Their representatives insisted on Wednesday that these individuals -- among them three bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, two opposition mayors, a billionaire businessman and two podcasters -- are political prisoners prosecuted in an unprecedented government crackdown on dissent.
“Democracy in Armenia is regressing, and the unprecedented number of political prisoners is a manifestation of that,” reads the resolution drafted by the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances. It also demands an end to the “political persecution” of a growing number of government critics.
Hayastan’s Kristine Vartanian said she and fellow opposition lawmakers will try to force a parliament debate on the resolution next week.
“We are not talking about protecting the rights of a limited number of persons,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We are talking about protecting democracy and human rights in Armenia.”
Hasmik Hakobian, a parliament deputy from the ruling Civil Contract party, made clear that the pro-government majority in the National Assembly will block the passage of the resolution. She insisted that there are no political prisoners in the country.
“All those people they call political prisoners are being questioned under specific articles [of the Criminal Code] or are detained or are going through a judicial process,” said Hakobian.
Meanwhile, a Hayastan leader, Ishkhan Saghatelian, urged supporters to join him and other opposition leaders in rallying outside prosecutors’ headquarters in Yerevan on Thursday in support of the “political prisoners.” Saghatelian said they will then march to a district court where Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian and 17 of his mostly jailed supporters stand trial on coup chargers denied by them.
Galstanian, who led last year massive anti-government protests in Yerevan, was arrested on June 25 the day before Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian threatened to forcibly depose Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Church at odds with the government. Two days later, another archbishop very critical of Pashinian, Mikael Ajapahian, was arrested for allegedly calling for violent regime change. Ajapahian was sentenced to two years in prison on October 3 in a trial strongly condemned by the church and the Armenian opposition.
Earlier in June, Samvel Karapetian, a billionaire businessman and philanthropist, was likewise arrested and charged with calling for a violent overthrow of the government just hours after denouncing Pashinian’s campaign against the top clergy.
In what is widely seen as a related development, law-enforcement authorities rounded up at least 13 clergymen on October 15. One of them, Bishop Mkrtich Proshian, was remanded in custody on charges of forcing his subordinates to attend opposition rallies. Proshian, who is a nephew of Garegin, denies the charges.
Five days later, security forces sparked angry protests in Armenia’s second largest city of Gyunri when they arrested its opposition mayor, Vartan Ghukasian, on corruption charges which he too rejects as politically motivated. Over 40 Ghukasian supporters are now prosecuted for participating in what law-enforcement authorities call “mass disturbances.”
Armenia’s Court of Appeals released three of them, including a well-known local opposition activist, from custody late on Tuesday. The Office of the Prosecutor-General said it will appeal against the ruling that reduced to 23 the number of Ghukasian supporters currently held in detention. According to defense lawyers, the accusations levelled against most of them are based on incriminating testimony given by police officers.
Anti-government protests in the country have rarely been followed by so many arrests and prosecutions in the past. Critics say the scale of the crackdown underlines Pashinian’s deep sense of insecurity ahead of showdown general elections due in June. The premier has expressed confidence that his party will win the elections.
