Up to first of March, and on…
What exactly took place on the first of March, 2008? Was the happened foreseeable for the opposition leaders? What is going to take place now?
These are questions that at present trouble the citizens of Armenia most of all. And these questions become more urgent against the background of the vulgar propaganda led by the government. And it is not a propaganda any more, it is right an ignorance towards its own people by the government, or I’d rather write the people seized by the government. And let’s pass to our question and try to find answers.
Even before the presidential elections it was clear that the movement led by Levon Ter-Petrosyan was unique in the history of the third Republic of Armenia. Since the Armenian National Movement in 1988 this new movement was the first Armenian political process that had a stable progression. Since the Independence all the oppositional movements in Armenia happened to outburst suddenly and come to their end right in the same way. The movement led by Ter-Petrosyan already by the start of the time of official propaganda, had had a 4 month’s public development. And a long period of parliamentary discussions had forerun this. /if we go round the ten years of the first president’s political life in 1990’s/. These statistics are not just to be engraved in the History, but come to evince that this movement is not an ordinary political outburst and thus we should not expect a usual end. The fact was well realized by the government too. As the political and national movement was formally associated with announcement of the candidacy of Ter-Petrosyan the duet of Khocahryan and Sargisyan resolved to finish the presidential elections in a faster way by endowing Serge Sargisyan with 53 percents of votes. But the government did not get the expected result, and the fact irritated the society even more. Inferring not the right conclusion the government again went on with its policy of finishing up everything as fast as possible. To the topic I should say that the “bandocracy” has a strong inclination to act according to its own idea fixes in any case. After the 21st of September, the first public speech of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the mass media began to reproach the first president. In the result of this Ter-Petrosyan’s words became more and more comprehensible for the society. Anyway the total propaganda against Ter-Petrosyan did not stop. The popularity of Levon Ter-Petrosyan was rising at the same time with the increasing vulgarity of the propaganda against him. These facts are described to show that the “bandocracy” is extremely primitive and does not possess a big variety of steps. Just Tigran Levonyan, who during an interview made a famous comparison between the duet of Khocharyan-Sargisyan and crocodiles. It’s an exact description: though the crocodile is a horrible animal, it has just a few steps in its whole arsenal. The same can be said about the bandocratic government as well, that only knows how to bribe, terrorize and destroy……… Ah, just forgot about shedding crocodile tears. I am certain that every episode of the policy of Khocharyan and Sargisyan is based on this formula.
And when it became quite clear for the government that the vulgar fraud at the elections had raised a huge dissatisfaction of the society they planned their next step. The Central Elections Committee declared the final results of the presidential elections and Serge Sagisyan was declared to win with the first round. This was done when the protesters of the Liberty Square, Yerevan had already been standing there for 5 days uninterruptedly, and their number was increasing. With declaring the official results of the elections the bandocratic duet hoped to inspire desperation among the protestors with the following false theses: the protest is meaningless any more as all the point of the movement was to elect Ter-Petrosyan as president but Sargisyan had won instead. The government by that literally meant the following “No matter how long you protest”. And then the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan made a speech. He went up to the microphone and calmly declared: “The decision of the Central Elections Committee changes nothing in our struggle, the struggle is going on”. To be candid this event I consider the most important phase of the national movement. Here the struggle took amazing metamorphoses. This movement was not a struggle for electing a certain person as a president; this was a struggle for freedom, for dignity and for civil society. This was a struggle for the future. Frankly speaking from the very beginning we accepted the struggle not in a different way from this. Though there were not few skeptics. With this symbol of reformation in the movement, strange information for me came: my friends told me that a tent of “antilevonists” had appeared on the Liberty Square. This seemed troubling news at first.
They might have come for organizing provocations. But their explanations convinced us that we were on the right way. The position of “antilevonists” was the following: “We are here not to struggle for Levon Ter-Petrosyan to become a president, but for our rights and freedoms. We have come here to use Ter-Petrosyan as a tool, according to his advice, to remove the dictatorial regime”.
This was really a very important turn in the movement. Levon Ter-Petrosyan practically managed to lead a real national movement. Other good news was the integration of the youth into the movement, as the quantity of the young on the Liberty Square since October till December of 2007 was not satisfying, in that months the overwhelming majority of the protestors were older than 35. But the post-election demonstrations mainly belonged to the youth. And this brought huge energy and power to the Liberty Square.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan was a real revelation for our Armenian youth. Present students either did not remember him or had not seen him. Youth had used to imagine him within the descriptions of the governmental propaganda. But now the same youth saw quite a different man. The youth saw a man of high intellect, with good rhetorical skills, a pioneer of the struggle, a loved grandpa, an excellent reciter, a first president who was not ashamed to dance before the people as he said, in a “jacky-jucky” way, just for amusing the youth. And at last they saw a man who spent the whole night on the Liberty Square and at daybreak danced Khocahri with the people gathered there. Thus the youth, that had expected no good from the Armenian political authorities, just saw the first president of their own country in quite a new character: they saw Ter-Petrosyan as a an alive man, who was a great leader and a friend of struggle. They began to believe in their future, in themselves and in the constitution, according to which they were the highest power of the country.
When Ter-Petrosyan reminded the slogan “struggle, struggle till the end”, many ones considered it to be too old and not adequate. But now that slogan is the most famous one among the youth and the well known remix of it is on the top of the hits.
And so the movement was expanding on and the Liberty Square was storming. Every day demonstrations took place from 3 p.m. till 9 p.m. Everyday rides were astonishing with their sizes. And from 9 p.m. dancing and singing began, though during the whole day the demonstration had several music-breaks.
In order to realize the size of the demonstrations we should give a more accurate definition. The size of those daylong demonstrations should not be measured like the size of usual ones. Usual demonstrations have definite exact beginnings and ends. People during such demonstrations come to be present wholly. But daylong demonstrations practically cannot be attended wholly. And such demonstrations have a changing audience. Ones came to Liberty Square before going to their workplace. Others attended the protest after the work time. Many ones even went home after work for meal and then came to the Liberty Square. But even with all this, the square was totally full since 2 pm to 10 pm. Demonstration of this size had no precedent in Armenia. Those demonstrations became a unique rehabilitation for our nation. In the recent years such opinions as Armenians are not a striving people or the spirit of Armenians is broken, or Armenians have given in were well spread. But not once I noticed how citizens just expressed their amazement with such a huge mass gathered on the Liberty Square. I think this was one of the most important results that we had achieved so far. The people gained back their self-respect, and this troubled the duet of Khocharyan and Sargisyan a lot. The latters used to think that they had deprived the society of its self-esteem finally so they decided to stop the unexpected run of events as soon as possible. The regime now had to prove the society that the latter was of no value and had no right to think itself. So again they began to organize demonstrations humiliatingly gathering people by force. This time the citizens were gathered to defend Serge Sargisyan. And a demonstration took place that had no precedent in the history of mankind. Such demonstrations the audience of which was gathered by force had already taken place in Armenia, but never the exiting ways from the Public Square, where the meeting took place, had been blocked with a barbed wire before. This was done to prevent anyone to run away from the demonstration of the “elected” president. But this ordeal was overcome by the people, and the demonstrators left the Public Square and rode to Liberty Square pronouncing “Levon-Levon”. And here Khocharyan and Sargisyan just had to reveal their most important servant Arthur Baghdasaryan.
This step gave an opposite result too. And hundreds of members of the Orinats Yerkir Party joined the ranks of those who had left the Republican Party and Prosperous Armenia Party and come to the Liberty Square. An important incident took place and we didn’t need to explain to the people that Arthur Baghdasaryan from the very beginning had been the loyal servant of the bandocracy. With this a more important fact revealed itself to the society: there was no other opposition in the Republic of Armenia but the one gathered around Ter-Petrosyan, and the rest political authorities were ordinary servants of the regime. This strengthened the ground of movement led by Ter-Petrosyan. It seemed that by taking Arthur Baghdasaryan on its side the government had a goal to prove everyone that the minority of the society had gathered on the Liberty Square. But anyway those, who were against the regime had voted for Arthur Baghdasaryan, felt that just defrauded.
This step Khocharyan needed to have a ground for using force against the demonstrators, as giving away the secret of Arthur Baghdasaryan was only an aid to the national movement. And all the hopes of the regime that arrests, terrorizing people and broadcasting lies on the first channel might break the will of those gathered on the Liberty Square, were just thwarted. There was only one way remaining, and that was the force.
A formal cause that was needed for using force did not exist. All the arguments about the illegality of the demonstrations because of not being licensed by the city administration were not serious. The Armenian law about mass demonstrations, meetings, rides and protests fully provides opportunity to organize such demonstrations that are quite legal even without keeping the city administration aware. Thus we had the right to organize such protest. And the need of searching the tents was presented formally as a reason of using force against the demonstrators. Of course these explanations of the events were given only later.
In reality the following took place. On the 1st March 2008 about 6:20 a.m. the police forces wearing shields and helmets and armed with rubber batons surrounded the sleeping demonstrators. At the time when the police forces came up the first president Ter-Petrosyan and a part of demonstrators were not asleep. Ter-Petrosyan at once went up to the microphone and declared the following: “Demonstrators! It’s me, Levon Ter-Petrosyan. I am asking you not to avoid any contact with the police. If they have come, it means they have something important to tell us. Let’s see what their demand is”. An absolute silence of 30 seconds followed this short speech and the police unexpectedly attacked from the backside of the statue of Tumanyan without any word. The police used rubber batons and the electroshock. And all that time no request or any other word was expressed by them. This I must mention especially, as in the Armenian law about mass meetings is written that in case the demonstration is needed to be dispersed, the organizers must be kept aware of it. And a reasonable time opportunity must be given to the organizers to disperse the mass meeting. And only if the organizers refuse to obey the police can use force only after warning the demonstrators about it twice. All this was not done. The police did not demand a search for arms. If the police had demanded we would have allowed them to search the tents, as we all well knew there were no armed demonstrators among us. Even if they found anything illegal in the tents the demonstration could not be dispersed just because of it, and responsibility would bear only the armed demonstrators. /By the way our groups for keeping the discipline often found bottles with petrol or metal sticks under the tents or around the Liberty Square. Later it became clear that special provocateurs of the police or NSS had brought to there/. To be short, right from the very beginning of this event the police had been acting not according to the law.
A large clash took place on the Liberty Square. The demonstrators were defending themselves with the firewood for the bonfires or barehanded. Certainly the demonstrators could not stand long as the number of police forces was almost equal to the number of demonstrators and the policemen were well armed. The clash last about 30-40 minutes. Many demonstrators were detained right on the place. Others were shrinking back fighting and almost reached the Public Square moving down the Northern Avenue. What about the first president, he was surrounded by a group and taken to the Toumanyan statue. Some of our boys replaced me to a secure place from the Liberty Square.
Such events took place at the first daybreak of the spring of 2008. But this was only the beginning of the violence. Later facts showed that the real purpose of the regime ruled by Khocharyan and Sargsyan was not to disperse the demonstration on the Liberty Square, but to break the spirit of the people. After the clash of the morning the people came to the Liberty Square and found the place wholly taken by the police forces. Many citizens were not even aware of the mourning events. In unawareness people gather with small groups near the Liberty Square but the policemen started to disperse even these small groups by beating. All right, it’s their job but no one has given them a right to go up to somebody and beat him or use the electric shocker. First of all the policeman must keep the citizen aware of what is happening, and should prove that he is acting according to the law. On that morning people were beaten on Mashtots avenue or on Northern Avenue, etc. And all the demonstrators gathered near to the building of the French Embassy. Here the alignment of forces changed and the demonstrators with a few trams blocking the roads for the water canons started negotiations with the police. Several meaningless suggestions were offered by the government, such as to move the demonstration for example to the square of the railway station or next to stadium “Dinamo” or next to Matenadaran etc… And a question rises, why? Did the demonstration disturb the traffic there? Wherever that demonstration took place because of its sizes it would cause problems with traffic, even on the Liberty Square. If the demonstration took place next to Matenadaran, on which the police was so much insisting, it would cause the most traffic jams, and the crossroad of Mashtots Avenue and Koryun Street, the Moscow Avenue, and maybe even the crossroad of Baghramyan and Sayat-Nova streets would be blocked. In any case there would be blocked streets, so what was the reason for changing the place? The point was that near the French Embassy the police faced a very strong confrontation, and there was no chance for using the water canons. They needed to bring the people out to an open space in order to be able to beat them. On the way to the open space provocateurs would break for example a shop window and a reason for using force would be ready. Police did not manage to do this and soon we heard that the police forces were leaving the square next to the French embassy. At first we though it was good news, but soon we heard the second news; the army troops were brought to Yerevan from several places, even from Karabakh, and the soldiers were ordered to open fire at the demonstrators wit live cartridges. I didn’t want to believe that Sargisyan and Khocharyan could do that, but there was no reason for suspecting either. What I saw there overcame all my expectations. First of all the quantity of the demonstrators /though have to say there were not few provocateurs/ surprised me. Some people came up with dangerous suggestions. Conditions were so extreme that I had to be rude to some ones. Our decision was clear; we were standing on that square until the first president joined us. On the other hand different armed groups which had an order to open fire at the people were coming up. What was I supposed to do? Certainly I had to take care of the security of the people. The first point was to prevent the entrance of any kind of technique to the square. Before I arrived at the place the streets that led to the square next to the French embassy had been blocked, and on the square there were parked a few buses and VILIS jeeps belonging to the police. Using those cars we made barricades on the roads entering the square. All the private cars parked there were driven away by the owners without any problems. The above mentioned buses were used to transport soldiers to that square. During that time to the place had moved also buses and microbuses that belonged to the city hall and the drivers of which joined the demonstrators. Thus all the entrances of that square were blocked. But this did not guarantee the security of the demonstrators yet. I declared the following to the people, “We are not planning to attack anyone today, but if we are attacked we will defend ourselves”. What was the reason for such position? The actins of the government were already too illegal. We could not shrink in the face of illegality, but would not also allow them to beat us before our parents and wives, or to beat our parents and wives before us. And here I advised the men to have sticks or stones in their hands for self-defense. Then the army came up from two sides, the Square of Shahumyan and the “Fish Store”. And the most important thing is that they did not demand anything. What they wanted in the afternoon and in the evening remained a secret. By the way the army and the police had come before Khocharyan declared about the state of emergency, and then how could the usual demonstrators know about the state of emergency so fast? These are facts that describe the legal side of the events, or I would rather say the illegal one. And at night in Yerevan gunshots and explosions were heard. No one panicked on the square. A group of young men hurried to the Fish Store to the side of gunshots and explosions. In the beginning the soldiers shot only to the sky with tracer bullets, but a few minutes later we had the first victim. And the citizens realized the army was there to shot them. And the real battle began. Boys armed with sticks and pipes were defending not their right to protest, but their right to live. Against their right was fighting the Armenian army with Kalashnikov rifles and grenades killing its own people. All that time I was next to the megaphone. With my friends I was trying to prevent any panic. Then patriotic songs were sung and poems were delivered. And the gunshots stopped. We learnt that the demonstrators had made the army shrink to Leo Street and to Amiryan Street from the side of Mashtotz Avenue. We had a short break and after learnt about the burglary in some shops. It was clear that the burglary was the second part of the plan of the regime, though it was a bit too late. If the demonstrators decided to start a burglary they would not go so far away as there were no better places for that than the Metropol Hotel that belonged to Andranik Manutkyan, or the factory of Brandy, that belonged to Gagik Tsarukyan. The government needed burglary for the TV show for the next day on the First Channel. By the way the latter has not reported so far that there were soldiers who opened fire at the demonstrators.
A bit later it became clear that the second attack was being planned, but this time with tanks. During all that events the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan was taken into custody in his own house. He told the demonstrators to leave the streets. But till that we had already learnt about the emergency and many wounded and killed people. And right then a priest of the Armenian Apostolic Church delivered the “Our Father”. And the demonstrators prayed gathered on the square next to the French Embassy. And tears appeared in the eyes of many ones.
Some questions and conclusions
The decree of declaring a state of emergency by Khocharyan has a deficit of legality. According to the constitution a state of emergency can be declared when a danger threatens to the constitutional order of the state. Hence what danger threatened to the constitutional order on the first of March? The only danger was that the army and the police were acting not according the law and were transformed into an armed band. And I say that the state of emergency declared by Khocharyan really threatens to the constitutional order of the state, because the opposition is either imprisoned or hiding out, the newspapers and political parties are practically closed, demonstrations and rides are forbidden, the first president is kept in custody in his own house, population has no source of information and all the central streets of the capital are controlled by tanks and soldiers with rifles. This is the “legal” system with which the state of emergency is kept. But the same constitution acclaims that the state of emergency is determined by the law. And a question rises: is there an appropriate law in Armenia. We see there is not such law. And what does this mean? It means that Khocharyan has done a step /determined a legal regime for the state of emergency/ for which he is not licensed. Mr Aghvan Hovsepyan, this is the real usurpation of the state regime, and not the funny fairy tale that you invent with the help of not talented writers Levon Ananyan and Razmik Davoyan. And it is not the whole story. Who has given a right to Robert Khochyaryan and Seyran Ohanyan to use the army against a civil movement, and post tanks and soldiers on the streets of Yerevan or order the soldiers to open fire at the population? Why live cartridges were used against the citizens and not rubber ones? Just because as once correctly mentioned Hrant, they are not citizens for Serge, but enemies. And those enemies they call either Armenians or Yerevanies. And by the way once at an official meeting Khocharyan said: “I only need to say a single “go away” to make the population of Yerevan run away”. But fortunately his hopes were upset; no one run away. After the events on the 1st of March it became clear that the regime of Khocharyan and Sargisyan and the citizens of Armenia are not compatible with each other genetically. And this famous expression of the first president is very exact unfortunately. “Either the regime or the citizens will have to leave the country”.
About Hatred
The government is uninterruptedly warning that our national movement is full of hatred, and hatred was taught during the demonstrations. For us it is not hard to deny this senseless opinion. A tradition of applauding the policemen or those who watch the rides from their balconies has been developed during these demonstrations. And even those who work at state offices receive generous applauses from the riders. It is a sign of hatred, certainly, but it is a national hatred towards the regime ruled by Sargisyan and Khocharyan.
On Liberty Square people dance and have fun, just celebrating their rebirth and take care of each other. And it is really disgusting to listen to the news spread by the First Channel that people were paid to stay there. What about food I should say I remember faces of man ones who used to bring hot tea or food to the Liberty Square and give to the people. And food was also provided by the organizers of the demonstration. If one brought good costing 100 dollars for example, another donated 100 dollars for the demonstration. Some people even brought medicine, firewood or hot blankets to the Liberty Square. And every morning the square was cleaned and prepared for the protest by the demonstrators, as the district administration was not conducting street cleaning. The entire job was done by the demonstrators.
About Organizing Disorder
Right from the very beginning the leader of the movement Levon Ter-Petrosyan has determined the main principle of the movement, “No violence!” On the 20th of February the first post-election protest took in a tensed atmosphere. The demonstrators were for solving the problem by force. Ter-Petrosyan managed to transform the aggression into a fun and celebration. 10 days long people protested on the Liberty Square, Yerevan dancing national dances and shooting salute. In the result of those celebrations the government began hating the people even more. During that 10 years even a slightest clash or disorder didn’t take place. The citizens were well balanced and patient. And if not the illegal force and the violence of the police everything would go on in its peaceful way without any conflicts or clashes.
About the usurpation of the state regime
The accusation that the Office of Public Prosecutor tries to bring against us is just ridiculous. The appropriate article in the Criminal Code is the “usurpation of the government”. Even a school student will understand that this refers only to Serge Sargisyan and Robert Khocharyan, who were never elected as presidents but took the position, coming to a criminal consent with region heads, mayors and the Central Election Committee. On of the most important links in this conspiracy is the Constitutional Court. The latter is the most wretched link, because of being literate but lacking principles, self-esteem and authority.
Did we expect it all?
During al these 10 years of the regime very many time is was claimed that murderers rule now. All that claimers were among the organizers of the protest. The first president, who led the movement gave an exact and full description of the ruling regime and presented the whole illegality. Thus everything and including the events of the 1st of March could be expected from that government. Every one of us just had a little hope that a piece of morality and sense might be remaining in logic of the regime. On the 29th of February we all were already aware of the risen alarm in the morning of 1st of March at 5 am in the army of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Defense.
What is going to take place next?
Khocharyan and Sargisyan proved what needed to be proved: their regime is a disaster for the Republic of Armenia. Continuation of their regime means to lose the Nagorno-Karabakh. The movement must on with a new power. Peaceful rides and protests must take place as long as the regime is not removed. The struggle must be continued both in prisons and in freedom and underground.
P.S. The first president forgot to mention His Holiness Bandocrat among the pillars of the Armenian Bandocratic Regime.
Nikol Pashinyan
