RFE/RL after her release from custody that she
only tried to stop riot police beating a "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun"
journalist covering the demonstration. The journalist, Gohar Vezirian,
says she was repeatedly hit by an unknown plainclothes man.

She was examined by forensic doctors on Saturday after complaining
of recurring headaches.

"For the second day running I am summoned [to the police station] as
a witness and give detailed testimony on the incident," said Vezirian.

Also receiving police summonses and facing prosecution were Aylentrank
leaders Nikol Pashinian and Petros Makeyan as well as the latter’s two
sons. None of them immediately showed up for questioning on Tuesday,
however.

Makeyan was forcibly taken to the police station late in the evening.

One of his sons, Tigran, suffered concussion during the October 23
incident and was hospitalized on Monday with reported fluctuations
of blood pressure.

Police officers also visited the Yerevan apartment of Pashinian but did
not find him there. Pashinian, who is also the editor of the "Haykakan
Zhamanak" daily, told RFE/RL that he phoned them and promised to come
to their office later in the evening.

According to the four oppositionists’ lawyer, Tigran Ter-Yesayan,
the police have already prepared an assault and "hooliganism" case
against his clients. "I was informed today that the decision to level
criminal accusations against them has been made," Ter-Yesayan told
RFE/RL. "It’s just that those individuals have to show up in order
to familiarize themselves with the essence of the accusations."

In Arsenian’s words, all of the oppositionists have decided not to give
any testimony during the investigation and to speak up instead during
their trial in order to "prove that the accusations are trumped-up."

Pashinian claimed that the investigation can already be considered
deeply flawed and biased. "The fact is that law-enforcement bodies
know that we have video and audio [of the incident,]" he said. "Not
only are they not demanding it but are doing everything to ignore it."

Ter-Petrosian and his allies claim that the arrests and ensued criminal
inquiry are part of "repressions" unleashed by the administration
of President Robert Kocharian in retaliation for the ex-president’s
decision to contest the upcoming presidential election. They say the
crackdown exposes government fears that Ter-Petrosian will mount a
serious challenge against Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, Kocharian’s
preferred successor.

The Armenian authorities deny this. Kocharian insisted last week that
Ter-Petrosian will not be the main opposition presidential candidate.