TER-PETROSIAN FACES LOSS OF ARMED PROTECTION

Radio Liberty
March 19 2008
Czech Republic

In a further measure designed to thwart renewed opposition protests in
Yerevan, the Armenian government pushed through parliament on Wednesday
a bill that could leave former President Levon Ter-Petrosian without
armed bodyguards provided by the state.

Ter-Petrosian is among serving and former high-ranking state officials
whose personal security is ensured by the State Protections Service
(SPS) in accordance with a special law. All of his bodyguards are
employees of the security agency run by Grisha Sarkisian, who has
long been in charge of President Robert Kocharian’s security detail.

Under government-drafted amendments to that law adopted by the National
Assembly in the first reading, the former president can be temporarily
or irreversibly stripped of armed protection by the STS if he engages
in "illicit activities." They are expected to be passed in the final
reading on Thursday.

Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian admitted that the amendments stem
from the unrest that followed last month’s disputed presidential
election in which Ter-Petrosian was the main opposition candidate.

The ex-president refused to recognize Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s
victory in the February 19 vote, alleging widespread fraud and rallying
tens of thousands of supporters in Yerevan. The Armenian authorities
used force to halt the daily protests March 1.

Ter-Petrosian has been kept under de facto house arrest, with the
authorities claiming that they can no longer guarantee his security.

They say he can leave his house overlooking central Yerevan only
after renouncing SPS protection in writing. The opposition leader
has refused to do that so far.

The changes in the law regulating the SPS’s activities came the day
after the government-controlled parliament amended Armenia’s law on
public gatherings in way that will make it easier for the authorities
to ban further rallies which Ter-Petrosian plans to hold after the
lifting of a state of emergency in Yerevan. Ter-Petrosian’s office
swiftly rejected the restrictions as unconstitutional and said
Armenians have a "legitimate right" to ignore them.

"It is obvious that these changes allow for an arbitrary prohibition of
any rally," Stepan Demirchian, a prominent opposition leader allied to
Ter-Petrosian, told RFE/RL on Wednesday. "The authorities must realize
that it is impossible to overcome this crisis with repressive methods."