LOCAL ARMENIAN COMMUNITY PROTESTS CONTROVERSIAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
By Tony Castro
Los Angeles Daily News
March 4 2008
A large group of protesters from the Armenian community march… (John
Lazar / Staff Photographer)"1"As a young legal-services lawyer,
Vartkes Yeghiayan pioneered the rights of California farmworkers. As
an experienced barrister, he beat one of the world’s largest insurance
companies to win millions of dollars for descendants of Armenians
killed during the 1915 genocide.
Now 71 and one of the most respected members of his legal and cultural
communities, the Armenian attorney is not one who is fazed easily.
"But the last few days, it seems all my clients who come in – and
they’re all Armenian – all they want to do is talk about what is
going on with the elections in Armenia," Yeghiayan said. "You can
barely do any work."
While last month’s presidential election in Armenia was a world away,
it has emerged as a controversial topic among the estimated 700,000
Armenian-Americans in Southern California – from Little Armenia in
Hollywood to upscale enclaves in Glendale, Burbank and other parts
of the San Fernando Valley.
And for the past two Sundays, some 15,000 Armenian activists have
demonstrated in Hollywood, mirroring ongoing protests in the Armenian
capital of Yerevan.
The protests in Armenia have been ongoing since Feb. 19, when
officials said voting results showed that opposition leader Levon
Ter-Petrosian lost the election to Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian –
the favored successor of outgoing President Robert Kocharian.
Officials said Sarkisian received 53 percent of the vote, but
supporters of Ter-Petrosian have rejected the results as marred.
While this past Sunday’s march in the Southland was peaceful,
protests over alleged election fraud turned violent in Yerevan over
the weekend. Nine people were killed and officials declared a state
of emergency that could last until March 20.
"We oppose the election because it was not a democratic election,"
said Karo Karapetyan, co-founder of the Coalition for Democratic
Armenia, which organized the protests in Hollywood. "There were many
violations of the law, especially the election laws."
While observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe have said in a statement that the election was fair –
although they did acknowledge problems – local Armenians have been
concerned and frustrated at seeing their homeland torn apart again
as it struggles through an extended birth of a democracy.
February’s election was the fifth since Armenia won independence from
the Soviet Union in 1991.
"It’s unfortunate that after 18 years of independence, Armenia
continues to have this problem with elections," Yeghiayan said.
It all makes for an emotionally charged atmosphere both in Armenia and
among Armenians in Southern California – including Vicken Papazian,
a western regional board member of the Armenian National Committee.
Papazian and others acknowledge there continue to appear to be issues
with the election process – likening the situation in Armenia to the
2000 U.S. presidential voting controversy in Florida.
Papazian said what is happening in Armenia in the wake of its elections
is an unfortunate problem endemic to most emerging democracies.
"Democracy is defined by the process and not the outcome," Papazian
said. "Too often in the Armenian community, if your candidate doesn’t
win, the supporters of the losing candidate are very passionate in
their unhappiness with the outcome and not the process."
Activists who demonstrated in Little Armenia last weekend appeared to
be equally divided in their opposition to the newly elected president
of Armenia as well as to the alleged irregularities in the voting
process, according to Armenians who observed the rally.
"We are asking the (U.S.) State Department to support us and all
the people in Armenia," Karapetyan said. "We are all fighting for
democracy. Real democracy. We want to have the same system this
country has.
"We like the democratic system in the United States. We want to see the
same system in our country. For us, it doesn’t matter who is president
but the president has to be elected, not pronounced with force."
Marchers in the region carried signs calling on the U.S. State
Department to be consistent in the protection of democratic principles
in Armenia.
Protesters also demanded that the regime in Yerevan release all
political prisoners.
"People who were marching here were not only saying there was injustice
in the voting and were supporting one of the candidates," said Harry
Vorperian, general manager of Horizon Armenian Television in Glendale.
"They did not like the result of the election. (But) if the result
had been different, I don’t think you would have seen them marching."
Some local Armenians, however, downplayed any impact of the elections
on U.S. policy, noting that the region has gone through geopolitical
upheaval in recent weeks with the American-supported independence
of Kosovo.
"Armenia is an important ally (of the U.S.) because of where it sits,"
said Vorperian, pointing out that it is located amid Turkey, Iran
and Georgia. "Armenia is like a soccer ball kicked from one side to
the other, but it is very useful and important to all sides."
But furor over the disputed election will likely rage on until the
next election, many said.
"The election was relatively close and that’s one of the problems,"
Yeghiayan said. "The only remedy to the questioning of fairness and
equitability is (having) a clear winner. … An election with a winner
having a reasonably clear mandate."