January 29, 2007

Heritage Releases Armenian Civil Rights Assessment

Yerevan—The Heritage Party’s press department made public today a report entitled “Brief Summary of Violations and Obstacles Against the Heritage Party in 2005 and 2006.” The evidentiary materials detailed in the document bespeak the recent string of unlawful actions which the incumbent regime has persistently carried out against party members in general and its founder Raffi K. Hovannisian in particular.

The paper concisely presents the facts as they relate to the illegal locking down of Heritage’s central headquarters; the unlawful entry into the party’s database, theft of information therefrom, and the subsequent persecution of party activists and supportive citizens; the deprivation of Heritage representatives of their constitutional right to hold basic public gatherings; defamatory manifestations in the official media and, still more, the total blackout of Hovannisian, his image, and his word in all television media; the detention of Hovannisian at Yerevan’s international airport and the recurring meticulous inspection of his and his children’s personal effects and papers; and in all matters concerning Heritage and Raffi Hovannisian, the open bias by law enforcement and the judicial system and their subservient disregard of the law and the egregious violations orchestrated by the powers above.

In this light, Heritage:

· affirms that it finds itself, and now enters the pre-election season, in patently unequal conditions;

· asserts that, because of these unequal conditions maintained in every way by the incumbent authorities against their opponents, the organization and conduct of free, fair, and transparent parliamentary and presidential elections are now in real jeopardy; and

· states that this situation cannot, under any circumstance, be considered congruent with the constitutional terms for respect of equal political and civil rights.

“All this clearly calls into question the countless declarations made at various tribunes, both domestic and international, by the current rulers that they are interested in the holding of free and fair parliamentary elections this year,” said Heritage board chairman Vardan Khachatrian in commenting on the release of the 2005-06 report.

The full text of the Heritage assessment can be accessed here.