State Medical University, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Nayaar? has posted an update on yesterday’s meeting held at Yerevan’s State Medical University (YSMU). The meeting was agreed upon by six representatives of Indian students in Armenia and YSMU’s Rector.

The attendance in the meeting turned out to be approximately 350 students. The students spoke among themselves first clarifying all what had been discussed with the rector earlier that day and on April 23rd.The dean arrived later, along with the pro-rector only to blame us of playing with her honesty. She spoke of what she did at that moment, telling us that she was stunned and could do nothing because the boy’s state was already out of reach. All I still want to ask her is why at that moement, didnot even stoop down for a second to check his pulse and ensure us standing around that he was alive.

It was meant to be attended by representatives of the mass media in Armenia, but only myself and two journalists from Haykakan Zhamanak and Aravot newspapers were there. However, I had to fight to be allowed in after YSMU showed no interest in recognizing my Hetq press pass. I rang Edik Baghdasarian and spoke loudly so I could be overheard about lodging a complaint with the Yerevan Press Club for refusing to allow me into what was agreed to be a press conference. This worked and I was finally allowed in.

Even when I was in, however, the same people on security detail again tried to find a problem with my press pass and reason to remove me from the premises, so this time I told them to ring the Ministry of Justice. That seemed to work, and all seemed to be going smoothly although it quickly became evident why YSMU didn’t want journalists in attendance in reality. The ambulance had been late contrary to other reports that have been circulating in the pro-government press, and I have it all recorded.

There are many more details about the meeting with students and the media that should be told, but that can be for a later article by Hetq Online’s Hasmik Hovhannisyan who will now be investigating the circumstances of Prashant Anchalia’s death and the events that followed it. For now, however, it has to be noted that YSMU’s Dean, Anna Sarkisyan, either looked shell-shocked and embattled because of the past week or the fact that she now has to account for herself in front of a bunch of students.

To be honest, it was hard to tell whether she was upset, angry or simply acting. She certainly behaved irrationally had to have the microphone taken away from her by the Pro Rector, a man synomous with provocation and confrontation, to avoid angering the students.

Nevertheless, all appeared to be going so smoothly until suddenly, the Pro Rector Yervandt Sahakyan turned and behaved in a way that was both totally unpredictable and unwarranted. After saying that the Rector was too busy to come now — despite agreeing upon the time and place for the meeting with students on Saturday as past of a last minute deal to get them off the streets — Sahakyan then asked journalists to leave from a meeting that the Rector had promised to allow the media to attend. Nanyaar? has more.

The students, when asked for the rector to come. They first replied by saying that she was in a very important meeting, next the pro-rector telling us that she would be there any moment. It was like they were making excuses for her delay. Finally the pro-rector tells us that the meeting will not take place if the Media person’s remain inside. For which the students reply that they want them to be there. What was their fear if nothing was there to hide? The media persons, including Onnik were asked to move out.

Students requested that we stay, and not least because that had been what had agreed upon. However, Sahakyan became confrontational and declared the meeting was over. Myself and the two other journalists left only to be surrounded by a group of men outside the meeting hall. Intimidating was the only word that could used to describe them, although Sahakyan now started to play the concerned and amiable official with the two female journalists. We can talk with him later, we’ll be allowed in later and why not sit in a room and drink coffee while we wait.

The journalists from the two other papers stood their ground, but were later moved into a private room. At one stage a large bulky many was physically pushing them into it, but not before I asked Sahakyan’s translator and right-hand man (pictured in the bottom photograph speaking) if YSMU was now breaking its agreement to allow representatives of the press to attend. He told me he was too busy to talk and so I said I’d take that as refusal to answer a very simple question. He responded that he reserved his right to take the fifth amendment of the constitution.

It’s a pity he doesn’t know which country he’s in and the fact that taking the fifth is usually reserved for court cases in the United States. Anyway, it quickly became obvious that the Rector of YSMU, Gohar Khalyan, had lied to both the students and the media. Incidently, Khalyan is the wife of the main owner of the H2 TV station — ironically absent from proceedings — and President Kocharian’s Head of Staff, Armen Gevorgyan (AKA Armenchik), is also one of H2 majority shareholders and it because of these links that Khalyan is believed to have been recently elected.

The Armenian Deck of 52 has more on Armenchik, and it is the husband of the Rector’s business relationship with him that means that his wife can get away with pretty much anything she pleases.

According to “Iravunk,” the newly appointed chief of President Robert Kocharian’s staff, Armen Gevorgian, is one of those “gray cardinals.” The paper says Gevorgian already had “enormous shadowy influence” on Kocharian before the appointment. “Not only is he the main gate-keeper for information reaching the president, but also the individual who decides when one or another politician or official will get to talk to Robert Kocharian. He is also notorious for his extremely strict censorship of TV air. In addition, Armen Gevorgian controls numerous businesses and economic levers. Construction of luxury housing in central Yerevan, which has been accompanied by forced evictions of the local population, is mainly associated with his name.”

Anyway, once the charade was over and the Indian students walked out, YSMU rudely told us to get lost even though they had requested that we sit down in a private room, relax and drink coffee. One of the main people in what was effectively a thuggish security detail wore the pin of Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s Republican Party. No surprise there as Yerevan’s State Universities are controlled by the main party member of the current coalition government. Incidently, Nessuna was present in the last dying stages of the meeting when journalists were evicted.

What happened after they made the media leave is the following. After about 15 minutes, the guy was who translating, come back saying the rector won’t come down because the media is standing behind the door, which does not count as leaving. Bullshit, the media was not standing behind the door, the media was pushed in a separate room and was hold there. And by the way, the rector did promise a press conference with media present. She broke her promise, yesterday, TWICE.

Anyway, YSMU effectively lied to the students and those media representatives that could be bothered to attend, but it has to be said that it was at least a fascinating insight into the workings of the main State Univerisites in Armenia. Simply put, they are draconian, undemocratic and intimidating structures, and I’d even go so far as to say this is reason enough for all international and Diasporan organizations to cut off any financial support immediately. This University reeks of Soviet era repression.

State Medical University, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006