Heritage:
Open Letter on the Anniversary of Headquarters Lockout

On the brink of parliamentary elections, its headquarters still under illegal lockdown and property held captive inside, the Heritage Party herewith demands fundamental justice one more time.

Since Heritage redefined its engagement in Armenia’s civic life and political arena in the fall of 2005, the incumbent regime has carried out campaigns of repression against party members in general and its founder Raffi K. Hovannisian in particular.

The mainstay of these repressions was achieved on March 4, 2006, when the authorities instructed the Paronian State Theater to breach the law in the form of the lease it had signed with Raffi Hovannisian (which was in effect until 2007) and without judicial sanction to fasten an illegal lock on the party’s central headquarters. To this day, Hovannisian continues to be deprived of his property rights and the party’s normal operations have been paralyzed, with the executive board and staff members being denied access to their office space and basic archives, including Heritage’s original bylaws which are required for any act of official registration.

The judgment, dated June 26, 2006 , of the Central and Nork-Marash Court, Edward Avetisyan presiding, held that the forcible closure of Heritage’s office was illegal. This exceptional ruling, however, was never enforced, and the party’s subsequent attempts to restore its rights by meticulous recourse and appeal to law enforcement and the judicial system—the police, the prosecutor’s office, and the appellate courts—were met at all levels with unlawful rejections issued by those “tribunes of justice” at the behest of the highest echelons of power.

The doors of Heritage headquarters remain sealed by the Service for Mandatory Execution of Judicial Acts (SMEJA) of the Ministry of Justice. Heritage’s petitions—the most recent of which was sent on February 1—to SMEJA, the Minister of Justice, the Prosecutor General, and the Republic’s ombudsman with respect to reopening the office doors in order to remove the party’s property have not received the courtesy, and legal imperative, of a reply.

Already finding itself in the midst of an official election process, the Heritage Party is locked out of its central offices and denied access to its documentary resource base and computer system. Raffi Hovannisian continues to be deprived of his personal property, still the hostage of an ongoing political crime. As this situation cannot be considered congruent with constitutionally-protected civil and political rights and because a party cannot enter the election season without its computers, databases, and furniture, Heritage calls on SMEJA to execute the court’s order and restore its property forthwith.

If by month’s end—the eve both of the one-year anniversary of the criminal lockout and of the forthcoming parliamentary elections—no such remedial action is taken, Heritage will be compelled, in emergency fashion, to decide on its own remedy in restitution of its civil liberties and human rights.

February 19, 2007
Yerevan, Armenia