LEADER OF KARABAKH WAR VETERANS STRUGGLES WITH HOBSON’S CHOICE
Gayane Abrahamyan
EurasiaNet
June 16 2008
NY
His name was a recurring chant at opposition rallies following
Armenia’s disputed February 19 presidential vote. Opposition leaders
believed that support from former deputy defense minister and Manvel
Grigorian, head of the country’s largest group of Nagorno-Karabakh
war veterans, would be critical in catapulting them to victory. But
the much-touted support never came. And now, nearly four months after
Armenia’s presidential election, the question lingers on: who exactly
do Grigorian and his coalition of Karabakh war veterans support?
With ties still strained to the breaking point between the Armenian
government and opposition, the query is far from academic.
Grigorian’s 30,000-strong Yerkrapah [Custodian of the Land] Volunteers
Union is a veterans’ assistance group often termed "a state within
a state." With a national network of members, many in key government
posts, Yerkrapah has exercised considerable political influence since
its 1993 formation. "[T]heir statement before every election about
whom they support has been important," commented Vardan Abrahamian,
a professor of political science at Yerevan State University.
Recognizing that importance, opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian
repeatedly told supporters in late February that the general and
fellow Deputy Defense Minister General Gagik Melkonian had signed
on to support his call for fresh elections. But neither Grigorian
nor Melkonian ever publicly expressed his own view. In early May,
Grigorian, who was fired from his post as deputy defense minister on
April 2, declared that his organization "has never been and will not
be engaged in politics and no one can speculate with its name."
At Yerevan’s Yerablur cemetery of soldiers who fought in the
1988-1994 Karabakh war with Azerbaijan, though, the question of
Yerkrapah’s allegiances has a clear-cut answer. For the past three
weeks, a group of over 100 individuals have been on a hunger strike
both in the capital and in the northern town of Gyumri to protest the
imprisonment of war veterans and the March 1 crackdown on opposition
protestors. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
To these Yerkrapah members, Grigorian’s apparently passive stance
on Armenia’s political divide is unacceptable. "[I]f he had stood by
the people’s side, the authorities would not have had the courage to
use troops against the people," hunger striker Hayk Asatrian said in
reference to the March 1 crackdown on Ter-Petrosian supporters.
Grigorian could not be reached for comment.
One associate, however, indicates that Ter-Petrosian has not been
the only political figure courting the 52-year-old general. The
associate, who asked not to be named, told EurasiaNet that for the
past few weeks representatives of both President Serzh Sarkisian and
ex-President Robert Kocharian have been visiting Grigorian at his
home in Etchmiadzin, not far from Yerevan.
"Each tries to draw him to his own side," the associate said,
expressing the widely held view that Kocharian is allegedly still
attempting to exercise political influence.
The associate could not state the status of Grigorian’s current
relations with Ter-Petrosian. The general himself has never publicly
addressed the ex-president’s claims about his support; the Defense
Ministry has vigorously denied them.
Many Ter-Petrosian supporters, however, believe that the large number
of arrests among Yerkrapah members following March 1 was designed to
weaken the union and to neutralize any potential political threat to
the government it may pose.
According to the state prosecutor’s office, 25 of the 52 individuals
still in jail are Yerkrapah members. Their number includes Yerkrapah
deputy director and parliamentarian Myasnik Malkhasian; five Yerkrapah
members have already been sentenced to prison, while an additional
four are on a wanted list. "Authorities understand very well that
[the Union] is powerful and realized after the February election that
they are losing control [over the group] because most of its members
supported the former president," commented ex-deputy defense minister
Vahan Shirkhanian, who served under President Kocharian from 1999
to 2000.
The governing Republican Party of Armenia, however, dismisses that
opinion as groundless. Party spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov says
that all members of Yerkrapah "deserve the highest esteem" as heroes.
"[T]hey are in prison not because they are Yerkrapah members, but
because they are charged with crimes," Sharmazanov asserted.
Government officials have so far kept mum about the general. On March
13, then President-Elect Serzh Sarkisian, who fought with Grigorian
in Karabakh, told television viewers in reference to Grigorian that
he found it "very sad and painful that he, for reasons unknown to me,
tried to go into politics and made an attempt to disobey the Supreme
Commander-in-Chief."
Grigorian had served as deputy defense minister since 1999, following
outspoken Yerkrapah criticism of the government’s handling of the
1999 parliamentary shootings that left eight people dead.
Within Grigorian’s circle, though, the government is seen to be still
holding a sizeable stick over the general. On April 6, Grigorian and
an aide were charged with having allegedly threatened to murder an
employee of airline Armavia and his family. A spokesperson for the
general prosecutor’s office declined to elaborate on the charge. "The
case will remain open unless Manvel expresses readiness to cooperate
with them [members of the Sarkisian administration]," Grigorian’s
associate speculated.
Meanwhile, Grigorian is keeping a low profile. On May 8, a memorial
day for veterans, Grigorian visited the Yerablur cemetery alone
to commemorate the war dead rather than with his usual Yerkrapah
coterie. A traditional Victory Day concert also did not take place,
Yerkrapah veterans say.
Following the general’s April 2 dismissal from the Defense Ministry
and disappearance from public life, many opposition supporters claimed
that he had been placed under house arrest. But Yerkrapah spokesperson
Hakob Hakobian now denies the claim, saying that Grigorian is at
home in Etchmiadzin and is "very glad to have more time to spend on
organizing Yerkrapah’s activities."
For one senior Ter-Petrosian supporter, that news comes as no
surprise. Both the government and the opposition, noted Suren
Sureniants, a member of the opposition Republic Party’s political
council, "expected more from Manvel Grigorian than he could give."