HUNGER GAMES: NOT EATING AS FORM OF PROTEST HAS SHORT, INEFFECTIVE HISTORY IN ARMENIA
Society | 13.03.13 | 15:02
Photolure
Karabakh Movement rally in 1988
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
The hunger strike by opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian follows a
tradition of Armenian radical protests that began when the Soviet
Union was nearing collapse.
In 1988, as Armenia was rallying the Karabakh Movement, political
figure Khachik Stambultsyan announced that he would go on a hunger
strike to protest several matters, including environmental hazards
at Nairit chemical plant and Hrazdan power plant and the fair trial
of the Sumgait pogroms case.
Enlarge Photo Khachik Stambultsyan
Enlarge Photo Zori Balayan (left) and Victor Hambardzumyan
Enlarge Photo Andreas Ghukasyan
Enlarge Photo Raffi Hovannisian
“We were the first in the Soviet Union to go on hunger strike. Our
demands were met only partially. Hunger strike is an extreme step
and one should resort to it only when challenged with a matter of
life and death. One might not achieve anything with hunger strike,
but it is a means to make the issue reach the political agenda,”
Stambultsyan told ArmeniaNow.
Hovannisian, who two years ago held a 15-day hunger strike at the
same Liberty Square demanding the resignation of the country’s top
leadership, is now warning that if his political demands are not met
Serzh Sargsyan will “de facto” assume the presidential position on
April 9 (inauguration day) over Hovanissian’s “dead body”.
Hunger strikes gain more significance when prominent people, political
and public figures, intellectuals resort to it. In 1988 – in the
days of Karabakh movement (to liberate the then Autonomous Region of
Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan) a group of Armenian intellectuals
went on a hunger strike in Moscow, among them eminent scientist Victor
Hambardzumyan, writer-publicist Zori Balayan, and others.
“Their demands were not met, state officials did not even visit them,”
recalls Stambultsyan.
A recent case of hunger strike among Armenians was with boxer Israel
Hakobkokhyan who in 2007 ran for a single mandate in the parliamentary
elections and lost to his Republican opponent, after which he went on
a five-day hunger strike in front of the Central Election Commission
(CEC) building. The politician-turned athlete stopped the strike
after then Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan’s visit.
The ‘tradition’ of hunger strikes in Armenia resumed in 2008 when
some 15 political prisoners in various penitentiaries declared hunger
strike. They were charged with organization of post-election mass
disorder of March 1, 2008. Karabakh war veterans of Shirak province
went on a hunger strike with a demand to release them, nine more
of them declared an infinite hunger strike in Yerablur (military
cemetery-memorial).
The spring of 2011 saw Hovannisian’s first hunger strike, which
he called “Freedom Fast”, by which he demanded the resignation of
the authorities – a demand that was never met – however Hovannisian
gained clout among oppositionists as his strike coincided with the
re-opening of Liberty Square to political rallying.
Another presidential candidate of the 2008 race Andreas Ghukasyan
resorted to hunger strike as a means of political struggle. He started
on January 21, along with the official launch of the pre-election
campaign, and continued 29 days, till the end of the Election Day.
Ghukasyan was demanding from the CEC to annul the decision nominating
Serzh Sargsyan’s candidacy for presidency, but his demand was denied.
“Permanent” presidential candidate Aram Harutyunyan went on a one-day
hunger strike and the next day (February 8) withdrew from the big run.
Stambultsyan says today’s view on such protests has turned hunger
strikes into a mockery.
“One must set a task to solve a crucial political issue of national
rather than personal importance. We had a goal to recover our
statehood, the Artsakh [Karabakh] issue… We went on a hunger strike
so that if the issue was not resolved, our death would put the issue
on the agenda and ways would be found to solve it,” he says.
Manvel Sargsyan, heading the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies, believes that if used smartly hunger strike
as a tool can be very effective.
“If a hunger strike is held long-term it eventually leads to a moment
of truth, and even in most skeptical societies it leads to great
faith. People join the struggle, that’s the logic behind it.
Politicians resort to such steps when the country is ruled by a
totalitarian regime, and the authorities refuse to make concessions
by any other way. If Andreas Ghukasyan died in the process the
elections would be stopped and new elections would be appointed,”
Sargsyan told ArmeniaNow.
Politicians resort to hunger strike boycotting food for the sake of
their ideology.
Mahatma Gandhi went on a hunger strike in 1922, 1933 and 1942
protesting against British dominance in India. Without violence every
time Gandhi was able to make the British Empire make concessions.
In 1981, there was a loud case of prison hunger strike by volunteers
of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, which led to the death of
dozens of prisoners, among them Bobby Sands. After 66 days of hunger
strike Sands died; nine others died who had been voluntarily starving
for 46-73 days.
In 1986, former NASA officer Charles Hayden survived a 218-day hunger
strike in front of the White House; he was demanding to stop the arms
race and nuclear proliferation. He did not die, but is said to have
used vitamins and juices for sustenance.