Armenia: Crisis Spotlights 'Karabakh Clan'

By Brian Whitmore

As Armenia's first post-Soviet president in the 1990s, Levon Ter-Petrossian brought in top officials from Nagorno-Karabakh to serve in his government.

Today, as an opposition leader, Ter-Petrossian is the most outspoken critic of what he and his allies call the "Karabakh clan," lambasting his former proteges for raiding the country's treasury, strangling the economy, and stifling democracy.

The main targets of the broadside have been outgoing President Robert Kocharian and his preferred successor, Serzh Sarkisian, the current prime minister who defeated Ter-Petrossian in Armenia's February 19 presidential election. Both Kocharian and Sarkisian hail from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-controlled and populated enclave within Azerbaijan over which Baku and Yerevan fought a war in 1988-94.

Speaking on the campaign trail in February, Ter-Petrossian accused Kocharian and Sarkisian of bringing their Karabakh allies to Armenia and handing them the crown jewels of the economy.

"Because of these two persons, 15,000 people have moved from Karabakh to Armenia, mainly Yerevan, in the past 10 years," Ter-Petrossian said. "Each of them has been given a position. As if that wasn't enough, now the business sphere is also being given to them."

Sarkisian's pat response to the criticism has been to say: "Yes I am Karabakhian, but I am Armenian first."

Armenia's controversial election has led to allegations of fraud, government resignations, violent street protests, a deadly police crackdown, and a state of emergency. It has also exposed a deep rift in society between those born in Armenia proper and those from Nagorno-Karabakh who have resettled in the country.

Critics allege that Karabakh Armenians have benefited from government favoritism and that Kocharian and Sarkisian have dragged their feet on formally ending the conflict to advance their cronies' business interests.

Yerevan-based political analyst Stepan Grigorian, who is sympathetic to Ter-Petrossian and the opposition, says having a president from Nagorno-Karabakh "who governs Armenia very badly" has fueled resentment.

"Certain negative feelings exist," Grigorian says. "They do not extend to ordinary people of Karabakh, but refer to those people who came to Armenia from there. Robert Kocharian brought many people with him, and appointed them to high positions. This created more caution. So yes, certain tension exists, of course."

The Karabakh Oligarchs

Armenia had control of Karabakh when a cease-fire was reached in 1994. But the victory came with a price, as Armenia's borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey have remained sealed.

Ter-Petrossian, who became Armenia's first post-independence president in 1991, brought Sarkisian -- who was a senior military official in Nagorno-Karabakh -- to Yerevan in 1993 to serve as defense minister. In 1998, he named Kocharian, who served as chairman of Nagorno-Karabakh's State Defense Committee and later as president, Armenia's prime minister.

It was a decision Ter-Petrossian soon regretted. He proposed a compromise solution to Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh that Kocharian staunchly opposed. Ter-Petrossian was forced to resign over the issue in February 1998 and Kocharian won a special election to succeed him. Under Kocharian, Sarkisian served in a number of posts including defense minister, interior minister, national-security minister, presidential chief of staff, and most recently, prime minister.

Aram Abramian, editor in chief of the Yerevan-based daily newspaper "Aravot" and who has roots in Nagorno-Karabakh, says Kocharian and Sarkisian brought in associates from the territory who took over state posts and dominated the business elite.

"There are 20, 30 families -- oligarchs -- people who, thanks to the opportunities that are provided to them by the authorities, became rich, and have wide possibilities of avoiding taxes and custom fees," Abramian says, adding that well-connected moguls were able to gain "monopolies" over fuel, sugar, and other commodities.

"Others, who are less powerful, do not have this right," Abramian adds. "Not all of these people are from Karabakh. It does not matter where they come from -- the most important thing is for them to serve the authorities."

Among those identified by analysts as part of the Karabakh clan are Kocharian's son, Sedrak, who reportedly controls mobile-phone imports; Barsegh Beglarian, who dominates the gas-station market; Mika Bagdasarov, who controls oil imports and heads the national airline; and Karen Karapetian, head of the Armrusgazard gas company, a joint venture with Russia's Gazprom.

Closed Borders

Abramian and other analysts say these oligarchs benefit from the lack of a final resolution to the Karabakh conflict and the closed borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

"This is one of the reasons why these issues are not being solved, because to have open borders with Europe, Asia, and so on -- in [that] case, the flows of goods, in either direction, will be wider, and it will be more difficult to control them," Abramian says. "Now, however, when one narrow flow comes through Georgia and another, even narrower, comes via Iran, controlling these flows of goods is much easier."

Observers say such arrangements also stifle local production, hinder small business development, and ultimately harm the country's economy. And that is a major reason why one of Ter-Petrossian's main bases of support is among small and mid-level entrepreneurs.

"This kind of economy -- when the high-ranking officials are importing goods -- leads to these same officials not being interested in promoting local production," Grigorian says. "And, because of this, it is in very difficult shape now. So during the elections, mid-size and big business wholly supported Ter-Petrossian."

There are slight cultural differences between native-born Armenians and those from Nagorno-Karabakh, according to analysts. Abramian says Karabakhians are more "favorably oriented toward Russia," are more likely to speak the Russian language, and are less religious than Armenians, for example.

He adds, however, that it is the dominance of Kocharian and Sarkisian's allies that has fueled resentment against people from Nagorno-Karabakh, few of whom have benefited from the largesse.

"Armenian people, our compatriots who live in Karabakh -- or, like me, have roots there -- have nothing to do with this," Abramian says. "They are Armenians just like everybody else. However, two people who have kept power throughout a decade -- and plan to do so for many more decades -- they indeed provoked certain negative attitude within the Armenian population. For it was not only them, but their relatives, acquaintances -- tens, hundreds of them -- arrived here, and occupied high-ranking positions and had successful business careers. This triggers a natural reaction."

RFE/RL correspondent Salome Asatiani contributed to this report

Rivals Battle in Azerbaijan

Associated Press
Wednesday, March 5, 2008; A17

BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 -- Ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces exchanged fire for hours Tuesday near the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, officials said.

The region is inside Azerbaijan but has been under ethnic Armenian control since a 1994 cease-fire ended a six-year war.

A spokesman for Nagorno-Karabakh's military force said eight Azerbaijani soldiers were killed; Azerbaijani officials declined to comment on casualties. A local news report said three Azerbaijani soldiers were killed.

The clashes came as Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, issued his latest suggestion that his country could use force to regain control over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Statements by officials on both sides suggested the fighting was heavier than most of the skirmishes that break out intermittently along a cease-fire line dividing territory held by rival forces.

Both Azerbaijan and Armenia are former Soviet republics.

Eight Killed In Armenia After Clashes Between Police, Protesters

Armenia -- Tanks On The Streets

Police spokesman Sayat Shirinian did not say if the dead were police or protesters, but added that 33 officers were wounded.

The protesters, who have rallied for 12 straight days, accuse the government of rigging last month's presidential election.

RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports that troops and armored vehicles are patrolling the main streets of Yerevan today.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian declared a 20-day state of emergency following similar clashes on March 1. Just hours after Armenian police and Interior Ministry troops used truncheons, tear gas, and electric stun guns to disperse opposition supporters from a central Yerevan square, thousands who regrouped for a second rally were again met with force by the authorities.

Riot police fired tracer bullets into the air and tear gas to disperse the crowd of 15,000, and some demonstrators hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police. Several vehicles were set on fire or destroyed in the course of the day.

More news and analysis about Armenia can be found on the English site of RFE/RL's Armenian Service.

Human Rights Watch has charged the Armenian police with using “excessive force and violence” to disperse demonstrators.

As part of the state of emergency, mass gatherings have been banned, and media outlets are required to only use official information when reporting on the domestic political situation. The movement of citizens has been restricted and the authorities will be allowed to search vehicles.

The Armenia parliament today voted to confirm the state of emergency. Eighty-one of the 131 lawmakers present cast their votes in favor.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is sending a special envoy to Yerevan to offer help in mediating the crisis. Ambassador Heikki Talvitie is to meet with both President-elect Serzh Sarkisian and opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian, the second-place finisher in the February 19 election. Ter-Petrosian claimed victory in the poll.

Speaking today to RFE/RL, Arman Musinian, a spokesman for Ter-Petrosian, said the opposition has three demands -- "to annul the election, to punish those who rigged the elections, and to free all political detainees."

House Arrest

Ter-Petrossian told RFE/RL after the initial early morning crackdown on March 1 that he had been placed under house arrest, and that a number of his followers were detained.

Daily rallies following the contentious vote attracted tens of thousands of protesters to Armenia's Liberty Square, where they voiced their belief that the elections were marred by fraud. A tent camp was set up and participants vowed to remain on the square until their demands for a new election were met.

But after Sarkisian secured key support for the formation of a coalition government on February 29, the authorities made good on their earlier threats to break up the rallies.

Hundreds of police and Interior Ministry troops surrounded the square at 7:00 a.m. local time on the morning of March 1, and moved in to break up the crowd.

A police vehicle burns following the violence (RFE/RL)Police reportedly forced scores of protesters onto buses, taking them to local police stations.

RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported that opposition figure and member of parliament Armen Martirosian was hospitalized for injuries received during the crackdown.

Ter-Petrossian described the events that led to the initial clash during an interview with RFE/RL.

"People were sleeping quietly. [Security forces] came in large numbers with truncheons and started beating. At that time I was near the microphone and I called on people to stay calm," he said. "[Security forces] didn't start the beating immediately. First they stood in front of people and I urged people not to get in contact with them and to stay quiet to see what they want. But nobody told us anything, nothing was negotiated. And they suddenly attacked people with truncheons and electric stun guns."

Violence Condemned

Within hours of the morning police action, OSCE Chairman in Office Ilkka Kanerva condemned the use of force against peaceful demonstrators.

"I urge the authorities to use maximum restraint," Kanerva said. "I am troubled that there are reports of casualties. I urge the authorities to release those detained, and I again call on the government and the opposition to engage in dialogue."

The police said in a statement issued on March 1 that they took action to disperse the protesters after learning that they were waiting to receive "large amounts of firearms, grenades, metal rods, and truncheons," which they believed would be used "to stage provocations and stir up mass disturbances."

The authorities said after the initial raid that police officers were wounded and that weapons were found in the protestors' camp.

Protesters tend to a fellow demonstrator (Photolur)Police chased media away from the square as army trucks arrived to take away the makeshift tent camp.

Protesters later regrouped in front of the French Embassy for a planned rally as units of riot police arrived on the scene, setting the stage for the violence later in the day.

Opposition supporters had been protesting daily in Liberty Square since Sarkisian was elected to replace his ally, Robert Kocharian, as president. Official results gave Sarkisian nearly 53 percent of the vote, with Ter-Petrossian getting 21.5 percent.

Ter-Petrossian is claiming that he is the rightful first-round winner, and that Sarkisian used ballot stuffing and intimidation to steal victory. Sarkisian has denied the charges.

In its initial assessment, the election-monitoring arm of the OSCE declared the election "mostly in line" with Armenia's international commitments, while also noting the need for "further improvements."

The elections have been endorsed by the European Union and the U.S. State Department has congratulated the Armenian people on an "active" and "competitive" election.

Calls For Restraint Ignored

Authorities had warned on February 29 that their patience with the protests in Yerevan was running out, and alleged that those behind the rallies plan to seize power illegally.

The Council of Europe and the OSCE had called on the Armenian authorities to exercise restraint. The United States Mission to the OSCE said Washington was "very concerned" about the post-election arrests of opposition politicians, as well as reports that authorities have forcibly closed opposition offices.

At least six prominent opposition figures close to Ter-Petrossian have been placed in pretrial custody on a number of criminal charges, including illegal arms possession and assault.

Sarkisian's efforts to gain acceptance for his victory received a boost on February 29 when he reached a deal on the formation of a coalition government with the third-place finisher in the elections.

Before agreeing to become Security Council secretary in the next government, Orinats Yerkir party leader Artur Baghdasarian had decried the election as deeply flawed. Baghdasarian also accused Ter-Petrossian of trying to rig the election.

Protesters and Police Clash as Armenia Unrest Grows

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

YEREVAN, Armenia — The largest crowds this tiny, mountainous country has seen in years have clogged central streets here for 11 days, as Armenians of all ages have protested the results of a presidential election they say was stolen.

But what had begun as relatively routine demonstrations, featuring a daily march to a government building and some slogan shouting, took a more ominous turn on Saturday when the authorities began using nightsticks, tear gas and water hoses to break up crowds. By the end of the day, rioting and looting had begun in some areas of the capital, and the government imposed a state of emergency.

“The mood of the people is one of major resistance,” said Vardan Oskanian, Armenia’s foreign minister. “It’s a critical moment.”

Around 9 p.m., lines of military policemen moved toward the crowds in the center of the city, firing rubber balls and tear gas canisters at them, and shooting bullets into the air. Rioters carrying pipes and stones set fire to dozens of cars, smashed windows, and, in one area, looted alcohol and food.

The crowds first gathered after the presidential election on Feb. 19, the fifth since this landlocked country in the Caucasus Mountains gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It pitted a political insider, the current prime minister, Serge Sargsyan, against Levon Ter-Petrossian, an academic who was the country’s first elected president. Term limits barred the current president, Robert Kocharian, from running.

While Mr. Ter-Petrossian, 63, put up a real opposition with an aggressive campaign, the rest of the election was straight out of the post-Soviet playbook. Votes were bought. Television coverage was embarrassingly skewed. Big men in large cars bossed vote counters. As a result, the party in power stayed in power, with 52 percent of the vote.

Until now, Armenia has been a relatively bright example among countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. Its government allows more dissent than most, and journalists rarely disappear and turn up dead.

That is why the actions of the police officers on Saturday — and last month’s election, whose results have still not been fully recognized by the United States — were so jarring.

On Saturday morning, Armenian authorities, saying they suspected a coup attempt, used a favorite method of crowd dispersal: placing hand grenades and guns near some of the protesters as they slept, witnesses said, and then confronting them. A fight followed, and the authorities said 31 people were hurt, 10 of them hospitalized.

Obedient state television showed contrived scenes of police officers and sniffer dogs walking up to small piles of shiny grenades and handguns, nestled like Easter eggs in the grass.

“It’s a completely artificial reason,” said Boris Navasardian, president of the Yerevan Press Club. “They had plans to disperse the crowds by force from the very beginning.”

By early afternoon, crowds had reassembled, and by evening, they had turned violent, dragging burned cars and windowless city buses to block streets. Men threw rocks and bricks at police officers in riot gear.

The officers withdrew from the crowded areas toward midnight, leaving strange scenes in the moonlight. An elaborately decorated cake was atop an upside-down car; loaves of bread spilled out of an open trunk of a car on its side. Drunken men gobbled up expensive chocolates.

“The owner of this store is a very bad person,” said Arsen Sarkisyan, 20, who was walking out with a bag of sour cream containers.

The election was troubled from the start. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which sent 333 observers, concluded that 16 percent of the count was “bad” or “very bad.” At one polling station, a quarter of all ballots were declared invalid. At another, all but one of 1,449 votes were for Mr. Sargsyan.

“I told the government that the probability of this is as high as the birth of a dog with five legs,” said Geert Ahrens, head of the organization’s Election Observation Mission here.

There were moments of drama straight out of Gogol. In one recount witnessed by a Western observer, some members of a counting committee, apparently in an attempt at filibustering, wandered off and were missing for hours. The committee chairman was declared sick. Then came a rumor he had had a heart attack.

Finally, in sheer frustration after hours of waiting, an official ripped open an envelope marked as containing ballots for Mr. Sargsyan. The ballot on top of the pile was for his opponent, Mr. Ter-Petrossian, and other officials immediately rushed to close the envelope. “I can only assume it was a bad count that someone did not want reopened,” the observer said.

Even so, when seen in the context of the broader region, Mr. Ahrens said, “I’ve seen worse.”

“We won the election,” Mr. Ter-Petrossian said Thursday, sitting in a cafe, the Swan Lake. He added that he had received 65 percent of the vote, a figure that Mr. Ahrens said was “not grounded in any factual evidence.” Mr. Ter-Petrossian’s aides, who refer to him as “the president,” seemed to have fully internalized the figure nonetheless.

The crowds have only seemed to grow since the first post-election rallies, particularly since the day last week when a government-organized rally broke ranks to join them.

Mr. Ter-Petrossian, who is fond of dramatic entrances, rushed onto the stage, as Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” blared from loudspeakers. He spoke for hours, revving up the crowd of angry grandmothers, bored young men eating sunflower seeds and a variety of Armenian professionals.

Mr. Ter-Petrossian, who was president from 1991 to 1998, presents himself as the one to rescue the country. For nine days he has slept in his Lincoln Town Car, parked near the protesters’ camp, and he calls the protests “a clear, classic bourgeois, democratic revolution.”

“To keep this regime is a catastrophe for Armenia,” he said last week, smoking a cigarette in a gilded holder. “It’s a pyramid scheme. An eastern monarchy from the Middle Ages.”

Though many Armenians share his frustration, fewer think he is the man capable of making real changes. As president, he relied on the very methods he is now criticizing, they say, arresting opposition figures, closing news organizations and sending armored vehicles into the streets after a tainted election in 1996.

“A revolution means there is a principled person from outside the system who wants to change it,” said Avetik Ishkhanyan, chairman of the Armenian Helsinki Committee. “But this opposition created the system. It is identical to the people in power.”

Part of the problem is Armenia’s Soviet past. Legal institutions like courts became instruments of state power, and even after 17 years, people are still suspicious of them.

“The Soviet Union is dead, the Soviet man is not,” an Armenian government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is still no trust.”

Mr. Sargsyan, for his part, said that his opponent seemed to be more interested in street protests, which have paralyzed life in the capital, than in following the tedious procedure to challenge the results in court.

“If they had something to claim, they could do it,” he said, sitting in his lofty office in central Yerevan. “Why didn’t they? O.K., it was hard. They weren’t in the mood. But they could still do it.”

As for the crowd, he predicted that “step by step, it will die out.”

Johan Spanner contributed reporting.

Trial in Editor’s Killing Opens, Testing Rule of Law in Turkey

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

ISTANBUL, July 2 — Eighteen young men charged in the assassination of the newspaper editor Hrant Dink went on trial here on Monday in what has been described as a test of the rule of law in Turkey.

Mr. Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, was shot dead in front of his office on Jan. 19. A day later, a Turkish teenager, Ogun Samast, was arrested and charged with the murder. The government has brought charges against 17 other people.

Mr. Dink, the editor of Agos, a bilingual newspaper, challenged the official Turkish version of the 1915 Armenian genocide, which holds that hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished because of hunger and suffering in World War I.

But he was working to mend relations between Turkey and Armenia and had even taken issue with Armenians who insisted that Turkey’s entry into Europe hinge on its acknowledgment of genocide.

The trial’s verdict will have broad implications for free speech. Ultranationalist Turks have used an article of the country’s criminal code that forbids “insulting Turkishness” to push the government to bring charges against Turkish writers, including Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist. Mr. Dink received a suspended sentence under the statute. His supporters argue that a limp prosecution of his killing will embolden nationalists.

At the trial, closed to the public because some of the defendants were minors, Mr. Samast exercised his legal right to silence, said Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer for Mr. Dink’s family, according to the state-run Anatolian News Agency.

Four defendants, Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, Ersin Yolcu and Ahmet Iskender, testified, and two others asked for lawyers before speaking, Ms. Cetin said.

Mr. Samast previously confessed to the killing, according to Turkish authorities, saying he had been angered by Mr. Dink’s columns on Armenian history and had come to Istanbul from the Black Sea town of Trabzon to kill him.

A crowd of Mr. Dink’s supporters stood a short distance from the mustard-colored courthouse, which was used as a military court for years but is now a criminal court as part of a legal reform in preparation for Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

His lawyers’ main concern is that the trial will not get to the heart of the hate crime they say was highly organized by a network of ultranationalist Turks in collaboration with Turkish authorities. Shortly after the killing, a video surfaced showing the main suspect posing with Turkish police officers. Security officials were fired over the incident.

“The gang does not consist of these suspects only,” Ms. Cetin said of the 18 defendants, according to the news agency. “It is far more planned and organized. There is almost an intentional misconduct of the gendarmerie and police in this incident.”

Lawyers for the defendants say the attention to the case will make a fair trial impossible.

Liberal Turks are skeptical that the trial will result in justice for Mr. Dink. The country’s establishment, which encourages nationalism, was deeply suspicious of him.

“The judgment will not be free,” said Aydin Ozipek, an economics student at Fatih University in Istanbul. “There is a ruling class of people who want everybody to be the same — no Kurds, no Armenians, no head scarves.”

In a petition to the court to allow him to take part in the trial, Mr. Dink’s brother, Hosrof Dink, described their childhood in an orphanage and a lifetime of discrimination.

“We thought we were born as human beings,” he wrote in the petition, circulated by a group of his brother’s supporters. “In time, against our will, we were given many identities; we were labeled.”

The trial, he said, “will be between the people who believe in the rule of law and the people who say: ‘We are the law. We are the state.’ ” His request to take part was granted.

The court worked well into the evening, then adjourned until Oct. 1. Charges continue against all 18 defendants, but only eight were kept in custody, Turkish television reported.

Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.