OPPOSITION ACTIVIST BEATEN UP
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 15 2007
A young activist of a small opposition party supporting former
President Levon Ter-Petrosian was hospitalized and remained in
intensive care on Thursday after being severely beaten by unknown
assailants.
Narek Galstian, the 20-year-old leader of the youth league of the
Social Democrat Hnchankian Party (SDHK), and other Ter-Petrosian
loyalists were quick to accuse the Armenian authorities of
orchestrating the attack. They claimed that it is part of an ongoing
campaign of government "repressions" against supporters of the
resurgent ex-president.
Lying on his hospital bed, Galstian told RFE/RL that a taxi carrying
him was blocked by another car as it drove through a northern Yerevan
suburb in the morning. He said three young then got out of the car
and began punching and kicking him.
"They apparently also used a blunt object," he said. "One of them
said, ‘If you tell anything to newspapers, I’ll kill you next time.’
But I told them that I will keep speaking up. I promise the people
who did it that they will never manage to intimidate me."
Galstian, who worked as a correspondent for RFE/RL’s Yerevan bureau
until last spring, was hopitalized to the nearby Surp Grigor Lusavorich
hospital with numerous cuts on his head that were promptly stitched by
doctors. Galstian’s head was completely bandaged as he was interviewed
later in the day.
The young oppositionist said he was visited and questioned by
police investigators after the surgery. He said he told them that he
remembers seeing one of the attackers at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport
the previous night. "They were probably following me," he said,
referring to the attackers.
The violence occurred just two days after Galstian and another SDHK
youth were reportedly detained by the police while posting leaflets
in Yerevan’s northern Nor Nork district that urged Armenians to
"reject" Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian in the upcoming presidential
elections. They said they were told not to engage in anti-government
propaganda anymore and were set free three hours later.
Galstian claimed that they were also warned against publicizing the
fact of their detention. He said on Thursday he is therefore convinced
that his beating was ordered by the Armenian authorities.
The claim was echoed by Lyudmila Sargsian, the SDHK chairwoman. "A
strong government does not resort to such actions," she told RFE/RL.
"This was a show of force by a weak government."
"It’s not that easy to terrorize us. We entered this struggle
consciously and this incident proves that we are on the right path,"
she added.
Nikol Pashinian, the outspoken leader of another pro-Ter-Petrosian
group, Aylentrank (Alternative), also condemned the attack as
politically motivated. "The number of our supporters is growing day by
day, and the authorities realize that events are taking a dangerous
turn for them," he said. "That is why they are taking jittery steps
which will not yield any results."
Pashinian himself is facing prosecution on criminal charges that
stem from an October 23 clash between riot police and a small crowd
of Ter-Petrosian supporters that marched through central Yerevan to
advertise the ex-president’s rally held three days later. Pashinian
and four other participants of the march were briefly arrested before
bbeing charged with hooliganism and assault on state officials.
Ter-Petrosian, who is emerging as the main opposition candidate in the
February 19 presidential election, will lead another opposition rally
in the city’s Liberty Square on Friday. According to Suren Abrahamian,
a leader of the opposition Hanrapetutyun Party, several more opposition
parties will endorse Ter-Petrosian’s presidential bid during the
protest. He said the ex-president will deliver another important
speech that will contain "answers to questions raised by the public."