// The Council of Europe threatens to deny Armenia the right to vote Comments Full Story
Armenian police on March 1 used excessive force and violence to disperse demonstrators protesting peacefully against recent election results, Human Rights Watch said today. Following the crackdown on demonstrators, President Robert Kocharian decreed a state of emergency in Yerevan, the capital, until March 20, 2008. There was a heavy police presence overnight in central Yerevan. Comments Full Story
The democracy that Armenians dreamed of during their long decades under Moscow’s yoke is slipping away. After opponents challenged last month’s flawed presidential election, the government imposed a brutal state of emergency. At least eight people are now dead, independent news outlets throttled and all protests silenced. President Bush and other Western leaders need to make clear to Armenia’s government that such behavior is unacceptable and will jeopardize future relations. Compared to post-Soviet tyrannies like Belarus or Uzbekistan, Armenia may not look so bad. That is why it is so important to halt this slide into authoritarianism before it is too late. Comments Full Story
The cloak of darkness and repression that fell on Yerevan late on March 1 began as a beaming promise to voters under drizzly October skies. Armenia’s opposition, silenced in 2003 by a show of political might, and in 2004 by physical force, once again found its voice with the return to politics of the country’s first elected president Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Comments Full Story