Armenia Faces European Sanction

A Europe-wide human rights body may suspend Armenian delegates from voting next week in protest against the South Caucasus state’s continued failure to implement its demands, including the release of opposition activists.



The move by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, would be a humiliation for Armenia, and would severely damage its international reputation.



A PACE committee recommended last month that Armenia lose its voice at the meeting if progress had not been made to conform to PACE’s resolutions, and a visit last week by two officials is appears unlikely to have changed its mind.



“It’s no accident that the monitoring committee adopted the draft resolution. As a rule, such drafts are adopted at the plenary session. There would have to be a miracle for it not to be adopted,” said Zaruhi Postandjian, a deputy in the Armenian parliament form the opposition Zharangutian (Heritage) party.



The PACE investigation stems from the suppression of opposition protests, which followed February presidential elections. Ten people died in the protests, and as yet no one has been charged for their murders.



The presidential polls themselves were described by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in European as having been “mostly in line with the country's international commitments”, but candidates including Levon Ter-Petrossian – the country’s first post-independence president – said Serzh Sargsian had stolen the election.



Two weeks of mass protests by supporters of Ter-Petrossian and other candidates followed, but they were crushed on March 1, with the government declaring a state of emergency and banning independent news coverage.



In two successive resolutions – number 1609 in April and number 1620 in June – PACE demanded that Armenia guarantee citizens’ rights to protest; allow an unbiased investigation into the deaths; and that it free activists “seemingly detained on artificial and politically motivated charges”.



But three parliamentary deputies and ex-foreign minister Alexander Arzumanian are among seven people still in detention charged with organising the mass protests, and attempting a coup, making it likely that PACE will exclude Armenia from its ranks



“If this decision is taken, then it will affect Armenia in a negative way, because such things affect the country’s rating, including its attractiveness for investors,” said analyst Alik Iskandarian, director of the Caucasus Institute.



The court case against the detained opposition leaders has been already adjourned five times, because the defendants were not sufficiently respectful to the court. A hearing on January 16 lasted just a few minutes before the judge rescheduled it for January 30 because the defendants had not stood up when he came in.



Few Armenians doubt that the court is acting to keep the opposition activists behind bars as long as possible.



“Maybe this has a legal base, but this is really a political process just with a legal form. I think PACE’s decision could either speed up or prolong this process,” said Andranik Tevanian, the head of the Politekonomia think tank.



John Prescott and Georges Colombier, co-rapporteurs for PACE, visited Armenia last week to check the country’s progress. They held meetings at the highest level, including with Present Sargsian, who promised them Armenia was determined to follow PACE’s recommendations.



They also met General Prosecutor Aghvan Ovsepian, who told them that the detained opposition activists had aimed to seize power.



“They played a key role in the organisation of the disturbances, in the course of which several dozen cars and shops were burned and looted, while hundreds of people were hurt in different ways and ten people died,” he told them, according to a press release.



But the prospect of the country losing its right to vote at PACE has caused splits among the parliamentary deputies of the governing coalition, not all of whom are as forthright as the prosecutor.



Eduard Sharmazanov, secretary of the Republican Party of Armenia, said Armenia was only harming itself if it did not go along with PACE’s resolutions.



“It is a fact that much of what is in resolutions 1609 and 1620 is unacceptable to us, but we must recognise that no one is forcing us into European structures, it is our choice. No one is more interested than us in solving problems within the country,” he said.



But despite such doubts, the opposition leaders were unconvinced that pressure from PACE would help free their detained colleagues.



“There can be no doubt that there are political prisoners in the country. These defendants are political prisoners,” said Arman Musinian, spokesman for Ter-Petrossian.



He said that the prisoners were being abused in prison, with investigators trying to force them to sign confessions.



“From this we can conclude that the PACE resolutions will remain unfulfilled, and the situation in the country will just get worse. The government has exhausted its resources and it has nothing to show PACE,” he said.



Naira Melkumian is freelance journalist in Yerevan.