Armenian opposition gets organised: protests to heat up in September

Despite unbearable heat and vacation season almost at its height, thousands joined the opposition rally in central Yerevan sending a very clear message to the authorities that discontent with the current state of affairs has no signs of fading away. It was despite reportedly blocking the roads to the capital (surprise-surprise!) to prevent people from the regions to attend the rally. It was despite the ‘killing’ heat which forced many people to gather in surrounding areas, under the shade, and then join the post-rally march, which was impressive by any standards. With its inability to alleviate political crisis, administration of Armenia’s incumbent president Serj Sargsyan faces the very real possibility of high scale popular upheaval in months to come.

There was one pretty simple step that Serj’s administration could have done to relieve the situation and take the initiative – to release all political prisoners – but they failed to do so. With their actions, the authorities managed to beget the modern day Armenian martyrs even among those who under any other circumstances could easily be questioned for human rights violations, but now considered political prisoners, and rightly so. I should congratulate Armenian government and president for such an ‘achievement’.

Consequently, the opposition rhetoric became more radical, and they are now taking steps to make their movement more organised. The announcement of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), signed by various parties who supported former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan during the February presidential election came as no surprise. Even parties which refrained from signing the ANC declaration for now, including the influential opposition Heritage party, made it clear that they consider themselves as part of the movement and showed no signs of stepping down from initially stated aims, as commentary published by the newly elected head of Heritage party Anahit Bakhshyan proved.

In an apparent reference mainly to the Heritage party (but others too), the ANC declaration clearly states that parties united in the Congress remain independent, including their right to participate in any elections separately. Formal programme of the ANC would be finilised during the upcoming conference. As it is not a unified political party but rather a kind of confederation, other political parties or NGOs in Armenia and Diaspora are eligible to join, and in fact encouraged to do so by the opposition.

Main demands stated by the newly formed ANC are not new:
- release of all political prisoners;
- freedom of speech and assemblies;
- independent investigation of 1 March events with international presence;
- snap elections (of president and parliament)

Despite reiterated calls for resignation of incumbent president Serj Sargsyan (as one of the key objectives of the protest movement), the opposition stated its readiness to engage in a dialogue with the authorities to discuss reforms aimed at democratic development of Armenia provided that at least the first point on the release of all political prisoners is met.

P.S. This rally was noticeable by the absence (as much as I followed the speeches) of divisive - unacceptable! - language which occasionally happened during previous rallies. It’s clearly a consequence of recent call by one of current Ter-Petrosyan allies, recently released from serving a politically motivated prison sentence, Karabakh war hero Jirayr Sefilyan who urged (along with others) for immediate stop of using any language which may cause divisions between various segments of Armenians, and particularly Armenians from Armenia proper and Karabakh (reference to Karabakh origin of former and current serving presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serj Sargsyan and some other high level officials).

Next rally is scheduled for 5 September, and sit-in protest will continue till then to coincide with the crucial Council of Europe hearings on Armenia’s progress (or lack of it as such) in meeting its European obligations and PACE resolutions.

I will blog about next rally directly from Yerevan.

*photo - via mk.am