ACTIVISTS FROM ARMENIAN RULING PARTIES CLASH IN YEREVAN AHEAD OF MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS
ists-from-armenian-ruling-parties-clash-in-yerevan -ahead-of-municipal-elections/
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Dozens of members of Armenia’s two largest
pro-government parties reportedly again brawled in Yerevan late on
Monday, heightening political tensions ahead of next week’s municipal
elections.
The incident occurred in the Silikian suburb which is part of the
city’s western Ajapnyak district. According to newspaper reports,
local activists of the Republican and Prosperous Armenia parties
clashed shortly after Ajapnyak’s Mayor Ruben Hovsepian arrived there
with his deputy Armen Baghdasarian.
Both men are affiliated with the Republican Party. The Ajapnyak mayor
is also the brother of Armenia’s influential Prosecutor-General Aghvan
Hovsepian. The latter was reported to have rushed to Silikian along
with the Prosperous Armenia leader Gagik Tsarukian on Monday night.
Scores of police were also at the scene following the incident. Some
of them spent the night there, guarding the local offices of the two
governing parties.
There were conflicting reports of what exactly sparked the clash
clearly related to the May 31 elections of a municipal assembly that
will choose Yerevan’s next mayor. Some newspapers said Ruben Hovsepian
and his deputy were directly involved in it. Both men refused to
comment on Tuesday.
The police claimed, meanwhile, that the Republican Party and Prosperous
Armenia Party activists did not throw punches and were only engaged in
a bitter political debate. The chief police spokesman, Colonel Sayat
Shirinian, told RFE/RL that seven of them were briefly detained and
questioned by law-enforcement officers.
"Those persons noted in their explanations that there was no dispute
or scuffle and that there was only a heated conversation on political
issues," said Shirinian.
Local residents painted a different picture, however. "They beat the
hell out of each other," said one woman. Another Silikian resident, who
also refused to give her name, said the violence began after Hovsepian
demanded "some explanations" from the leader of the Prosperous Armenia
neighborhood chapter, Vahan Karapetian. "They spoke in a car," she
claimed, citing unnamed Prosperous Armenia sources. "Hovsepian said,
‘Are you acting against me? What are you doing? Don’t you know that
this is my neighborhood and that I must get votes here?’ "Then his
deputy, Armen Baghdasarian, opened the car’s door and started hitting
Vahan Karapetian. A clash between the two sides followed. They started
beating, jostling each other."
"There were guys from both sides. But of course, the Republicans
prevailed," added the woman. "They hit Prosperous Armenia guys in
the head with baseball bats."
That the clash was violent was not denied by Naira Zohrabian, a
parliament deputy from Prosperous Armenia. "We will take care of our
votes regardless of who likes that and who doesn’t," she told RFE/RL,
commenting on the incident. "I am calling on all political forces
not to turn the mayoral elections in Yerevan into other actions."
A similar dispute occurred in another Yerevan district, Kanaker-Zeytun,
less than a week ago. Prosperous Armenia activists reportedly
attacked the local Republican Party headquarters in retaliation for
the alleged beating of their comrades by Republican campaigners armed
with clubs. Nobody is known to have been arrested and prosecuted in
connection with that.
The incidents highlighted growing election-related tensions between the
HHK, which is led by President Serzh Sarkisian, and its most important
partner in the governing coalition. Tsarukian, the Prosperous Armenia
leader, is believed to be close to former President Robert Kocharian.