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The Armenian Weekly; Volume 74, No. 31; August 9, 2008
Commentary and Analysis:
1. Armenia’s Next Step: Revolution or Vigilance?
By Christian Garbis
2. Treating Turkey Tamely
By Garen Yegparian
3. When Does Extradition Become Extra-Rendition?
Roma Criminality Is in the Eye of the Beholder
By Andy Turpin
***
1. Armenia’s Next Step: Revolution or Vigilance?
By Christian Garbis
YEREVAN (A.W.)-A mood of discontent still circulates in this city, which is
noticeable only when people seem comfortable enough to discuss their
disappointment. Many don’t dare to share their opinions in public for fear
of oppression, but when public rallies are organized by the anti-government
leadership they attend in large numbers, no matter how daunting the
significant police presence may appear.
The opposition has held two rallies since the tragic events of March 1 that
left 10 people dead, among them protesters and policemen. The first rally
was held on June 20 and a follow-up rally took place on July 4 in front of
the Madenataran manuscript archive repository in support of the opposition
movement led by former president Levon Ter-Petrossian. Both rallies were
declared illegal but were allowed to be held anyway without public unrest or
resistance from police.
On July 4, although thousands of men and women attendees seemed to be
middle-aged, a significant youth presence was evident at the public
"meetings" (as they are commonly referred to), which was spearheaded by
Now!, the youth organization of Ter-Petrossian’s Pan-Armenian National
Movement.
Among the speakers was political activist Aram Sargsyan, brother of slain
military commander and prime minister Vasken Sargsyan. During his speech, he
directed the crowd to reflect on the situation regarding the
Nagorno-Karabagh conflict, something not often spoken about by
pro-government politicians these days, especially at a time when primarily
Western powers struggle with persuading both Azerbaijan and Armenia to
finally resolve the conflict peacefully. Intermittently the crowd chanted in
support of Ter-Petrossian, and for the current president, Serge Sarkisian,
to "go away"-both familiar lines exclaimed at past rallies.
At both events, Ter-Petrossian recited the same message he had been giving
for months-that new elections must be held, that Sarkisian’s presidency is
illegitimate because he falsified the final vote tally to ensure victory.
The opposition continues to focus on a lack of democracy and a failed
judicial system as their main gripes against the state.
By late afternoon, police officers lined the entire perimeter of the block
on which the Opera House is located, preventing anyone from entering Liberty
Square. Despite the heavy presence of authority, officers were anything but
serious in their undertakings, munching sunflower seeds, chatting on their
mobile phones, and sitting along cafe walls smoking cigarettes. Some
resorted to banging on their shields with their fists or batons to suppress
their boredom. Most cafes were closed in Opera Park, although some were
serving guests who apparently had connections to pass through police
barricades.
After the rally concluded at mid-evening, the crowd marched to the site of
the March 1 attacks near Yerevan City Hall then progressed to Republic
Square. By 11 p.m. some protesters, all of whom had been peacefully
demonstrating, assembled at the top of the newly constructed Northern
Boulevard adjacent from the Opera House. People collected in small groups
there to talk politics while in the background supporters of Now! shouted
"free and independent Armenia" and "struggle, struggle until the end," while
waiving the Armenian tricolor flag. Some of Armenia’s "red beret" military
regiment as well as other rank-and-file soldiers mingled with the crowd.
That assembly on Northern Boulevard immediately transformed into an ongoing
24-hour sit-in protest. Peaceful protesters flanked by waving national flags
continued to demand the immediate release of perceived political prisoners
as well as the prosecution of the players in the March 1 melee, citing
general prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan and former president Robert Kocharian as
the main culprits, among others. Informational posters about various
detainees and placards with political demands written on them were erected
on the site.
Another rally, held on Aug. 1, also declared forbidden by the authorities,
was rumored to be staging a "revolution"-if jailed oppositionists considered
political prisoners were not set free. At the rally, the formation of the
Armenian National Congress-a union of opposition parties that have joined
forces with Ter-Petrossian in his anti-government campaign-was announced.
Despite the tremendous support for Ter-Petrossian displayed at such public
gatherings, some believe that the movement for change has surpassed the
opposition leader.
"Listen, it’s not Levon [Ter-Petrossian] who people necessarily support.
Rather, it’s justice," says Sergey Minasian, who was a mechanical engineer
by profession but went into the farming business 12 years ago. He now owns
over 10 hectares of land on the Ararat plains while growing crops for owners
of adjacent plots that he once leased from the state. Minasian would
regularly encounter obstacles placed by officials who attempted to extort
money by, among other tactics, cutting off his power supply, thereby
preventing him from irrigating his land as he relies upon water pumped out
from an artesian well that he himself drilled.
"I hate Levon and there are many others attending the rallies who feel the
same way," Minasian says. "But people demand justice because the judicial
system doesn’t work in this country. There is no law and order, which is
what people expect to be enforced. Those are the reasons why they support
the opposition-because their government is failing them."
As a result of the post-election chaos, over 100 people were arrested on
largely trumped-up charges; over 70 are considered to be political prisoners
by the opposition. Some oppositionists have been sentenced, including two
loyalists of Ter-Petrossian who revealed the identities of two undercover
National Security Service operatives stationed in Liberty Square during the
post-election protests.
Various theories have been circulating by word of mouth and even suggested
in the press that weapons were planted at the site of the sit-in protest at
Liberty Square in the early hours on March 1 to legitimize the necessity for
a sweeping crackdown. Eyewitnesses at the site of the clash between
protesters and police during the evening hours claim that petty criminals
with no connection to the demonstration were onsite to instigate the
violence.
Government officials, including President Sarkisian himself, have had no
choice but to justify the attacks made on civilians to save face, no matter
how unpopular the outcome of the clashes with citizens was. Nevertheless,
the president has been taking steps to distance himself from those believed
to have been linked to the events by firing them from their posts, namely
the head of the national police, Hayk Harutiunian, and the national interior
troops commander, Grigor Grigorian. Critics, however, believe that the
president is simply "cleaning house" by assigning loyalists to such
positions.
Although several people associated with the opposition leadership have been
released from jail, the ruling Republican Party headed by Sarkisian
continues to justify the arrests, insisting that those who remain detained
are anything but political prisoners. But the party’s pro-government
coalition partner, the ARF-Dashnaktsutiun, on July 28 called for the release
of detained oppositionists, contradicting the hard-line stance fostered by
the government.
Despite recent peaceful calls for justice, some protesters continue to be
dealt blows from those representing the powers that be. On July 2, people
who were peacefully protesting on the Northern Boulevard were suddenly
attacked by several young men despite the presence of police officers on
site. Several women were subsequently beaten with little explanation as to
the motive since antagonism on their part was not a factor.
The crackdown on the opposition has been harshly criticized by the United
States as well as the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), which
passed a resolution in June calling for Armenia to release all political
prisoners and restore democracy. On July 24, the president of PACE, Lluis
Maria de Puig, who was visiting Yerevan declared that Armenia would face a
"scandalous situation" if proof was not demonstrated that the Armenian
government would be able to meet the demands of PACE by Sept. 11 of this
year. The Millennium Challenge Corporation has already temporarily suspended
its $235 million in allocated funding for projects meant to rebuild
irrigation networks and roadways in rural parts of Armenia as a result of
the U.S. State Department’s perceived lack of democracy in the country.
Despite an initial crackdown on corruption with the sacking of the chief of
the State Customs Committee, Armen Avetisian, in April and the July
dismissal of Alvina Zakarian, the commander of the police-controlled
Department of Passports and Visas (OVIR)-both notoriously corrupt state
institutions known for their ruthless bribe extortion-some citizens remain
skeptical, with statements like "This is not a country" and "This is not a
government" still fresh on people’s lips. Yet, tangible results from the
opposition are not necessarily anticipated any time soon.
"Our generation won’t make a revolution, it is the next generation that
will," said software engineer Hovik Mosoyan, 52. "We made our revolution
nearly 20 years ago when we voted for the first time."
————————————– ————————————————– –
2. Treating Turkey Tamely
By Garen Yegparian
Not a bad year for Turkey, this 2008. Hrant Dink is all but forgotten by the
outside world. A train derailment and a factory fire garnered sympathy for
them. Similarly, the case of a Turk in Saudi Arabia facing the possibility
of a death sentence for "using God’s name in vain," its very absurdity
inspires pity for this man away from his home. There’s also the news of
Turkey’s supreme court (more on this institution’s wisdom later) finding in
favor of Alevis’ children not being obliged to study a different brand of
Islam. Couple these with Turkey’s role in Israel-Syria negotiations and
well-spun data about Turkey’s developing economy and its sociological
impacts and you’ve got a great sense of what image the average reader of the
LA Times forms of the fairly well-disguised dictatorship. Of course, it
would be a crime to omit the editorial cheerleading about a possible thaw in
Armenia-Turkey relations based on Gul congratulating Sarkisian’s election as
president. Please note, this ink was spilt on April 25, long before
Sarkisian’s ghastly gaffe in Russia, using the occasion of genocide
commemoration as the lead-in for the paper’s argument.
Bad news? Well of course there was some. Protests against U.S. policy when
Cheney visited were reported, as was the whole scarf-ban-rescission fiasco.
Of course the recent bombings could not be glossed over, but hey, Turkish
law enforcement (the same Keystone Kops who couldn’t follow up on leads that
might have prevented Dink’s assassination) conveniently pinned the blame on
those "terrorist" Kurds, almost overnight. You know how awful it is to be
like the "terrorist" Minutemen of 230 years ago (not the border-addled
clowns of today). But Turkey’s three and a half decade occupation of
northern Cyprus never rises to the level of relevance.
What’s most interesting and relevant is the suit brought against Turkey’s
ruling AK Party (labeled as Islamist) for its attempt to undo the
Ataturk-inspired headscarf ban. The "secularists," those whom you might
think would be more enlightened, tried through legalistic means to shut down
the party that had less than a year earlier increased its parliamentary
majority. The guys are such Ataturk worshipping chauvinists that anything
even remotely impinging on his deific presence in Turkey generates virulent
reactions. So, the "enlightened" approach is to ban a popular party through
the courts.
Meanwhile, soap opera-ishly, the government arrested 86 coup plotters who
have various levels of connectedness to Turkey’s military
establishment-another nest of Ataturk idolaters. These people were also out
to get the AKP.
So now, you had a crisscross tug-of-war going between the chauvinists and
Islamists. One sector of Turkish society is out to ban the other while the
second is delegitimizing the first by arresting its less savory elements.
The country was in the throes of what can only de described as a major
constitutional crisis. Of course the Supreme Court, which could have banned
the AKP, did not. Rather, they partially defunded it. How much more blatant
a threat to a legal party could Turkey’s "deep state" have given? The only
reason the ban didn’t happen is, to my mind, the concern that it would be
too brazen a challenge, too sharp a slap, to the Europeans who hold Turkey’s
economic future in their hands. Go figure, party-banning is just uncool to
the Euros.
Did anybody at the LA Times notice this and comment? Nope, of course not!
Turkey is an important ally. It "generously" allows transit of supplies to
U.S. troops in Iraq. We can’t go around risking that! Remember, that’s the
cover story many of Steve Cohen’s (we’ll visit him next week) ilk in
Congress used to work against H.Res.106.
Even if this pathetic brownnosing is understandable from the paper that
brought us Doug Frantz, how can we explain Armenia’s position? In the midst
of a crisis that could have toppled the sitting government of or led to a
coup in Turkey, Serge Sarkisian threw a lifeline to the AKP and Gul. Instead
of using every diplomatic trick in the book to create more maneuvering room
for Armenia, at least vis-à-vis Turkey, a cowering rapprochement was
initiated by Armenia. Was there a quiet deal cut in advance of the public
theatrics? Under the circumstances, it seems unlikely. So why not hammer
away at Turkey to extract concessions? I don’t understand.
What’s even less understandable is the maddening absence of
letters-to-the-editor from Armenians regarding these issues and the slant of
the coverage given. Doesn’t anyone read these things? What are we afraid of?
Please, make your voice heard, via ink or pixels.
—————————————— —————————————–
3. When Does Extradition Become Extra-Rendition?
Roma Criminality Is in the Eye of the Beholder
By Andy Turpin
On July 31 in Rome, Romanian president Traian Basescu said Romania would
cooperate with Italy to resolve the problem of Italy’s gypsy camps. Speaking
after a meeting with Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, Basescu said Romania
wants to create a "shared plan" to help free gypsies with Romanian
citizenship living in Italian camps "from the degrading state of poverty in
which they find themselves," reported ANSA.
"The Italian government has put into effect simple safety measures to
protect its citizens-not against Romanian citizens, but against people
without correct identification papers," Basescu stated
He warned gypsies that criminal behavior would not be tolerated if they
chose to return to Romania in the wake of the crackdown by the Italian
government. "Soon many of you will return to Romania, but the Romanian state
will not accept criminals. The law must be applied," he said.
"We realize that we share the problem of the Roma (gypsy) minority, and we
want to collaborate with the Italian government to resolve the issue, which
we have been unable to do at home."
Romanian prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu is due to visit Italy in
October to discuss the issue. The vast majority of the 152,000 Roma living
in Italy are of Romanian origin, while a small percentage come from the
Balkans.
On the surface, the issue of Roma assimilation and/or deportation via Italy
and Romania seems clear-cut: "Keep the goodies, deport the baddies." But as
always, the devil is in the details.
The problem is that the world at large still faces a vast chasm of anti-Roma
racism-as evidenced by the fact that ANSA still refers to Roma populations
in article references as "gypsies."
This is not a direct jab at ANSA because on the contrary, the world is so in
the dark about Roma history that if ANSA did in fact change all article
references to the more accurate term "Roma," a majority of readers would be
confused. So let us not dwell on the legitimate usage and H.L. Menken-isms
of ANSA.
The primary issue is that the Roma are an often "off-the-radar" demographic
in European policy circles and are actively persecuted because of their
ethnicity and culture-particularly in Romania and Serbia.
However, from criminology and sociological perspectives, Roma populations,
like insular populations of Native Americans, Berbers, Uygurs, Kurds, and
Cossacks are also groups who internally suffer real-life problems of
incarceration and cycles of abusive behavior.
Most often, such manifestations are projections of displaced anger at being
under duress, poverty, and persecution from state authorities in the
countries they reside for their very ethnic existence or traditions.
The government of Romania is one of the prime persecutors of Roma
populations, and the idea of that very government wanting to take a guiding
hand to solve the problem is terrifying if you are a Roma that left Romania
for Italy to escape persecution.
For Romania to say, "We only want the criminals" is a ruse because to a
majority of Romanians, due to their upbringing for better or worse, all Roma
are criminals.
The European Jewish community understands this fact and is lobbying against
any deportation measures against the Roma in IDP camps to be put in place by
either the Berlusconi or Basescu administrations, on the grounds that any
deportees will face unjust harm once in Romania.
Yet, these measures of altruism and activism on the part of European Jewish
leaders towards the Roma are being taken lightly by some, specifically since
Jewish political groups in the 1980’s and 90’s held the view of Romanian
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel that the Roma only warranted a small exhibit,
if any, in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for their deaths
during World War II.
Roma specialist Isabel Fonseca, author of the Roma history Bury Me Standing,
noted of this fact that, "It was only after the 1986 resignation of
president Elie Wiesel, the survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner who had
opposed Gypsy representation, that one Gypsy was invited onto the council"
of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Likewise, our own communities know the measures the Turkish government has
taken over the years to reach swords across seas with their brands of
recourse to "the Armenian Question."
Italians, Armenians, and watchdogs the world over must not let smoke get in
their eyes when it comes to protesting the deportations of Roma or any other
persecuted minorities. History has shown us all too well that like a
mathematical equation being reduced to its lowest common denominator, the
minute a minority starts being referred to by a government as "the ___
Question" [insert Armenian, Irish, Tutsi, or Falun Gong, respectively],
sooner or later, that government’s answer is inevitably genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress