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Diaspora Armenians in Armenia condemn the government's actions

Over the past few days, Diaspora Armenians who live and work in Armenia have been actively discussing the situation here at www.cilicia.com. Madlene Minassian, Director for Public Relations and Events, Cafesjian Museum Foundation, Lena Majarian from International Executive Service Corps/Armenia (IESC/Armenia), Alex Sardar, Deputy Program Director, USAID/Armenia Legislative Strengthening Program, and Raffi Kojian, Outreach Coordinator , USAID/Armenia have expressed their views on the website. After reading their opinions, we contacted them to discuss the current political situation in Armenia and the recent violence against peaceful demonstrators. None of them, however, agreed to talk, saying that they would if they weren't embassy staff or if they knew their supervisors' opinions. So we have decided to present some excerpts from their writings as published on the web site ( Armenian life - online log), since it is an open forum and not a chat-room for members only.

Monday, April 12, 2004

Raffi Kojian wrote at 7:03 PM:
Well I just left the revolution... it seemed to be at a standstill unless something changed the situation. They marched from the Opera up Baghramyan, about 2 or 3 blocks, when they came up to a barbed wire barricade near the Parliament. Behind the barbed wire were tear gas canisters set to go off, and tire shredders to prevent cars from coming through. Then there was a bit of space before another wall of barbed wire and then the riot police. So the opposition was on one side, the riot police on the other at a standstill. The opposition was making demands from the loudspeaker... Kocharian should step down, the Speaker of Parliament should talk to them and switch sides. This was all just a few steps from the US Embassy. Anyway, that is how I left it... all I care is that there is no violence, really... but I like the opposition less than I like the government, so I hope they can peacefully keep things under control. Lena is still at the revolution - she got some great pictures we'll have to put online...

Lena Majarian wrote at 3:37 PM:
Well the rallies have been whatever. I watched the passive crowd on friday night then returned for another look later and by 9pm the crowd had thinned and those who were there earlier a lot were just passers by and not there to rally. Anyway I left Yerevan on Saturday all day and I'm sure Raffi will tell that story. Although we did not see any blockage in or out of the city, I'm told that it was the buses filled with people that were not allowed in to the city not cars. Today I will go again to watch and maybe even walk up Baghramian to the parliament.

Madlene Minassian wrote at 3:26 PM:
public transportation was down and the roads were blocked. this was not rumors being spread by the opposition, this was my staff unable to make it to work from etchmiadzin and kharberd and this was my eyes seeing it from the ashdarak road. ask anyone who commutes to yerevan . there were crowds of people standing by the road... in the hopes they would see a friendly face who owns a car. it was a sad reality. however, the roads were not blocked today.

in fifty minutes another rally is going to begin... and i am feeling a disattachment from the diaspora. i keep thinking of an analogy... i feel like we have a grandparent (armenia) sick in the hospital... i feel like i am the grandchild holding my grandparents hand... while some of my cousins are not nearby... or not even aware about their grandparents health. i know i should not be thinking this way... but i cannot help wondering if my fellow armenians that i grew up with... all those who would stay up late hours with me at ayf camp singing revolutionary songs... are now concerned and following through for a stronger armenia. are they organizing meetings where they can discuss the situation, are they bringing awareness to their community? do they remember the songs they sang and what they meant... or did they sing their hearts out so they would be first in line at the cafeteria after flagpole?
i am sorry to be so rough but sometimes i want to feel that the people who stayed behind (and away from the homeland)... did so with a larger purpose in mind. i hope to think they are enticing and adding to the armenian lobby in their countries... i hope to think they are sending their hard earned dollars here for good causes... that they are encouraging their children to think about armenia ... and that they are travelling here on their vacations at the least. this place needs all of you... in this day and age... when we finally have an armenia to shape and guide... it is not enough to just feel armenian, eat koo koo at zatik, or speak armenian... or attend armenian network events. this is the time when being armenian... becomes more difficult and more of a challenge and i hope that many of you embrace this challenge. i feel very rewarded and i hope that you too can feel the same. any contribution that is worthy of who you are and where you are in this world... is valuable. the more... the better chance that we will survive as a nation and thus as a people.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Raffi Kojian wrote at 9:50 PM :
All day I have just been disgusted at the authorities here, especially with Kocharian. As I was always told growing up, " the fish stinks from it's head ". As I learned more and more, it was more and more disgusting. Here is the story. They turned off the lights on the street long enough to move the water cannons closer to the protesters. The riot police and special forces hid up and down every single escape route the protesters could have. And at 2 in the morning, when everything was completely peaceful, they attacked the protestors violently, treating them worse than animals. As they tried to run away, their every exit was blocked and they were beaten savagely. I saw footage of blood taken this morning as far as Mashdots and Cascade. I don't know how some of those people sustained so much blood loss. The oppressed media has virtually ignored these events, much like when Kocharian's bodyguard killed a man at Poplavok for saying something disrespectful to him. (not vulgar, just disrespectful). I would be surprised if nobody has died from injuries - that is how much blood I saw in the footage. And Kocharian has not even put on the facade of innocent, and has not even tried to say the police acted beyonf their orders. No. Everything went according to plan.

Disgusting. This man should NEVER again be shown any respect. No Diaspora community should ever welcome him. He is an animal, an should be regarded as one. I saw footage of the peaceful protests an hour and a half before the attack and could only imagine every single person in the crowd being beaten and battered.

Madlene Minassian wrote at 2:25 PM :
it's very sad when one loses one's hope. i have lost my hope in this government, and i am just plain exhausted.

i have been awake since 2 am contemplating how, when and why this country turned into a dictatorship. i went to go buy some fresh juice, to get some energy back this morning and i saw blood on the newly renovated sidewalks on my way to the store.

i keep searching for news... and all i have found are a few internet articles. i keep searching for answers... but there are not too many of those either... and they are not as easily found as articles on the internet.

i am taking this personally, i am upset about this and i am extremely sad for my country. i wish i could believe the measly report that the news stations have been reiterating this morning... but the witnesses are too many and they are too startled. people who saw, heard or were a part of last night... showed me a side of terror that i had never encountered in my life.

i am very sad today and i cannot shake it off. i think it will be a while before anyone living in this country can.

Lena Majarian wrote at 12:15 PM:
Last night's blasts took me back to the war in Lebanon , where as I child I would go to bed in jeans and at the first sound of bombs seek shelter somewhere. There were 8 blasts one after the other then another 2 blasts after 10 minutes at 2am this morning. For the first time since I've been in Armenia , coming up to my 3rd anniversary, I felt scared. Thank God for Alex and Raffi, who kept talking to me on the phone to get me through my fear of violence.

I have never seen Byron Street so busy as I did at 2am this morning. Cars everywhere, headlights on ready to escape from the govt residence. They were all prepared all sitting in their cars ready to go, they knew.

I just returned from Mashtots Street and there was blood everywhere on the footpath leading up to Matenadaran. Some poor bastard had walked up that path after being bashed bleeding everywhere. This is just too sad, I donâ€Tt know what to think.

Alex Sardar wrote at 3:43 AM :
Raffi logged most of the details. The adrenaline rush is too intense.

At about 1:50 a.m. I heard a couple of explosions with some lightning. went out on the balcony toward my courtyard, just as Lena was calling me to tell me that this was not fireworks, but bombs. we assume they were fake noise bombs used as a deterrent.

I went to the opposite side of my apartment facing saryan street, with a view of the baghramian intersection. i saw crowds building. put on clothes and ran downstairs. as i was talking to two women who were explaining to me that people were being beaten up by the National Assembly building. "there was a man who's head was bashed in, with blood spilling all over," said one woman. then she turned to the building--my building--and started crying for people to wake up and come out to fight.

as i was catching my breath, i noticed two police officers directly across the street from me, with a bunch of riot gear police running after them. one police officer--have no idea what the rank was--had another man by the neck and he was inflicting kick after kick on the man's body. the man was able to get away, but the riot gear police were chasing another group to the National Unity building which is adjacent to where Raffi and I live.

as i was told by my neighbor to go back up, i realized that a bunch of people were also running up my stairwell with me, trying to escape the police. i ran in to my apartment and started watching from my living room window. raffi came up, and we were in communication with Lena who lives close to the Opera.

The scenes reminded me of the days of the Iranian revolution. Several red beret (sp?) special forces were out and looking around. we saw one with a baton. we also saw a riot gear police officer at the National Unity building.

journalists were filming, and they relayed to us that they were chased and that the producer was threatened. the cameraman was also threatened.

at about 3 a.m. after things had calmed down on baghramian and the riot gear had moved up the street in formation, i hear scuffle in the back courtyard again. it was too dark, but i saw men chasing after one or more person(s), and i saw one using a stun gun--not on someone, but just in the air.

all in all a stunning display of force and brutality. what the outcome is will not be clear, but i don't think that the opposition is going to let up so easily, and this has just escalated what was a war of words to a high-stakes game of street politics.

i should also add that it's not clear what initiated the attack, whether the opposition activists or the government forces were the first to engage in violence. no news outlet has yet reported on this. we do know that AP and Reuters had journalists out there.

Raffi Kojian wrote at 2:54 AM :
The revolution took a turn for the bad as the riot police stormed them at around 2am . I live next to the foot of Baghramyan Street where the protestors were doing an overnight vigil at the foot of Parliament, when upstairs Alex heard explosions which woke him up as well as Lena further down nearer to the Opera. I woke up (I live on the quieter courtyard side) when I heard people runing past my apartment screaming. Meanwhile Alex had gone down to the street and witnessed some beatings and the police chasing protestors. I called Alex and went up to see from his window and there were tons of riot police and the water cannons were there too. But little activity left. They had already cleared the protesters away from nearly a kilometer up the road. A two person camera crew recorded the scene a few minutes, then left as well. They had been chased as well. No idea what set this off, although we suspected the police would do this in the middle of the night. Don't know what to say in the way of injuries, etc. The camera crew said a bunch of arrests had already taken place... sad night here. Don't know just how bad the damage is or isn't but it is just a sad state of affairs when things come to this. There is a lot of the resentment like that in Georgia , just not a good alternative... Is the revolution over? If it is, did it serve as any kind of wake up call to the authorities to shape up?

Alex Sardar wrote at 1:29 AM:
The unrest in Yerevan continued over the weekend and today as well. It's difficult calling it unrest, because in reality it's very peaceful and well-maintained, but it is still an uprising of sorts.

My last log got a lot of supportive as well as critical attention. I won't apologize for it, and I also won't take credit for the praise. It is simply what I see as the plain truth in the Armenian realm.

I reacted to other loggers, and will again react to other loggers, because that's what we're called here to do--to speak our minds and to share our experiences in Armenia . No message or messenger is less important to this forum. But at the same time, we must take responsibility for what we write, and I believe we all have and continue to do so.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Lena Majarian wrote at 10:45 AM :
I also saw footage of the peaceful demonstrators practically an hour before the violence. There was an old man telling his life story to the cameraman and literally carying his life story on him. I don't even want to know if anything happened to that man. Others were singing and dancing on Baghramian, I saw no signs of protestors throwing rocks at anyone as I have read in one report.

As Raffi mentioned the lights were turned off long enough to move the water cannons. I know this since my electricity was turned off too just then, and it came back on before 2am . Meanwhile the cars parked on Byron St received word to go ahead and the countless police were waiting in little alleys to ensure no one got away.

One report says the following "But Kocharian defended the use of force, saying through a spokesman that the opposition actions amounted to `political extremism.' He warned that further attempts to force him into resignation would be countered in the same way".

Oh I'm CHARMED!!!

Alex Sardar wrote at 8:59 AM :
The last 24 hours have been chaotic. If not visibly so, there has been a strange sense of quiet in the streets, and I couldn't figure out if it was the quiet before or after the storm.

As I walked out of my apartment on Tuesday morning to go to work, I still had the images of the preceding few hours in my head, and walking out I felt like I was entering into a 1950's American suburb, where everything just seemed rosy, and no one even pretended that anything happened 6 hours before that.

Baghramian Ave. was open and cars were rushing up and down, much like the riot gear cops and the demonstrators were doing on foot.

During the day yesterday opposition party offices were ransacked and personalities taken into custody. Periodic reports of another person beaten, another leader arrested became mainstay during the day. For those political figures who are members of parliament, parliamentary immunity doesn't seem to have played a role. So, there are many questions that are yet unanswered.

I, and the rest of the loggers, have received tens of emails on our logs. It's encouraging to know that there is a larger prupose to these logs. Many are concerned about our safety. Speaking on my behalf, I can say that we are perhaps the safest of all--at least physically. Our spirits, and that of the Armenian nation, is a whole other issue.

The official response to the events of Monday/Tuesday has been mind boggling. Coalition party representatives have been timid. The president's office has issued no response. The national police has justified their actions by defining the opposition demonstrators as violent and unruly. Several NGO's and public organizations have come out strongly condemning the events and their aftermath.

Since I'm rushing to get to work right now, I will throw this out there and ellaborate on it more. I'm completely baffled by the local and international, diaspora news coverage of these events. In Armenia , no TV Station has properly shown or discussed the events, with the exception of Kentron TV, which has become a bit more timid than days before. My biggest disappointment is with Armenia TV--that owned partly by the Cafesjian Family Foundation--for blatantly tainting facts, and presenting not the news, but their version of reality in Armenia . I'm singling out this TV station, because my hope would be that one co-owned by a Diasporan philanthropist would show more transparent sensibilities. This hope, however, is obviously misplaced, and it has shown that this "news" outlet is no better than the vast majority of others here and abroad, completely ignoring the facts, and creating new ones.

And yes, there is much to do for everyone.

Another quote, so as not to break the tradition:"The hottest place in the inferno, is reserved for those who in times of moral crisis choose to remain neutral."

--Dante Aligieri in Inferno

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Raffi Kojian wrote at 10:57 AM :
So I feel a tiny bit better knowing that we have put some wheels into motion on this issue. You cannot imagine how it affects you to see with your own eyes this sort of oppression. In Armenia.

Armenia 's Foreign Minister today "warned against superficial judgments on the internal political situation in Armenia ". He has some nerve. Most of the beatings were carried out directly in front of the US Embassy. He claims he wants to see a US condemnation of opposition leadership calls for violence. If the leadership calls for violence, charge them for it in court. If protesters peacefully block a street, you peacefully arrest them. I consider the US statement quite mild, and want pressure the entire world, especially the Diaspora to be felt. I ESPECIALLY want to single out the Tashnags, who are members of the ruling coalition to make sure that their name is not dirtied, and that things are put right. The beatings should not go unpunished, it is a crime and should be treated as such. Those planning and executing it should be identified and locked up.

Raffi Kojian wrote at 7:43 AM:
This weeks log/commentary is a call to arms of sorts. It was written with other repatriates out of frustration with the events going on here, the desire to make a change, and to not allow these events to pass without a strong reaction from the Diaspora. We always ask what the Diaspora can possibly do to influence the government here. This is our stand, this is our attempt to try to make that influence felt. How? We would like to see individuals and organizations alike - across the Diaspora - make public statements about the human rights abuses going on. We would like to see them encourage others to make the same sorts of strong statements, and we want EVERYONE who comes into ANY contact with ANY government official of Armenia to bring this issue up and beat it home. We WILL NOT stand for this kind of government abuse of human rights in Armenia . Please read on to see what I am talking about, and copy this entire text and pass it on in a massive email education/action campaign. We will all be sending this out individually, but are speaking with one voice. The President of Armenia, rather than condemn these actions, has promised to repeat them. We need to promise to do everything in our power to prevent this.

Finally I would like to emphasize that I do not support either side in their struggle for power. I merely cannot stand by and watch people beaten senseless by their own government when they are completely peaceful.

So PLEASE, go to the following page, copy the ENTIRE page and email it to everyone you know ...

http://www.cilicia.com/board/viewtopic.php?p=1349