OPPOSITION PARTIES CONDEMN CASE AGAINST TER-PETROSIAN ALLIES
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 2 2007

More than a dozen opposition parties have strongly condemned last
week’s arrests of several supporters of former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian and demanded that the Armenian authorities drop
"baseless" criminal accusations leveled against them.

The five opposition activists, among them two newspaper editors,
were formally charged on Tuesday with assaulting police officers who
tried to stop their October 23 march in Yerevan. The demonstration,
sanctioned by municipal authorities, was aimed at informing city
residents about Ter-Petrosian’s upcoming rally in the capital. It
followed the Ter-Petrosian camp’s complaints that none of Armenia’s
major television stations agreed to broadcast paid advertisements of
the event.

The police claim that the several dozen marchers interfered with
traffic and disrupted public order by littering the streets with
leaflets and disturbing residents. But organizers deny this, saying
that they simply exercised their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

In a joint statement issued late Thursday, 11 opposition parties, most
of them allied to Ter-Petrosian, also rejected the official version
of events. "We declare that police actions against participants of
the peaceful and legal march are illegal and blatantly violate human
rights and civil liberties," they said.

The statement demanded that the authorities end the "baseless criminal
prosecution" and "hold accountable" the deputy chief of the Yerevan
police who ordered a special police unit to use force against the
demonstrators.

The police actions were also separately condemned by two other
major opposition parties that have had an uneasy relationship
with Ter-Petrosian and are unlikely to support him in the upcoming
presidential election. One of them, the National Democratic Union
(AZhM), said Armenia has had a poor human rights record and lacked
rule of law "since 1988," implying that Ter-Petrosian is also to
blame for the existing situation.

While deploring the "illegal and unjustified use of force," the
National Unity Party of Artashes Geghamian, blamed on Friday the
rising political tensions on both the authorities and "some opposition
parties and their leaders."