Brief Summary of Violations and Obstacles
Against the Heritage Party in 2005 and 2006

Since the Heritage Party 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.

In the lead-up to the constitutional referendum held on November 27, 2005, the Heritage Party—which had prepared its own draft of constitutional changes in May and opposed the version that was introduced by the ruling powers—convened from November 25 to 27 a series of open public meetings at Yerevan’s Liberty Square. The meetings were joined and endorsed by several broad-based citizens’ groups and assemblies. To sabotage these efforts, the administration imposed a variety of measures to block their free and just expression. Electronic media were ordered not to cover the event, and vans and cars carrying participants from the country’s outlying regions were stopped and turned away en route by the police. During the day, the local authorities were commanded to organize concerts and other conflicting activities at the same location. At night, they prevented participants from accessing heating sources of any kind. On November 27 and 28, Heritage led the opposition alliance in establishing at the Armenia Marriott Hotel an unprecedented alternative information center regarding the referendum. Every three hours, the center disseminated data on the latest election violations and commissions of fraud, which were documented in polling stations across the Republic.

Thereafter, on November 30, 2005, Raffi Hovannisian was detained at Yerevan’s international airport for detailed questioning and inspection before heading for Kiev, where he would attend the International Public Forum of the Community for Democratic Choice. Awaited and confronted at the airport by national security (formerly KGB) agents, Hovannisian was interrogated about the purpose of his trip, the Armenian constitution, and other matters unrelated to airport security. Hovannisian’s personal effects and papers were individually examined on the pretext of a search for possible “state secrets.” Since that day, Hovannisian receives the same “special treatment” upon each Yerevan departure.

The spiral of repression took a turn for the worse right after the massive demonstration held on December 9, 2005, as Raffi Hovannisian read out the “Citizens’ Demand for A Public Accounting”—a list of 21 questions addressed to acting president R. Kocharian. In the days that followed, more than 3,000 citizens, including 72 intellectuals, joined this first-ever call for a national audit of conduct of Armenia’s governors and governance system.

Since then, a black list wholly forbids Heritage and its founder from access to all television media, which are all controlled and supervised by the authorities. No television cameras or reporters are allowed to cover Heritage’s news conferences, and all television companies—both state-run and private—refuse to provide either free or paid airtime to Raffi Hovannisian. Even the Press Club Plus program—which receives subsidies from the Open Society Institute and is broadcast by the Yerevan Press Club on the Yerkir Media television channel—invited Hovannisian and two other Heritage members to appear in studio in the summer of 2006. In characteristic application of the blacklist, just a few days before the program was to be televised, the creators rescinded the invitation under the pretext of technical difficulties. As even private advertising companies refuse Heritage’s requests to place billboard advertisements, the official media blockade is virtually total.

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, necessary documents, and the party seal. Heritage’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 courts—were met at all levels with unlawful rejections issued by those “tribunes of justice” at the behest of the highest echelons of power.

Moreover, in the late hours of March 8, exactly four days after party headquarters had been forcibly shut down without a legal warrant, unidentified individuals entered in clandestine fashion the already-locked and sealed premises and, after circumventing the main computer’s password, gained illegal entry into the party’s database which contains constitutionally-protected information regarding the party, its membership rolls, and its activities. After having examined the computer, experts from the National Bureau of Investigation confirmed in their report to the police department that the computer had been put in operational mode for 22-24 minutes, hooked up to an external monitor, and connected to a USB-type memory-bearing flashcard of an unknown brand. The results of the investigation demanded, therefore, that a criminal case be launched. In a flagrant disregard of law and justice, however, the police department and the prosecutor’s office refused to authorize such a probe, making dubious references to the absence of corpus delicti. In effect, this Watergate-inspired scandal in Armenia was neither investigated nor exposed. The authors and beneficiaries of that inaction were the authorities and their security apparatus which, having forced their way to the information stored in the computer, then fine-tuned their fear-mongering political persecution of Heritage’s regional office managers and rank-and-file members alike. This methodology of threat and intimidation continues to this day.

Meanwhile, the president’s office piloted a negative media campaign—by means of newspapers and television—against Raffi Hovannisian. The start of this project of slander was announced by the presidential spokesperson who, on December 12, 2005, declared that Hovannisian’s “Citizens’ Demand for A Public Accounting”—which was joined by 3,000 citizens—“might be a secret code written by a professional spy.” In the months to follow, this self-serving, hypocritical theme and corollary deflective tactic were parroted by H1 “public” television, H2 television, AR television, Kentron television, and ALM television and by Hayots Ashkharh, Golos Armenii, Iravunk, and 168 Zham newspapers. What is more, even the benevolent activities of Armenouhi Hovannisian, Raffi Hovannisian’s wife, were not spared this ruthless defamation. The official media, H1 television and the Hayots Ashkharh daily in particular, shamelessly accused Mrs. Hovannisian of diverting funds provided by international organizations and donations made by Armenian benefactors to her husband’s political agenda. Her response and demand for a retraction were ignored by both.

As the surveillance and smears got worse, Raffi Hovannisian sent a formal letter of regret, dated April 21, 2006, to the head of the National Security Service, General Gorik Hakobian. “I am saddened by the fact that limited state resources are being wasted on individual manhunts which have no connection whatsoever with national security,” he noted.

Over the past months, Raffi Hovannisian and the Heritage Party have, under varying pretexts, been deprived by national and municipal authorities of renting both public and private halls for the exercise of their constitutional right of peaceful assembly in Giumri, Vanadzor, Armavir, Etchmiadzin, Yegheknadzor, Sisian, Kapan, and elsewhere. In Yerevan, the authorities have denied Heritage’s request to rent the halls of the Government Conference Facility, the Union of Architects, the Demirjian Sports and Cultural Complex, the American University of Armenia, the National Academy of Sciences, the Sundukian and Moscow Theaters, and so on. Other political organizations have freely used, and even broadcasted from, the very premises in question. All written applications by the party with respect to renting meeting space have either received outlandish responses or no answers at all from the persons in charge of the petitioned institutions. The foregoing continues to reflect, among other things, a long-standing policy to forbid, cancel, or otherwise prevent any meeting between Raffi Hovannisian, the nation’s first foreign minister, and students and faculty at Yerevan State University, Yerevan Engineering University, Yerevan Agricultural Institute, Yerevan Institute of Economics, and other academic establishments.

In addition, most of Heritage’s logos and office signs have been removed from its regional offices. The same goes for small posters and flyers that have sought to inform people about the dates and places of scheduled public gatherings with Raffi Hovannisian and the Heritage Party.

Even internal party happenings are permanently monitored and obstructed. On May 20, 2006, for instance, Raffi Hovannisian and a delegation of party officials paid a visit to the village of Miasnikian in the Armavir region. This meeting was still in progress when word came from the town of Armavir that the party’s local office manager Levon Margarian had been arrested. Before being released, he was told that the region’s law enforcement agency knew about the forthcoming visit of Raffi Hovannisian and the other senior party members. The police demanded that Margarian ensure that the meeting did not take place; otherwise they would use force to disrupt it. Upon arrival at Armavir, the Heritage Party leadership witnessed local police units standing on the sidewalk across from the party’s regional headquarters. It was apparent that they had been called in to intimidate their fellow citizens and to ensure the prevention of the meeting. This outrage notwithstanding, an open discussion between the party officials and local residents took place as scheduled. Afterwards, Hovannisian walked to the local police precinct and asked to meet with the district chief, Colonel Gevorgian. Initially he was told that this would be arranged in 15 minutes, but was then informed that Gevorgian had convened an urgent consultation and could not receive him.

On May 22, the executive board of the Heritage Party sent a letter to police chief General Haik Harutiunian demanding a full explanation and assessment of these unlawful and unconstitutional acts. On July 17, head of the police headquarters, Edward Ghazarian, forwarded a reply that reads: “The examinations have shown that the arguments made in the letter, with respect to unlawful police actions, are unsubstantiated.”

In a separate development on May 24, Heritage forwarded a formal letter to Yegheknadzor mayor Sirak Babayan requesting an explanation for his refusal to lease a standard meeting hall for a public assembly on May 6. The letter was sent after the party’s logo mysteriously disappeared from office walls, event flyers were confiscated, and threat-implying “explanatory” visits were made by state security agents to the homes and workplaces of active citizens. Heritage has yet to receive a reply.

These are but a few exemplary links in a calculated and long-standing program of fear-driven intimidation and fear-creating persecution.

On the eve of parliamentary elections, it is manifest that the Heritage Party is (a) locked out of its central offices and denied access to its office documents and computer system, (b) refused any and all access to television, (c) deprived of its right to hold normal public gatherings, (d) in a markedly uneven financial-material playing field that precludes a fair competition with pro-establishment parties, and (e) endeavoring to function while its members are constantly pursued and harassed, and with its database broken into and compromised.

In this light, Heritage:

January 2007
Yerevan, Armenia