Orinats Yerkir’s Baghdasarian Defiant
Artur Baghdasarian, Orinats Yerkir Campaign Rally, Shengavit, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007
Writing for RFE/RL, Emil Danielyan covers yesterday’s rally by Orinats Yerkir fresh from the scandal that has prompted the Armenian President to apparently accuse the party’s leader of treason. I was also at the meeting held in the Shengavit district of Yerevan so am also posting some photos to accompany this entry.
Opposition leader Artur Baghdasarian received an enthusiastic reception by more than a thousand supporters in Yerevan on Tuesday, saying that his Orinats Yerkir Party will win the May 12 elections despite being “slandered” by the Armenian authorities.
Baghdasarian pledged to strive for “an Armenia of law and justice” and accused the government of corruption in a fiery speech at a campaign rally held in the city’s southern Shengavit district.
“The victory which we will score together with you in a week from now will change this country,” he said. “By voting for the Orinats Yerkir Party every Armenian, regardless of their political views, will vote for their children, for their future.”
“No lies, no slander can stop us. We must go forward, we must win, we must change our country,” said the 38-year-old former speaker of the Armenian parliament.
Danielyan also provides us with a background to this recent development on the pages of the Eurasia Daily Monitor. Interestingly, although many opposition and civil society activists are not taking what has been perhaps melodramatically called the “Armenian Watergate,” Danielyan has been prolific in covering such stories with balance and in depth analysis.
Armenia’s intensifying parliamentary election campaign has been jolted by a scandal over the secret recording of a recent confidential meeting between a top opposition leader and a Yerevan-based Western diplomat. Details of that conversation have been controversially disclosed by a pro-establishment newspaper, in what is widely seen as a government effort to discredit Artur Baghdasarian, the former parliament speaker whose Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) party is a major opposition contender in the May 12 elections.
Baghdasarian’s meeting with the number two figure at the British Embassy in Armenia, held at a popular Yerevan restaurant last February, reportedly focused on the authorities’ handling of the upcoming vote. The Russian-language paper, Golos Armenii, claims to have received audio of that conversation from unknown individuals, publishing much of its purported transcript on April 21 and April 26. The disclosed content of the conversation was hardly sensational, with Baghdasarian reportedly urging the European Union to express serious concern at what he described as government plans to rig the elections. He reportedly stated that they can already be considered fraudulent because the government is seriously restricting opposition access to the electronic media and intimidating and bribing voters.
The diplomat was quoted as responding that the EU is unlikely to do that at the moment because the Armenian leadership is very careful and canny in trying to retain control over the country’s next parliament. “I suppose that they are smarter and wiser than we are … There has to be some blatant violation in order for the EU to come up with such a statement,” he said, according to Golos Armenii. The diplomat was also said to have complained that of all major EU states having diplomatic missions in Yerevan, only Britain and Germany seriously care about Armenia’s democratization.
[…]
The populist party, which has a pro-Western foreign policy agenda, is now thought to be one of the country’s most popular opposition groups. The latest attempt to discredit it suggests that Kocharian and Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian are worried about its possible strong showing in next week’s polls. Yet the disclosure of Baghdasarian’s meeting with the British diplomat is unlikely to seriously affect the ambitious ex-speaker’s popularity rating, not least because few Armenians buy into state propaganda. Instead, it increases the possibility of Orinats Yerkir’s involvement in post-election street protests planned by other, more radical opposition forces.
[…]
In any case, the whole affair is a serious cause for concern for local commentators, human rights activists and probably Yerevan-based Western diplomats. As the pro-opposition newspaper Zhamanak Yerevan editorialized on April 26, “Nobody can now be sure that there are no ‘bugs’ planted in their apartment, that their phone conversations are not wire-tapped, that their every step is not watched.”
Once part of the ruling government coalition in power since the 2003 parliamentary election and rumored to be groomed for taking over from Kocharian until his much publicized fall from grace last year, it is probably no wonder why some in civil society mistrust the young party leader. Indeed, there seems to be quite a lot of jealousy given his growing popularity among many voters as well as interest in Baghdasarian shown by prestigious international publications such as The Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, Observer at the Armenian Blog Review links to the original recording of Baghdsarian and the Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy as well as posting a translation of an original entry by Uzogh which details some new information as broadcast by Public TV.
1. Artur Baghdasaryan announced, that he will run for president on 2008 elections.
2. Artur Baghdasaryan announced, that his life is in danger.
3. The subtitles of the “Rull of Law” party video claim, that they have heard this recording on the Golos site and consider it to be an “Artificial Sensation”.
Anyway, as I mentioned in a previous post, when I ran into the Orinats Yerkir Foreign Policy Spokesperson the other night, he at least seemed to be taking the matter seriously. I’d also add that compared to the last Orinats Yerkir rally I attended in Davidashen, the security around Baghdasarian in Shengavit was much tighter. Indeed, not only was I shoved out of the way twice, but one of those times propelled me into a young child. Even Gagik Tsarukian’s bodyguards are less twitchy and protective than this.
Anyway.
Orinats Yerkir Campaign Rally, Shengavit, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007
Artur Baghdasarian, Orinats Yerkir Campaign Rally, Shengavit, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007
Heghine Bisharian, Orinats Yerkir Campaign Rally, Shengavit, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007
Orinats Yerkir Campaign Rally, Shengavit, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007
Comment by Onnik — May 3, 2007 @ 1:26 am
One thing Orinats Yerkir are good at is organizing participation to their rallies. One of the reasons they’re able to manage it so nicely, is because they have a lot of Orinats Yerkir teachers/school headmasters, who became members of the party while Orinats Yerkir had a minister of education.
This however, doesn’t really reflect their popularity, because elections are not about members of party voting (except for Bargavach), but getting the people, who haven’t oriented yet, to vote for the party. No matter what they say, this scandal will hurt Orinats Yerkir.
Like you have said on this blog before, Onnik, the pro-Russian moods are still dominant among the voters in Armenia, and the spy scandal with the involvement of the British, whom Armenians have never trusted, is definitely going to hurt the party. Which is good… I really openly and intensely dislike Orinats Yerkir!!!
Comment by Observer — May 3, 2007 @ 6:17 am
Well, I’m not sure about the teacher issue coz I’m sure everybody switched when the Dashnaks took over the Ministry when Orinats Yerkir left government. Plus, the Republicans have all those levers tied up. Anyway, seems like everybody is organizing their rallies somehow — perhaps that’s politics.
As for the pro-Russian orientation of the party, sure, it’s not going to win them many votes, but as the first comment details, there’s an awful lot of people to try to win over. Still, I don’t expect them to do much more than what is being said of them, along with Heritage — clearing the 5 percent threshold, that is. Interesting to note that Geghamian has reportedly gone back to his pro-Russian ways.
Also, figures for Republicans and Prosperous Armenia are interesting, though, although totally at odds with other surveys as is usual in Armenia. Like they say, regardless of everything, the only poll that matters is the one conducted on election day. Anyway, while I accept your initial argument about the party having a Minister of Education until recently, the Republicans have always usually controlled those levers.
Certainly, since OYP left government that’s been the case, and I’m not sure the Republicans or ARF-D are going to take to kindly to their schoolteachers being members of another party. On the other hand, I’ll admit that I haven’t heard anyone say they’ll vote for OYP yet, but that’s also not a very scientific poll.
Comment by Onnik — May 3, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
Danielyan has also written something for EurasiaNet.
Comment by Onnik — May 3, 2007 @ 9:26 pm