THE "LOCOMOTIVES" PAID FOR REVOLUTION
Vrezh Aharonyan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 16, 2008
Armenia
How are the activists funded?
The press has spoken a lot on how the centers of "colored revolutions"
provide funding to the youth pro-opposition movements – the so-called
"locomotives", which were founded by their own initiative.
We won’t be mistaken if we say that the most active part of the
pro-Ter-Petrosyan opposition has now focused on founding this kind
of organizations or extending the scope of their activity.
We possess reliable information that the first pro-Ter-Petrosyan
youth movement known as "Sksela" (begins) was founded and financed
by "Transparency International" and "Counterpart International"
organizations which spent around 150000 US Dollars for bringing the
movement into exisitence.
Seeing that the youth movements were increasing the efficiency of their
work in Armenia and really had pretensions to become the locomotives
of the Armenian "DVD revolution", the leaders of the pro-Ter-Petrosyan
opposition and their Western sponsors decided to found new movements
("Hima", "Ver Kats", "Hatouk Goond" etc.) on the bases of "Sksela",
a youth organiztion consisting of 70-80 activists.
At the initial stage, Arsen Kharatyan, one of the leaders of
"Sksela"20 movement, received special trainings in one of the centers
of Washington.
Later Izabella Sargsyan, another activist, received similar trainings
in London, and then the other members were trained in Macedonia. In
the whole period, the activists received funding in huge sums.
During and after the 2008 presidential elections, the above-mentioned
youth movements directly found themselves in the center of the
developments, and the primary task at this stage was to provide them
with funding and give them instructions. The instruction was given
to Arman Mousinyan, a former NDI activist trained in the centers
of Washington, and the task of providing funding was given to Levon
Zourabyan.
With the purpose of financing the youth movements, "Glandale KIA"
company (engaged in automobile business in Los Angeles) sent 110
thousand US Dollars to Armenia in June 2008. The sum was transferred
through L.
Ter-Petrosyan’s assistance office situated in the United States,
and Onik Mehrabyan, Head of the firm, formulated the transfer as
a donation.
Such is the accepted custom: while preparing for a revolution, the
well-known political centers send the sums to the target countries
via such organizations which act as mediators.
Every week, L. Zourabyan pays salaries to the activists of the newly
established "Ver Kats" (Get up!) movement which is headed by Ms.
Gayane Ghazaryan, the daughter of Rafayel Ghazaryan. Th e weekly
salaries, which make up 2000 US Dollars, are paid from the sums
received from the United States and other countries. Having received
the money from Levon Zourabyan or Avetis Avagyan in the Northern
Avenue, Gayane Ghazaryan got down to revolutionary activities together
with her mother Grizelda Ghazaryan and her brother Vazgen Ghazaryan.
"Hatouk Gound" (special regiment), another active youth movement,
is headed by Ms. Shahane Hakobyan, Hrant Bagratyan’s niece, and the
funding is provided by Mr. Bagratyan himself.
Hrant Bagratyan periodically leaves for Kiev, Ukraine on long-term
visits and there, based on arrangements and elaborated procedures,
he receives huge sums from his bank account and sends them to "Hatouk
Gound" youth movement in the amount of 10 thousand US Dollars per
month.
The same is the situation with "Hima" (now) youth movement which is
coordinated by Narek Hovakimyan. Their money is transferred every week
in the same amount, and the transfer is made through Mr. Patvakan
Hovakimyan, Narek’s father who is the lawyer of L. Ter-Petrosyan’s
central headquarters.
Paying up to 30 thousand US Dollars per month, the pro-Ter-Petrosyan
opposition and its activists manage to keep 300 young people in
"good shape", making them comply with their instructions in an
unreserved manner.
There gradually emerge more and more young members of such
movements,=2 0 and the pro-Ter-Petrosyan centers have decided to
increase the allocated sums up to USD 50-60 thousand. This is planned
for September-October as this is a period when one may find a lot of
students in Yerevan desiring to slip away from lessons.
And those youth movements and their leaders are engaged in fruitless
work and do not absolutely care that they have cut a foolish figure
in public.
The most important thing is that they receive their money on regular
basis.